Any game that proudly announces its association with the Daily Star has a lot to answer for. This pitiful excuse for a newspaper hardly brings to mind thoughts of high quality, realism and liberal principles, but given how modern boxing is closer to a classist version of the World Wrestling Federation, the relationship is hardly surprising. What is surprising is the absence of half-naked women holding up cardboard numbers between rounds, which was the one thing we were actually looking forward to.
Anyway, to the game itself. You can choose to get in the ring at the local training gym, where a coach shouts out lots of unhelpful suggestions, have a single fight or start a campaign to become world champion. There are no real-life boxers, although you can create your own, but the real problem is how dull punching someone repeatedly can be. This is the world of heavyweights, where graceful, light-footed movements haven't been seen since the glory days of Muhammad Ali, so all you do is get close to your opponent and smack each other until one falls down. There is slightly more to it than that: you can block and dodge punches, you need to manage your energy bar (fall too low and you can hardly lift a glove) and pick out your opponent's weak spot (left rib, right eyebrow?). However, unless you choose the hardest difficulty setting and choose to play as a really crap boxer, it's far too easy to become world champion. It takes about five minutes on the easy setting and a whole quarter of an hour on the medium. Just like the real thing, where people have paid a fortune to watch a high-profile fight on cable, it's usually all over in the first round. Unlike the real thing, you won't be staying up until the small hours playing it.
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