Parry that punch or lose that match, boy!
Yeah! I just don't know but in my opinion boxing are the finest there are in fighting games. I just love them. So, when I bought my copy of Fight Night Round 2 for 16 euros in an online auction, I sure got the stuff for money.
To simply put it, Fight Night Round 2 is the best, most versatile and smoothest boxing that there is. Or at least that I have played. Let's see what makes this game so good.
A fighting game isn't playable if the playability is sticky. Good thing that this is not the matter with Fight Night Round 2. Moving the boxer around the ring is smooth and you can dance around your opponent fairly easily. Float like a butterfly!
As the best boxers know, boxing's not fully about attacking. The more you defend, the more you weaken the opponent. You see, every time your opponent misses the hit or you successfully block it, he loses energy for nothing, and in best cases you get a good chance to smack that boy. The best thing in Fight Night Round 2 is the blocking system. It's very easily used, and after few matches, you use it like you use your instincts. Beautiful!
There're two kinds of blocking. The normal block just blocks the attack, but doesn't actually harm your enemy, except that he loses energy for nothing. The better way, yet harder to master, is parrying. When you successfully parry a punch, your opponent falters and loses his balance and you get a second or two to give a nice combo. The more manage to do parries and counter-attacks, you'll soon notice how fast your enemy has lost his health and energy.
Of course you can move your upper body to avoid punches, which is also another way to give nasty counter hits. It's very easy to use also, but it's very hard to master since those fights are pretty speedy, you know.
There are all the basic punches. A straight punch, a hook and the uppercuts. You can target each of those punches in left or right cheek, and left or right side of the body. If you're really looking forward to knock your foe out, you'll love haymakers. Haymakers are great punches that you can actually load up, and the longer you load, the harder the punch. The bad side is that those are fairly easily to block since you can predict where the punch going to come.
As one of the boxers lose all health, the game will move into KO -moment. It doesn't take many punches to knock the other one out, but if you don't manage to get the necessary punches in, he will gain some health and the KO -moment's over. Also, the other one can quit the KO-moment by doing a clinch, which is a good way to end the moment.
The graphics of this game are marvelous. The boxers look very real and animation is so smooth and the boxing looks cooler than ever! There are a few different place to fight in, and they look very good. The ropes are a good detail, since boxers can fall onto to them and they keep leaning on those until they fall on to ground. The only bad thing in the graphics is the audience, since their animation is very sticky.
The sounds are marvelous. When you manage to land a haymaker, the ground shakes and the punch -sound is tremendous! It sounds so nasty that that punch had to hurt! Wow! Also, the speakers are very good and keep up the true atmosphere of boxing. Not to forget the music, there are some neat hiphop -stylish songs on the background. Even though I'm not a fan of that kind of music, they didn't bother me at all. They fit the game so well.
So, let's have a conclusion. There's no better boxing game than this, and that's enough a reason to get this game. I have never so fun with trading punches before, I honor you Fight Night Round 2.
Use that haymaker, boy!