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Preview

Don King's Prizefighter

Format Xbox 360

Developer Venom Games

Publisher 2K Sports

Genre Sports

26-May-2008 It's good to be king...

3 Comments

"Fight Night is our main competitor, sure. It's a very beautiful game but it's about this deep," says Prizefighter's Executive Producer Matthew Seymour, holding his fingers about an inch apart. "It has a terrible Career mode and it's very slow. I can see why they did it - they want you to see every punch and every animation and every counter, but it's so slow it's like they're rolling out the red carpet for you to counter. We are moving on."

Prizefighter is 2K's shot at replicating the total boxing lifestyle - the girls, the rivalries, the training and the prestige. It's a story told as a live action documentary, where Don King, a selection of rather dubious actors, and a load of boxing legends including our own Joe Calzaghe discuss your career.

Prizefighter makes you choose between training and girls, between fame and in-ring skills, between hard work and fan support - a total boxing lifestyle simulation and a very different path to the one being walked by EA's new boxing title.

"Facebreaker is kind of bizarre, especially when you look at Ready 2 Rumble," says Seymour. "It did great as a launch game on the Dreamcast but look at the sequel and the sales dropped. My hat's off to 'em, but I'm not worried at all. It's very different. This is about the real deal of boxing."

Rocky road
That 'real deal' is as much about control as the life and the spectacle. "Boxing is about movement," says Seymour over and over, and sure enough Prizefighter moves at twice the speed of even the fastest bouts in Fight Night. That speed has meant a move away from EA's big innovation, and towards a time-tested solution. "The foundation of our control methodology is really Street Fighter.

Everything's on the buttons and triggers. We tested total fight control (on the right stick) but found 50% of people turned it off. The speed of boxing needs fast controls and the stick isn't fast enough."

There's no denying Don King's face is slapped on a game that's in love with the sport - everything surrounding the in-ring action is impeccable, with classic boxers from Ali to Eubank, and arenas including Madison Square Garden and Boardwalk Hall. The music tips its hat to the 70s funk groove, evoking the golden era of heavyweight boxing.

Famous brands like Lonsdale, Everlast, and Cleto Reyes provide the fight gear, and the game is loaded with classic fight footage from King's personal library as unlockable rewards. It's nearly the total package.

The speed is refreshing, but the game misses the impact of Fight Night. The sweet science is about speed, movement, and spectacle, and though the in-ring action nails the first two, Prizefighter's spectacle is left outside the ring.

Michael Gapper