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Almost There....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok... I have played all boxing sim games through the years... and had more fun with them than most people it seems. Guess I'm a fan of the genre.

Anyhow... onto my review of Knockout Kings 2003.

Game Play: Controls take a bit of getting used to, but well worth it to learn. This isn't a toe-to-toe slug-fest game. You have to learn to stick-and-move, hone your defense skills, and put together combinations.

Graphics: Awesome. Hardly any noticeable clipping.

Sound: Acceptable. Game sound effects are good... but; commentators get damn annoying... more on that in the "Cons" section.

Price: I got mine for $20 through Amazon.com, .... worth the price. I wouldn't pay more for it.

Re-Playability: Poor. While the game tells you that each opponent has to be "learned" and defense/offense built around that... I have found that a single defense/offense strategy works against all boxers... making the game boring over time.

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PRO's:
Multi-Player: Slug-fest is fun... wish they incorporated more of its features into the career mode. Slug-fest has the classic Punch Meters... that unlock the super combinations that will floor a failing opponent. This is awesome. In career mode, they don't have this... and I can't understand why.
Graphics: Just Great. (I like the knockdown replays)

CON's:
Commentator's: Damn annoying. Very repetitive, and they don't say things at the correct time to accurately reflect the current situation in the ring. I went through one round where I knocked the opponent down twice... and outscored him on every level.. and at the end of the round the commentator says: " Pretty Good Round for Both Boxers". Excuse me? One boxer is half-dead... how is that a good round for him?
Realism: Ok.. lets be real. If you fight a guy over three rounds and knock him down twice in each round... how does he get back up? Six times on the mat is enough for any sane minded referee to stop a bout.
Boxers: The game has all the greats from each weight division.. but.. the boxers fight nothing like their real life counterparts. They all do exactly the same thing, with minimal variation. Because of this, you figure out one, and you've figured out them all. Holyfield fights with the same style, power, and fluidity as Ali. But that's not what Holyfield is known for... he's a cruiser-weight turned heavyweight champion with an Iron Chin and Iron Will to win. Whereas Ali is a Jab machine with incredible KO Power and great taunting skill
End Game: Ok.. so you make it up the ladder and you are 25-0-0 and just beat the heavyweight champion of the world. Where's the fanfare? Its super-weak to say the least. After you win... you just go through repetitive contender challenges until your age and skill begins to decline... at which point you can "retire" your boxer. Again.. no fanfare.. not even a spec. sheet that shows you your record, championship fights, championship defenses, etc., etc., etc.,.

I like this game only because I'm a fan of the genre. I can see why this game wouldn't be wildly popular with the non boxing sim fan. Why can't Nintendo work on a good Super Punch-Out sequel for the Game Cube?

Quid

Fun! great gameplay, and good graphics.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: October 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a really fun boxing sim! What i really like about this game is the emphasis on using your defensive tactics: Bob and weave to tire out the opposition, block a couple jabs, and throw a combo to send blood flying. In other words if you think you can win by just throwing wild puches in this game, you will be sorely mistaken...and I mean SORELY! Although there is a slug fest mode for those types of players.

Boxing Fans Will Love This Game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of boxing, you will like this game. The roster of fighters is impressive, no Tyson or Jones Jr., but including guys like Hopkins, Vargas, and Mayweather Jr. is a nice feature. Defense is important, and you need to move your fighter around to be successful. Each fighter has a "specialty" combo, Sugar Ray's windmill and Duran's devastating body combo. The game will become a little repetitive in career mode. But all in all, it's a fun game, and the "dream" matchups like Marciano vs. Lewis, De La Hoya vs. Leonard make it worth your while.

By a Unanimous Decision ...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

KO Kings is an intense, exciting boxer for the GameCube. Controls are simple and intuitive, and they map well onto the GameCube controller. The boxers' animations are things of beauty--the fighters move with fluidity and style. The crowd animations are weak, but you'll probably be too busy to notice them much. Offense is king, but defense (especially movement around the ring) is vital as well--a few fights into Career mode, you won't simply be able to stand toe to toe with your opponent and expect to win. While the in-game sounds are decent, the menu rap cuts range from fair to average in quality, and the in-game commentary is repetitive and ludicrously off on some occasions (as when Max Kellerman compliments both fighters after a two-knockdown round). Career mode isn't deep, but it's still entertaining. The points you assign to various attributes do seem to make at least some difference, and the points you lose due to age hurt performance. The game has three difficulty levels, with the medium (Pro) being just about right--a consistently fair challenge. Two-player mode is consistent in quality with the one-player mode. A slugfest (fight till you get eliminated) and exhibition mode round out the package.

If this game gets another version (and I hope it does), a number of improvements are in order: richer commentary, better crowd animations, more historic boxers, more boxing venues, more customization options for player-created boxers (body types, nicknames, etc.), better (or some!) in-game stats between rounds, corner commentary, better collision detection in replays, end-of-career stats, a better retirement cutscene, mini-games for increasing skill points (a la "Rocky"), and (dare I say it?) more than one card girl. The heart of the game is rock solid, but there's always room for improvement.

Don't let any of these quibbles keep you away from this game. It's a great pick-up-and-play game that also rewards practice and developed skill. Nice to see EA produce a GameCube-only update for the game--keep it up.

Lame

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is lame. I exchanged it. Butterbean is a world champ that you have to beat. There is no career mode or training simulation. L A M E.

Much Better that Playstation 2 version

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is much better then the PS2 version since the career mode is more traditional and the graphics are much better. The only reason I gave it less than 5 stars is because the body punching is very imprecise with you having to crouch your boxer before throwing the punch. It would have been much better to simply have a body blow butoon.

this game is ok, but go with fight night

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

KO kings is a pretty good game but it has its downsides. the meplay is pretty fun, its very addictive and it never seems to get old. but the features suck. the backgroun music is the worst ive herd in a lond time, and the graphics could use some improvement. it is unrealistic to real boxing, and its too easy. after just one or two rounds you win, it doesnt take thaT long to beat. the soun is alright i guess. also, the create your own boxer sucks! you can only customize a few things, you cant really decide what he looks like.
overall, its pretty fun at first, but it has its downsides. if you want a real good boxing game, go with fight night. i guarentee youll like it better.

Eye of the Tiger!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Do you think you have what it takes to become the World Heavyweight Champ of the world? Well buy this game and you will soon find out. I bought this game a few weeks ago and have not stopped playing it yet. The game has it all. Step into the ring with the greatest fighters in Boxing history such as: Ali, Marciano, Lewis, Frazier, and MANY MORE!

One of the greatest features of the game is the CREATE-A-BOXER mode. There is one small flaw to this section of the game. The appearances to choose from for your boxer is limited. You only have about 9 different faces, 6 different pants, boots, and gloves. There is room to add a lot more to it like where you could create your boxer's face like in wrestling games and also create your own pants, boots and gloves. However, you can choose your boxer's nickname, if he's right-handed or southpaw, his beginning stats of: Strength, Speed, Stamina, Chin, Heart, and Cuts. Then you can choose your boxer's special punch with nearly 20 different specials to choose from.

The next greatest feature of this game is the CAREER mode. After you've created your boxer, you start your career and climb your way up the ranks of contenders and will finally face Muhammed Ali at the end for the World title. In the beginning of the career, you start with the attributes you gave to your boxer when you created him. You start out fighting the weak contenders and then the fighters get better and better of course because you're working up the ranks with better fighters. During the fight, the computer keeps a percentage of Punches Landed - Punches Thrown. After a fight, depending what the percentage was at the end of the fight, you earn around 9 points to add to your boxer's stats. This is how your boxer gets better. IMPORTANT TIP: You better learn how to duck with your boxer because I STRONGLY URGE YOU to try to avoid as many punches thrown by your opponent in every fight. Why? After every fight, depending on how many punches you took, you fighters has to rest for a couple months or depending on how bad, sometimes even several months. Your fighter ages between these rest periods, REMEMBER THAT! Your fighters starts the career at age 20 and if you get bad beatings in a lot of your fights, he will age quick. A good fighter can get 3 fights out of each year. IMPORTANT TIP: If your fighters stats in "CHIN" and "CUTS" are high, you fighter will need less rest periods. Finally as you approach your fight with Ali, you fighter will be at the age of 31-35 (Depending how short rest periods between fights were). One feature that EA Sports included to make the career more realistic is that your fighter's stats will slowly begin decreasing when you pass a certain age, which I'm pretty sure is 36. After that your fighter will get weak quickly.

The gameplay of this game is very well thought out and very realistic. You fighter has the same head shots as in real life. You have the Hook, Cross, Jab, Uppercut and all those punches you can use for Body Shots. TIP: Using body shots really wears down your opponent, especially the BODY UPPERCUT! It takes the wind out of your opponent quick. The sounds of the punches are a little off to me. They sound a wack in the face instead the thunderous sound of a punch like in Rocky. The gameplay is great though.

The other methods of gameplay are Slugfest, which you enter a tournament to knock out as many boxers as you can one after the other until one of them knock you out. Of course, you have Exhibition and then you hav Tournament. In tournament, it's the King-Of-The-Ring of Wrestling. You start out with 8 fighters and 4 fights and eventually you work you way to fighting the other survivor of the tournament.

Overall, this game is very well thought out and very well made. For any boxing fan, this is the next game to buy for your gamecube. The game does take a while to learn to master, so do be patient. No one in real life becomes the greatest fighter instantly, right? This game is a total knockout!

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