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You may or may not remember a small news item that appeared
in issue 6 of ZZAP! about a new boxing game from US
Gold/Sydney called Fight Night. Well, after much
delay it's finally arrived . . . sort of.
You
see, at the time of writing the program isn't really
complete. In fact, there is a succinct little message
on the front of the documentation that sums up the situation
quite nicely . . .
So,
we're slicking to our guns and giving a PREview of the
game to whet your appetite as opposed to a full REview
of an unfinished product to mislead you. More next month,
but for now . . .
Fight
Night is the fourth boxing game/simulation to be
released on the 64 and has been around a year in the
making. It boasts many features and an exciting combination
of cartoon quality graphics and equally amusing gameplay.
There are four main options present on the cassette
version and five on the disk.
Main
Event.
Essentially a straightforward boxing 'simulation' that
lets you box against five of the worlds meanest fighters,
each with their own distinctive style (usually dirty),
strengths, weaknesses and Super Blow. The latter is
a very powerful punch that knacks you for six if it
lands successfully. It also deforms your boxer rather
amusingly in the process!
As
a challenger you must first battle your way past four
increasingly ferocious contenders before meeting the
Champ -- the Bronx Bomber. There are eight different
manoeuvres at your disposal and all are accessible via
a single joystick. Jabs and body blows can both be thrown
or faked and your guard can be raised or dropped. One
can also move left and right across the ring to avoid
punches.
The
boxers start in their respective corners and on the
sound of the bell it's time to come out fighting. The
bout is held over three rounds with the simple object
of knocking out your opponent before he floors you.
Points are awarded for landing a successful punch, and
in the event of a bout going the distance, a win is
awarded on score.
Boxing
Construction.
One of the most amusing and original aspects of Fight
Night is the Boxer Construction option. In
this mode it is possible to build and customize personal
boxers to either use as opponents or fight with.
When
you use the construction mode you are given five different
choices of four different parts of the body -- arm,
legs, head and torso. Putting them together is done
using the joystick and is very simple. Once the boxer
has been built, you can select the colour of his skin,
gloves and shorts and whether he's player or computer
controlled. When that has been done you are asked to
allocate points (out of twenty) to the boxer's left
and right punch strength and resilience to attack. Using
this you can give the boxer a tremendously powerful
left jab, although his right would be weak. The same
goes for resilience -- the boxer could be practically
immune to body punches, but then a blow to the head
would really shake him.
If
the boxer is computer controlled, then you are also
asked to define his offensive/defensive and whether
he uses brains or brawn in similar fashion.
In
order to become a competent boxer one must practise
punching, ducking and most importantly timing. This
is done through Training Mode.
It also gives you the opportunity to test out the punching
power of a constructed boxer. After selecting the boxer
you wish to train with and the speed at which to train,
you must decide whether to lead or follow. The former
is used to practise sense of timing and simply lets
you perform a movement at will. The latter however,
is a similar method at practice to that of the arcade
game Karate Champ. Two representations of your
joystick are shown at the top of the screen -- one for
movement with the button depressed, the other without.
Various positions and combinations of the joystick 'light
up' and the equivalent manoeuvre must be executed as
quickly as possible. Making a correct move causes the
computer to give the next one, but a wrong move gets
the sequence repeated. The combinations of moves given
should be noted, as they are beneficial to competent
play.
Sparring.
Allows you to set up a bout between two previously constructed
boxers of your choice, be they computer or human controlled.
This effectively means that you can create your own
demo mode.
Tournament.
Unfortunately this option is only present on the disk
version of Fight Night. It lets two players compete
against each other with a variety of boxers in a round
robin tournament, giving the game a managerial flavour.
More
next month, including critical appraisal and ratings
when we're told the game is completed and tested.
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