Fight Night Champion Review

What can I say about Fight Night Champion. FREAKIN’ SWEET! I think I speak for all who play and love boxing games when I say, EA came with a heavy hitter on FNC. The graphics are superb, the rosters are all licensed fighters (some are missing the ones I like) and enhanced old game play with exciting new game play online & offline. Brand new to the franchise is champion mode, making it the first M rated boxing game in the history of video games. Also new is making your own gym online.

Champion mode is Fight Night’s new story mode. As I said before, the game is M rated. Champion mode is very gritty and has a mouth full (if you know what I mean). It’s a very good story for a boxing game. It’s kind of a mixture of Rocky & Undisputed. As soon as you put FNC in for the first time, pushing start will take you right to the action. I was on my PS3 menu while the game was loading and was startled by the sound of a ten count of me laid out on the mat. The game starts you off in a prison fight as Andre Bishop, a pro mid weight boxer making his way to the top fast. Bishop is thrown in jail under false charges, serves his time. Well even though its a review, I don’t want tell the whole story but it is a good one.

The game play of Champion mode is slightly different. Whatever you had your settings on doesn’t matter because Champion mode has its own presetting. In certain fights right before the knock out you’ll trigger a slow motion which is very cool, it makes your knock out flurry looks even sweeter before you floor your opponent. And man oh man the last bout will make Tyson in the original NES game Punch Out seem like the modern day Tyson (just kidding), but for real its a nice challenge and a great new to the franchise

Legacy mode an old but nice enhancement mode of FNC. Legacy mode is the career part of the game where you create a player and climb the ladder to be the champion of the world. There are a few ways to create a player like uploading an existing player, create a player from scratch, or upload yourself, with the PS3 cam (personally that one sucks). I prefer to play God and create from scratch face, hair, body, tattoos, and clothes. You can put any name on your trunks for people to see. My character’s name, I can’t say too much, but it’s related to my PS ID (thatdtn).

Bringing something new to legacy mode is how you build your player skills. You get what’s called XP points, through training, offline fighting, and online matches. XP points can be used to make your player stronger & more athletic. Training is essential in the sport of boxing as well in FNC. Detailed training sessions are great, especially the punching bag. There are more moves you can do in the ring now & working the bag would help you in the ring. Don’t exhaust yourself you’ll have to watch a new stamina meter that will decrease the more you train. There is a rest period where I’ll advise you to take because if you over do it you’ll be to tired to fight and it will show in your next bout.

EA has put an separate training mode in the game to practice, because XP training points depends on how well your sessions goes . It pays off greatly if you can max your training. During your rise to champ the AI contenders will challenge, whether you choose to accept. When your the champ and feel that you fought all you can fight, you can retire as the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Times).

Another new addition to the franchise is online gyms. You can make your own gym and invite friends to join. I don’t know much about because it, I haven’t played much online, even though I do belong to an online gym. What’s cool about online fights (this time around) is that you gain XP points which is nice. Nope you can’t carry over XP from legacy (sad). The gym (your gym or your opponents gym) you fight under gains reputation & awards in an attempt to be the most recognized gym in world.

Create champs, build your gyms rep, spit out bums, and well that’s what you get bums. Online play is really fun and the time I spent there, experienced very little lag and good competition.

There is still this one thing that I really dislike with FNC, that is the button command lag. When you throw a flurry, then try to lean or block, is kind of hard because you stop mashing buttons and your player still swinging at your opponent. Its not as bad as Fight Night Round 4, but can still be a little frustrating. Overall, FNC is most definitely a must buy for anyone who is a lover of the art of Boxing.