Fight Night 2004 - Review

Added April 29th, 2004 by Sallizar

Introduction:

The year 2004 should be dubbed “The Year EA Sports Found the Right Analog Stick”. Madden 2004 gave us the Playmaker feature. NBA Live 2004 gave us even better ball handling control. MVP Baseball gave us the ability to slide any way we want and climb the walls to keep the ball in the park. While these have all been relatively minor improvements, they’ve made a big difference in the way the games are played. Fight Night 2004 takes the right analog stick to a whole new level. Forget the days of Knockout Kings where you had to mash buttons to have your boxer deal some damage out. Now, you’re put in “total control” of the punches by moving the right thumbstick to throw punches.

Gameplay:

Gamers get two modes, Exhibition and Career, with Fight Night 2004. Exhibition lets you play against the CPU or try your skills against a friend. Players get to choose from a wide selection of boxers including created boxers from a career save. After settling on participants, a venue is chosen and it’s time to fight. I highly recommend spending a good amount of time in Exhibition mode learning the ins and outs of Total Punch Control.

Career mode is the real meat of the game. Gamers start by creating a boxer using a pretty impressive editor. It’s not quite as intense as Top Spin’s editor, but I was able to put together a good looking Latino boxer while my friend did his best to create an 80’s adult film star. Once you have your boxer all set up, you enter career mode and schedule a fight. You’ll be working your way up a rankings ladder with fifty slots, so you’ll need some training. Before each fight you’ll have the opportunity to try a training mini-game. Do well sparring with the coach or working the heavy bag, mitts, and dummy and you’ll get points to apply to your boxers attributes. After training it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and take down the fighter you challenged. Hopefully, the training pays off and you win the bout and collect the purse. Purse money can be spend buying clothes, gloves, pyrotechnics for your boxers entrance, and even lets you hire better looking escorts.

Here’s where I get nit-picky. For all the hype surrounding Total Punch Control, I just can’t get over how random the game feels. The body dummy training attempts to teach players to work various combos but in a match that training seems to fade from memory. Early matches consist of the player fighting the controls while constantly being blocked by the AI opponent. Even when I started to get the hang of the “new and improved” controls, I still felt like I didn’t really have tight enough control of my actions. It’s great to see EA innovate, but I really wonder if this is the way gamers want to control their fighting games. I sure as heck don’t want “Total Sword Control” in Soul Calibur 3. You hear that Namco!

Graphics:

The graphics look great overall, almost somewhat photorealistic at times. As the fight progresses sweat will fly, bruises will develop and cuts will open up. All great effects, except the blood is a real fake looking bright red. Another issue is jaggies, especially on the boxers’ shoulders. There doesn’t appear to be any aliasing going on at all which is a shame considering the Xbox’s hardware. Animations range from good to just plain bad. One minute a boxer might be bobbing and weaving then all of a sudden he’s as still as a statue holding his gloves up. It really takes you out of the moment when the other boxer just freezes in place. The other odd animation is the way the ragdoll physics look. When you deliver the blow that will send the other boxer to the mat, he jiggles around like a person with no bones on his way down. Sometimes you’ll get a really great looking collapse, but it’s more likely the guy will end up in a position that only the Amazing Rubber Man at the county fair could achieve. Quirks and quibbles aside though, you will not find a better looking boxing game.

Audio:

This is where I get a bit confused. EA does its EA Trax thing as usual, but went a direction I didn’t really expect on an EA Sports title. Most of the other headline EA Sports games have a rather diverse mix of tunes covering the gamut of genres. Fight Night’s soundtrack is entirely rap and hip-hop. If you’re not a fan of that genre then find your mute button during menu screens. Along the same lines, the announcer for the fights also has a very urban flavor. It’s hard for me to take a fight with Ali and Frazier seriously when the announcer is spitting out tired overused slang. Moving past the hip-hop styling that feels like it would fit better in an EA Big Street game, the rest of the audio is well done. Punches sound realistic (found some friends that owed me money to make sure) and the crowd sounds are convincing. Overall, Fight Night is a mixed bag in the audio department, and should EA reconsider the soundtrack choices next year.

Controls:

Total Punch Control is the name of the game in Fight Night. How does it work? Basically, when you want to throw a punch, you move the right thumbstick. Flick the stick up and to the left or right to jab with the corresponding fist. Press directly to one side then rotate up for a hook. And lastly, tap the stick to either bottom corner then bring it around to the top for an uppercut. The learning curve is tough (I still can’t throw a hook on command) but once you get the hang of it the gameplay feels a little less random.

Directional Pad - Footwork Around the Ring
Right Thumbstick - Total Punch Control
White Button - Illegal Punch
Black Button - Signature Punch
Left Trigger - Lean / Body Punch / Signature Punch / Illegal Blow Modifier
Right Trigger - Block
Start - Pause Game
Back - Taunt

Replay:

Career mode is tough! If you make it all the way through, you’ve more than got your money out of Fight Night. I salute you if you want to play it again, because you’ll be starting from scratch. Honestly, unless you just really enjoy the game there isn’t a whole lot of reason to play through career mode again. No additional unlocks, no special prizes, nada. Exhibition matches with friends are still a fun way to spend an hour or so, but after a bit you’ll be ready to get back to a Halo deathmatch. Hopefully, EA with get off their high-horse and give us some Live support for next years version. That would eke out just a bit more play time.

Summary:

It’s new, it’s exciting, but is it necessary. I’m sure some fans will swear by Total Punch Control, but I see it as a new technology that has yet to mature. Hopefully EA will work on refining it further for next year’s version. On the plus side though, this is by far the best looking boxing game ever. Boxing fans should love the wide selection of boxers and will have a blast setting up fantasy matches. I’m impressed with EA for trying something new and different while at the same time rebooting their boxing series. Here’s hoping Fight Night 2005 fixes some of the small issues that keep the 2004 version from being in the top tier of EA Sports titles.