[REVIEW] Don King Presents: Prizefighter (Xbox 360) Ummm... it's not Fight Night

For the last several years, EA Sports Fight Night boxing series hasn't really had much competition in terms of pro boxing games. But now long time rival, 2K Sports, is jumping into the fray with some big guns: super promoter Don King. The game, Don King Presents: Prizefighter, is 2K Sports response to EA's Fight Night, but can they even get in the same ring together?

The meat of the game revolves around career mode. Of course you get to customize your boxer and once you're ready to start your career, a documentary begins. It's probably the best part of the game. Live action interviews with the likes of Don King, Larry Holmes, Mario Van Peebles and a group of actors playing promoters, trainers, journalists, and managers, tell the story of your boxer named "The Kid." The interviews are all in the past tense, documenting your rise and fall, and then you live through it. You start fighting in gyms and firehouses, working your way up to coliseums and arenas. It's really the only aspect of the game that motivates you to keep playing through.

The game play takes some time to get used to, especially if you're used to using the analog sticks to box in Fight Night. To throw punches, it's a combination of the buttons and the right trigger for body shots and jabs. Plus you have stay attentive to your stamina bar; make sure you have enough energy to throw strong effective punches. The analog sticks are used to move and block, and the left bumper in combination with a button offers special punches when your adrenaline meter is filled.

The problems, however, lie in the results of your control. The animations and graphics need major help. Not only does your boxer have a hard time keeping up with the combos you're throwing on the controller, somehow some way, you punch through your opponent's chest and arms, as if there were holes in their bodies. When you and your opponent are in close quarters, the game just turns into a button mashing contest to see who can land the most punches. Sometimes you'll end up knocking out the other boxer by punching them in the elbow or shoulder. Huh? It's just a very slow moving game that gets very frustrating, especially in close matches.

There are a few peripheral activities within the career mode including reading email/texts from a PDA, booking and scouting your fights and training. Before you fight, you have two weeks to train, which give you the opportunity to do two workouts to build up your strength, stamina, agility and dexterity. Of the workouts, you can choose shuttle run, heavy bag, focus mitts, jump rope and speed bag which are pretty cool mini-games.

Although the game has 40 real life playable boxers, they aren't seen in the career mode and are only available in exhibition mode which you can also use for multiplayer and online matches. The other modes are Fighter Factory and Training which are already included in the career mode.

Overall, the game has a lot of potential but all of it wasn't realized this time out. The documentary presentation is superb; it's just the game play and animation, the foundation of every video game, that needs major help. Hopefully they'll give it another shot.

Q's Rating: 2.5 out of 5

1up.com: D+

Gamespy: 2.5 out of 5 

Check out the trailer here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ggtdl319LPQ