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> Results: Fight Night 2
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Boxing bears a couple ironic-sounding nicknames: one is the gentleman's sport and another is the sweet science. I mean, it doesn't look like a gentleman's pursuit, sweet, or scientific. It barely even looks like a skill-sport to the untrained eye! It looks like two men beating on each other, hugging, doing more beating, hugging, dancing around, hugging, beating, etc., but in reality, Boxing is just as skill-oriented as Fencing and as much a marital art as karate. It requires finesse, brains, and an understanding of psychology as well as speed, endurance, and strength. It's also proven difficult to model in a video game. The reason being, unlike other fighting games, smacking buttons doesn't really capture the subtlety, strategy, and skill of two men hitting each other above the belt.
Fight Night 2, the sequel to the excellent Fight Night 2004 from last year, is easily the best pugilistic translation gaming has ever seen. It captures almost every aspect of boxing making it more than a mere arcade game, more than a sports game, it's a true simulation. The key innovation the series brings is the Punch Control System. The idea is simple; you use the two joysticks on the Xbox or PS2 gamepad. The left stick has you dodge, move, and aim. The right stick lets you punch. Bring the stick to the left and hook it forward and you get a left hook, the opposite is a right hook. Down and up is an upper-cut. Jabbing is just as easy. Blocking uses the right shoulder button and you can watch your fighter block every part of his body. At first this is very confusing, were used to smacking buttons like mad, not intently watching an opponent for weakness and throwing combos. But once you get the hang of it, this IS boxing. Block, block, jab, hook, jab, jab, body blow, knock him out! It feels right, it looks right, and, whether you win or lose, you feel tired. Its a tense game. The kind of game that teaches you boxing, lets you feel like you've experienced it, all without risking brain injury or severe exhaustion.  The graphics are terrific. Each boxer looks and moves right and the game makes excellent use of rag-doll physics to simulate a groggy fighter falling to the canvas. Various pain skins are used to simulate damage. Eyes swell up, blood sprays along with sweat, and bruises show up painfully. This shows you, round-by-round, just how much punishment you're enduring and how much you're dishing out. Fight Night 2 also casts you as the cut man. Between rounds players can minimize damage by sealing cuts and reducing swelling. This is crucial, because even the stoutest fighter can go down if damaged enough, and the ref will call the fight if your fighter takes too much damage. The game offers full tournament modes. You can play as stars from all weight classes or make your own fighter. The greats are included, including Ali, Roy Jones Jr., Foreman, Spinks, Ray Leonard, Marciano, and more. They've changed announcers. They ditched the hip-hop DJ from the last game (though EA Trax still gives us tunes) and cast a guy who sounds like a real boxing announcer. This was a shrewd move, the last game felt a little silly with a smart-aleck announcer surrounding such a serious simulation. The game also features improved scoring and stats. Oh, the swimsuit wearing round-card models are still distracting. Audio is especially important and EA spent a lot of time on dynamic crowd noise (a sucker punch always makes 'em boo) and just as much time on the sound of the punches. To their credit the haymakers don't sound like bombs going off (a la Rocky) but do sound like a meat tenderizer doing its work. The audio experience makes the whole game even more visceral. Even better is the cool way KO (knockouts) are handled: the screen gets all woozy and the ref leans over you to begin the count. You've got to move a green circle to the center of the rapidly shifting double vision screen with the left stick, and then a yellow circle with the right, to stay conscious and clamber up for redemption or more punishment. Multiplayer Fight Night was playable on the PS2 last year and it's still available on that service. Better still, it's now available on Xbox Live and the built in ladder system, rankings, etc., make the whole experience even more worthwhile. Boxing is such a tactical game, playing against another human is a must. Fight Night 2 is a terrific multiplayer game. Or it would be, if the slightest bit of lag didn't throw the timing off. This is a skill oriented game and out of the 10 online matches we tested for this review, only one was truly satisfying. Basically players will get used to the quick response time offered in the single player game, so the 1-second delay over the net throws a fighter off. This makes some matches lopsided, especially if one fighter is slightly ahead or has a slightly better connection.  Fight Night 2004, as terrific as it was, was missing something crucial. Clinching. Or as non-boxing fans call it: Hugging. Now, if backed into a corner or looking to buy some time, helping the bell save you, you can reach out and grab your opponent. This is a serious drain on your stamina, but, like in real boxing, it's a valid tactic and the last game felt incomplete without it. With clinching, the same innovative punch system, the deep tournament and career options, the graphics and realism, the improved presentation, and most of all the obvious love of boxing that infuses the title makes Fight Night 2 the best representation of the sweet science gaming has ever seen. The Greatest of All Time! 
It's violent and bloody, yes. But the blood is realistic and it is a boxing simulation. If you let your kids watch boxing on HBO, watch that Contender reality show, or want them to learn about it, this is the perfect game. If your kids love even more violent fighting games, this is a good option to teach them about something real and more tactical to boot. If boxing offends you, if you're against this kind of game or sport... why are you reading this review anyway? The bottom line is that this is a fighting simulation that'll show kids that there are consequences to combat. That the human body suffers and that heroism can be as harrowing as it is thrilling. Those are good lessons if the violence doesn't offend your sensibilities.
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