Fight Night Round 3 (16+)
Verdict: Floats and stings.
Platform: Xbox, PS2, 360.
Rating: 4/5
While enjoying Soulwax’s set at Rock City the other night it once again struck me how peculiar dancing is, the way we get great enjoyment from just shaking our body about - we’re a strange species aren’t we?
Fight Night may not be Virtua Celebrity Dancing but it’s certainly full of rhythm and groove. Just in this case it has purpose - to dance around your opponent, dodging shots and throwing well timed moves.
If you haven’t already guessed, Fight Night Round 3 is about boxing. Admittedly I don’t normally go for boxing games, I prefer the more acrobatic and fast paced Street Fighters and Soul Calibers of the world but I’ve found myself engrossed in EA’s latest iteration of the series, hooked by that ‘just one more fight’ urge to try and take my custom made fighter to the top.
It’s a comprehensive and polished game offering quick, pick up and play fights with famous boxers or the deeper career mode that allows you to create your own fighter (right down to the size of his lips) and tailor his fighting style and strengths to your own preferences in an RPG-lite kinda way. Just be warned if you give him an offensive last name - it appears on his shorts for all visiting parents to see.
Gameplay is mainly handled on the twin sticks - left for movement, right for punching - and it’s this set up that differentiates it from any other fighter I’ve played (IK+ being the closest I can think of). Using the right stick for throwing punches at first feels alien, it lacks the immediate satisfaction of button mashing but once you’ve been through the essential tutorials you’ll start to feel like you’re actually swinging those punches yourself - when they hit home it’s even more satisfying.
I’d love to talk in depth about how the graphics on the 360 version are nearing photo-realisim but I haven’t got one of those shiny new consoles yet (come on PR people send me a free one!) and had to suffice with a preview in a shop. The current gen machines handle the game well whilst the 360 version defaults without a HUD for total immersion, the high definition graphics, animation and audio conveying enough information to replace it - definitely a sign of things to come (dancing).