Fight Night Round 3 Review
Fight Night is a game that is basically running without any real competition as it is the only boxing game out there that counts. Although this usually means that you would end up with a mediocre game, this is not the case with the series as it is quite interactive and totally enjoyable. Fight Night Round 3 comes with a lot of interesting aspects and with some improvements when compared to the last games in the series, although not that much, still enough to make you want to have another match. The bad part (if we can call it like that) is that the best parts of this fighting game are the ones that have not changed since Fight Night Round 2. Total Punch Control is back in the game and it is just as good as in 2004. I expect a lot of veterans to start throwing boxing combos easily with this implementation.
I was quite new to the Fight Night concept but that did not play an important factor in the speed with which I learned how to play. It is easy if you put a little effort in it. What is difficult is when you want to master the strong punches that you do with movement of the right analog stick. Jabs can be thrown with a simple tap of the stick to the left or right and the hooks are done with a quarter-circle movement. Uppercuts are close to a half circle movement. Now you will learn that the tricky part is delivering the haymaker punch, which is basically done when you put more power behind the punch with pulling back the analog stick even farther. For the first time in the series you will get to see impact punches, which are basically variations of the haymaker punch. You thus obtain a flash KO punch, which is basically an even stronger haymaker that drains the opponent’s health and you can end up giving a quick KO. You also have the stun punch, another variation of the haymaker punch, one that will start a minigame where you can pummel your opponent with punches. The bad part is that a stun punch is difficult to be done and when you succeed you see that first person mode is quite strange. The truth is that all impact punches are very difficult to hit and this is very good because we thus end up with balanced action.
The actual boxing will easily be mastered and a lot of players will come with different techniques. I like punching a lot and avoiding punches while others like being defensive and coming at the opponent with the counters. Whatever the case, one thing that is quite interesting is that you have various boxing styles and punching styles that will have an impact on your game. For instance, I like using good hooks with the hook master punching style and various boxing styles based on the opponent. This is because most of my damage is done with hooks. The bad news is that you might end up being without energy if you do not manage your fighter properly. Hiring trainers and cut man minigames are important.
Talking about gameplay, Fight Night Round 3 comes with play now, online multiplayer and career modes. We also have an interesting ESPN Classic mode, which will let you relive some important fights in boxing history. You can choose from some classic rivalries and you will even learn something about the rivalry before the fight, although not too much. Career Mode will probably be the one that will be played the most and it is quite interesting. You can create your own boxer, of course, or you can rebuild a legend. You start as an amateur and you have to fight your way up the ranks. The problem is that career mode, and Fight Night Round 3 in general does tend to become quite boring from some point of views. Career mode is too simple and you end up like it is just a series of exhibition matches and then the animations are not that many. This basically means that you will be skipping a lot of the out of ring stuff just because it is boring. The arenas are also not that great and the atmosphere is not caught nicely, especially as the commentary is quite dull.
What is really interesting is how the game looks. I can say that Fight Night Round 3 looks incredible on the Xbox 360. You basically feel at times that you are watching a real fight. Knockout replays are quite fun and on the whole the game looks tremendous. The same thing can not be said for the Playstation 2 platform, although the game does look good enough considering the differences in hardware between the two. On the whole the game is great although there are some minor problems that should be assessed faster. Fight Night Round 3 is a highly enjoyable fighting game, no matter the platform you will play on.