Fight Night Round 4 Review

Overview

Fight Night Round 4 had a lot to live up to, I was a MASSIVE fan of Fight Night 3 completing the game several times loving, each drip of sweat and blood splashing across the ring when I’ve just landed a massive knock out blow and sent my opponent flying, and naturally I loved the graphics – they were spot on and they still are! Read on to find out exactly what I think of this title from EA.

Gameplay

Inside the ring not much has changed since FNR3, the gameplay feels the same but the major difference is the points system.  Not the points system that you get from the judges, a points system that’s set from your trainer which replaces the gruelling healing process that you had to use in FNR3.  For instance if you stun your opponent in a round that you will be issued +5 points, if you land 70% of your punches in a round then you will be awarded +12 points and all of these points can be spent on healing yourself instead of wiggling your sticks to iron out a swell under your left eye.  The 3 areas that you can spend your points on are Health, Stamina and Damage, all of which will drastically help you for the remainder of your fight.

The knockout system has seen a slight change too, when you get knocked down and having to repeatedly bash buttons and wiggle sticks to get up again all you need to too is control the left stick from left to right and press up on the right stick when you are prompted – a much easier way to get up than in FNR3.

Outside of the fights the game has seen a massive change, instead of going through the train, fight, train, fight ritual that you were confronted in previous titles you can now simulate through the career in the football manager style way.  You book fights on a calendar, train for the fights and then book more fights.  Okay so its not a massive change but the look and feel certainly make the game feel a lot more weighty than it has before.  You can even simulate your fights where the computer picks a winner for you based on stats but this can become frustrating when you get beat by people that you know you can beat with your trademark blow.  Also built in is a text message system that will issue messages out at particular times – but do we care? No.

Graphics

How can they improve on FNR3 in the graphics department?  We don’t particularly care how they did it but they did.  FNR3 is still regarded as one of the most satisfying titles on the 360 for graphics and too beat it would be nearly impossible but somehow they done it.  They added a new camera turn function on the knockout replays which works a dream when I want to watch me pummeling Tyson again and again and again and again… Okay so you get the point.

The character customization has come a long way since FNR3 and the boxers give a real feeling of ‘Hey is that a game or a replay from Sky Sports?’ as it feels so realistic sometimes its hard to tell.  This game certainly lives up to its expectations and knocks down any mis-preconceptions that arrived with screenshots and videos in the earlier weeks to release.

Sound

EA undoubtedly were going to add licensed tracks into the game again that would surely drive everyone mad.. not this time!  I find my head nodding to most of the music when I’m in simulation mode or navigating the menus, I even picked one of my favourite tracks (Mercury) as my intro tune for when I enter the ring in anticipation of getting my head smashed to pieces by Lennox Lewis.

The sound effects from the fights seem even more realistic now and the only thing we can really complain about is the volume of the trainers when they shout out hints and commands to defeat your enemy and I found myself having to turn my speakers up very loud to hear them mumble some tips.

Overall Fight Night Round 4 scores well with us but a few issues can be resolved in future title updates.. we hope!

Fight Night Round 4 Review Results