Customer Reviews

Fight Night 2004

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This game is A+. By far, the best boxing game out and I've played them all. Don't be scared by the total punch control. It takes all but an hour or two to get a feel for it and it is so much more rewarding than button mashing your buttons so that you need a new controller every month.

Career mode is indepth. You start out with 4 fights a year, then down to 3 and so on until retirement. You have your choice of opponents and in some cases you will be presented the opportunity to schedule a fight against someone that is much higher ranked or lower ranked than you. Purses are realistic and increase as your ranking improves. The level of realistic difficulty is back and so is strategy. No more automatic first round KO's by going in and just punching non stop. If you try to do that here, you'll find yourself out of steam quick and needing to recharge and block punches to regain it. This game is not easily mastered overnight like Knockout Kings, or HBO boxing.

Use your money earned to buy different clothing, equipment, entrance gimmicks liky pyrotechnics, entourage (women in skimpy clothing that lead you into the ring). There is so much to this game. Before each fight, you will schedule a bout first. Next, you train. There are 4 different rotating training sessions.
1. Heavy Bag
2. Sparring
3. Combo Dummy
4. Hitting the Mitts

You will only be allowed to do one per fight and depending on your success...you will be given attribution points to improve your fighter. Note: Each session allows you to improve on 2 attribution categories. There are 8 total...IE. Power, speed, stamina, body, chin, heart, agility, cuts:

After training, you will go fight your fight. You can spend money on new attire, equipment etc in between fights. You can view your rankings, in depth rankings of other fighters. There are tons of unlockables that you will unlock as you win bigger fights opening up new sig punches, attires, entrance music, et in the fight store.

After each year, awards are given out and you will see a list of fighters that retired, which will be replaced obviously by fresh ones.

In between rounds, various stats will be shown, and they are different from round to round. Three judges score on the 10 point must system.

Last comment: Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but take my word for it, the soundtrack is not that annoying nor is the announcer. It gets old after awhile, but you would have to be nuts to not buy a great boxing game because you don't like hip hop. Trust me, neither do I! If you play any video game long enough the music gets old. Sorry If I jumped around a bit, but I wanted to give you as much detail as I could. If you are a die hard boxing fan, this is a must.

I just put five dollars down to reserve the game and received a free demo disk. I have played the demo disk a total of 40 minutes and here are my observations.

First I cannot totally judge the game because the demo has inverted controls (move your stick to the right and the boxer moves left)and a close-up angle, plus it only allows a two round fight with double time. I am always perplexed as to why they screw you on a demo since ultimatley it will be the thing which may cause you to buy the game. I wish the options to change view as well as undo the invert were activated. I can see someone playing this demo for 5 minutes and giving up before truly understanding the game..just ridiculous.

That said, the mechanics of the new engine were my real area of interest. As someone who first got into videogames simply due to hoping for a great boxing game (I fell in love with 4D Boxing for the PC back in the early 90s, which is the best boxing game ever created), this game represented a hope for me after the horrid Knockout Kings 2002 in which EA produced a generic button masher with a career mode that resembles something you would find in Tecken.(I should add that Knockout Kings 2001 on PS2 is actually an awesome game that any boxing fan should purchase.)

Well, my first 10 or so rounds were spent trying to figure out the use of the total punch control. This uses one of the analog sticks as the means to throw all the punches (you can also use the buttons if you are traditional). Pushing the stick to the upper left throws a left jab. Pushing to the upper right throws a straight right. Throwing hooks, uppercuts and body blows are more complicated (the demo had no instructions)but as I played I found them to suddenly become more intuitive. The demo allows you to be either Roy Jones or James Toney with the other boxer being your opponent. I am not sure of the difficulty level, but I have not actually gotten the better of my opponent yet. But, as I have played I have begun doing better and that really gives you a sense of learning the game.

So what do I think of the new system? Well, the punching is so precise that you can bring back the ctick to throw a hook, hold the punch until your opponent throws a shot, and then time your counter. My timing still needs work, but it is very evident that this new engine will soon become so intuitive that you will truly feel like you have total control. This is the first boxing game in which counter punchers can win a fight. I am very interested in playing as Winky Wright as I feel this type of control is perfect for him.

I have to admit to being skeptical on the new total control system, thinking that not using any buttons would be awkward and less fluid. I was totally wrong. In fact, in one fight I went back to using the buttons (each is assigned a punch like in previous games)and felt much more awkward. It was simply amazing how fast the new control won me over.

So I am very happy to report (after the disastrous KO Kings 2002) EA is back in the boxing business. Rather that simply giving us a generic boxing game they have created a product which truly make beomce a landmark in boxing video games. I have to stress I have not played the final product, and do not know how good the career mode is, but based on my initial tests I would reccomend this game to anyone interested in a game in which you actually have to think and not button mash. Very impressive!

You know...there IS something cathartic about beating the stew out of someone. One of the great things about this game is there's no threat of a civil suit!

EA Sports continues to dominate the sports sim genre with this entry. I'll confess I'm an "old" gamer (started with Pong and grew up on Defender & Asteroids--though Dig Dug was my masterpiece), but I really enjoyed the entirely new concept of joystick-only controls. I find it far more intuitive and is better than being out-mashed (as in "button mashing") by my son who's memorized the triangle/circle/triangle...etc. secret code.

My son & I get a great laugh out of beating one another without actually resorting to physical blows. We can talk thru an issue, taunt one another, knock each other out, and get up with nary a scratch or bruise. Some of you out there may not consider the Sweet Science to be father-and-son fodder...so don't buy it.

Highly recommended. While I agree with some other reviewers regarding the paucity of Big Name boxers, EA probably saved us each $5 by not having to pay hefty endorsement fees. If you don't like that Hector is missing, you can always make him yourself with 100's across the board.

Definitely a knockout!

I'm in afghanistan and belived or not this game is our real pay per view here, is a great game to enjoy with friends.

Fight Night can be alot of fun, but it's certainly not the best boxing sim I have ever seen.

I actually still prefer KO Kings 2001, to this game. KO King 2001 had clinching, 4 types of cheat punches, realistic cuts, realistic fighter entrance music, realistic commentary(From Teddy Atlas and Max Kellerman), and realistic and fun special punches...

Fight Night just isn't a realistic boxing sim. Cuts open way too easy, there is no clinching, the commentary from Big Tiger is horrible. Whoever decided to hire Big Tigger instead of real boxing commentators should be beaten with a crowbar.

This game is overrated, but for good reason. EA's last 2 boxing games were horrible. Fight Night is certainly a step back in the right direction.

I sold my copy of Fight Night. It just gets boring after a while. I am going to wait for FN 2005. If EA doesn't have Big Tigger, I will probably purchase the game....

Graphics=4.5
Commentary and Music=2
Control=5
Fun Factor=4
Replay value=3.5

Total=3.8

EA sports fight night 2004 is quite possibly the most enjoyable boxing game I have ever played, since Mke Tyson Punchout on the nintendo. The totat control punch system is simply stated awsome, the the graphics are unblievable and the KO's are extremely ugly. The one qualm I have with this game is that it lacks some of the best boxers of all time and up to date: Buster Duglas, Joe Louis, Oscar Dela Hoya, David Tua etc... Other than the lack of classic house hold names this game has everything you could ask for in a boxing game. The AI is smarter than most of my friends and adapts faster too. I think that I am going to have the marbles and answer my own question with a stone cold hell yeah!!!!

This is the best boxing game on the market, by far. Yes, there is a huge hip hop feel to the game that can be annoying (like our racist friend below me points out), however, in the boxing world today, that is the culture that dominates it. The trade off would be either salsa or mariachi music for the other culture that dominates the sport, so you pick it.
This game offers everything you would want out of a boxing game, the chance to move up in the rankings, training, different control configurations to make boxing more difficult or easy and the fact that it is fun. On top of that the major name boxers are exaxt replicas of themselves, so it is actually like you are fighting the real thing. It is difficult, which is a good thing, because there is no fun in something that you can dominate in a week. There are unlockables and endless upgrades that you can buy for your self with the prize money.
Overall, the game is solid. If the music and announcer bother you that much, turn on your stereo and turn down the volume on the tv. The only changes that I would make would be to make a customized soundtrack off of your xbox and having Michael Buffer be the ring announcer. Otherwise, I will take what I can get for a good boxing game.

I think this is a good game not perfect buy any means but well worth the $49.99 price unlike some games that are out there. I really wouldn't listen to the bad reviews about this game from other reviewers because they are totally untrue. The graphics are awesome, each real boxer looks exactly like their real life counterparts (expecially roy jones jr.). The all new total punch control feature is another great idea because it makes it more realistic but if you don't like it you can always use the face buttons to punch. I know hip hop isn't everyones favorite music so its up to you if you like it or not but I like hip hop but some of the songs do suck. The career mode is a little shallow but thats basically the only thing I don't like about the game because its good but there should be more things you can do in your career. Overall its a great game not perfect but much better than knockout kings and I would recommend anyone who is interested in boxing to pick this game up.

However, I can't give it 5 stars because of two flaws. For such a realistic approach to boxing the lack of clinching is puzzling. Clinching is huge in boxing. Maybe this was done so they could have a new "selling point" clinching feature for 2005. Also, the commentary is lame. Big Tigger fortunately doesn't say too much during the fight, but he belongs in a EA Big title. He comes off very amaturish. There's no reason they couldn't have found a seasoned boxing announcer to lend it some authenticity like their other sports games.

This being said, the control scheme is fantastic and becomes second nature. More importantly, the fighting is virtually identical to real boxing. Slugfests and button mashings will not work here. You will go the distance quite often. Great strategy is required to figure out you opponent and the strengths and weaknesses of your own fighter. I've played it several hours and I still have a lot to learn.

The graphics are terrific. The fighters look identical to their real life counterparts. The atmosphere with the crowd blends in nicely. The sound effects are also terrific. The knockdowns are always different with the rag doll physics, but they do tend to fall down like a ton of bricks and in real life wouldn't be able to get up if the knockdowns looked this brutal. That's okay though since this is a big upgrade from past efforts.

The AI is intelligent and the fighters move around the ring with nice ability. This game simply feels like boxing. EA has done an excellent job in fixing their flawed franchises in the NBA, NHL and boxing this year. And as demonstrated with MVP Baseball this year it seems if EA is trying to re-invent and improve their past overlooked franchises.

I'm sure fans will be miffed over the lack of inclusion of their favorite fighters, but licensing is a difficult deal so I see no fault in this. They still have an impressive list of boxers. Overall a terrific effort and the future looks great for boxing fans.

By far the best boxing game I have ever played. (...) The emphasis on defense and not having to push buttons to punch (no more blisters!)makes this game far superior to anything since the old school 'Ring King' on ATARI. If you want a genuine boxing experience...check this out!