I’ve never been a fan of the Fight Night series. For some reason, I always thought the game always encouraged a “rock ‘em, sock ‘em” approach that took strategy out the window during competitive mode.
Fight Night Round 4 somewhat remedies the propensity for wild, armalite-style punching by implementing a new recovery system that rewards boxers who hit their punches more accurately as well as a mechanism that forces a boxer to be temporarily unable to throw another punch once his opponent executes a successful defensive maneuver. Despite both updates, however, the same malady remains: you can still easily throw punches in the same unrealistic frequency without fatiguing in a remotely proportional amount.
With that main gripe aside, the game is a fistful of fun and continues the series’ tradition as the best boxing game around. A major selling point for this iteration is the 40 or so instantly recognizable fighters on the default roster that includes one “Iron” Mike Tyson. Add to that the powerful toolset for creating custom fighters and sharing them online, which makes it possible to recreate in a very realistic manner (or hope someone does) every single pugilist you might fancy.
The controls, movements and actual in-ring gameplay have also improved noticeably from previous versions. Fighters are a lot more fluid, with the crowd more vibrant and the commentating impeccable. Even the mini-games – from the knockdown recovery to replenishing various stats during round breaks – are more challenging and intuitive.
Overall, Fight Night Round 4 is an impressive feat and is one hell of a great game. While I remain bothered by the propensity to throw about four to six times more punches than in a real boxing contest, it’s something I can live with, while still being immensely entertained. I do hope they try to bring more realism to strategy and technique with future iterations as the title has matured enough to accommodate that.
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