Leave it to the gaming press to condemn a phenomenal boxing title that isn’t published by Electronic Arts. If this game were Fight Night, it would have received excellent scores. But Take-Two had the audacity to come out with a competitive title, Don King Presents Prizefighter, an unorthodox, unprecedented boxing title, and the press has responded largely with indifferent yawns. 

Prizefighter does offer your standard issue match setting, where you simply pick a pugilist and enter the ring against another famed fighter. The fluid mechanics allow you to jump and come out swinging. However, where this title truly shines is the career mode, which utilizes an unheard-of documentary style to present the game’s story (yes, a boxing game with a story).

I’ll get to that later on. 

For now, just know that the visuals in this game, while not revolutionary, clearly hold up well against rival Fight Night. The legendary fighters all very much resemble their respective real-life counterparts, with the body mechanics all pulled off for the most part. One of the most impressive parts of the fight visuals is when a fighter falls to the canvas. In all honesty, the realistic manner in which they fall is something that struck me very early on. The lighting effects are also another high note, with each of the arenas looking very much like the boxing venues of the real-life sport.

The sound is also delivered very well. In addition to the excellent voice work contained within the career mode, the in-ring effects are pulled off quite well. Take a shot to the face, and an appropriate grunt follows. Most impressive of all, however, is the gasping of a fighter when drilled with a blow to the body. As part of the gameplay, when you are in trouble, being relentlessly pummelled by an opponent, and your strength begins to fail, a heartbeat sample begins playing in the background, adding to the desperation of the situation. As far as the music is concerned, its primary use comes into play in the game’s menus, with an eclectic mixture of modern rock, classic rock and rap filling the track roster. 

Where Prizefighter delivers better than any title before it, and likely for years to come, is in the career mode presentation and gameplay mechanics. Career mode, as I mentioned before, is done in documentary fashion. At the beginning of your career, friends, former trainers, promoters and girlfriends all comment on your career in retrospective style. The general idea is that you’ve already won the title, and they are looking back on your humble beginnings, talking about the events you are about to participate in as if they’re in the distant past. As you continue to progress, winning bigger fights, signing a promoter, the story continues to unfold, with more characters from your past being interviewed and discussing their thoughts on the events, again, as if they have already occurred. The storyline unfolds in an extremely effective manner, and is a truly rewarding experience as you press on towards a title shot.

Part of the experience includes your trainer occasionally informing you of a legendary fight of yesteryear, which you are then thrust into with a scenario to face. For instance, one fight is preceded by your staff noticing your hand is hurt, and you must then spend much of the following fight avoiding the use of that hand. Obviously, this implementation of the story makes this particular fight quite interesting. Your trainer takes you into a fight from the past where a similar event happened, and you must determine how the fight ends. At the end of every such scenario, you are then told what actually happened, which may or may not contradict the way the fight ended given your participation. 

Additionally part of the story mode is the PDA, which allows your friends to keep up with you, your promoter(s) to invite you to special press events, parties, et cetera. Girls you meet along the way may ask you out on dates. Participating in such gatherings are good for your public image and enhance your clout with the media, but come at a cost: you sacrifice precious training time in exchange for having your nose in the camera.

Last but not least is the gameplay itself. What has very clearly happened here is the creation of a balanced fighting system that actually allows you to knockout your opponent and, at the same time, be able to recover from a knockdown. One of my biggest gripes with Fight Night is that not only are you largely unable to recover and avoid a knockdown, but getting back up and continuing to fight is generally a futile effort. This is due to the miniscule amount of health you recover. Not so with Prizefighter. In this game, upon falling down you must regain your focus so that you may clearly see the referee. Then you choose how much health to recover before getting back up again. This may sound a bit unrealistic, but it is balanced out by the fact that if you stay down too long in an attempt to recover more health, you might be unable to get to your feet in time before the count reaches ten. You also may avoid a knockdown by effective blocking and staying out of a close fight, as doing so allows you to restore health via the amount of stamina you have. Your stamina remains charged by not throwing punches, and a full stamina bar charges your health. Again, as opposed to Fight Night, Prizefighter allows for fights that may stretch into the later rounds due to just how balanced the gameplay truly is. 

Another innovative feature is basically an adrenaline meter. The more punches you land, the higher the meter grows. Landing combos and doing so unwaveringly will increase the speed with which the adrenaline meter grows. Finally, you make use of the meter when full, which allows you to enact a flurry of punches without using up stamina, meaning you can crank out a near endless barrage. Of course, this may be countered by counter-punching and simply dancing around your opponent and avoiding his shots while your adversary expends his adrenaline.

Speaking of counter-punching, this is an integral part of the in-ring proceedings in Prizefighter. Utilize it effectively, and you can take over a fight, or make a comeback. Rarely making use of a counter-punch, or not using it at all, will likely prove detrimental to your chances of a win. Many of the better fighters you will face are quite good at it, and not making use of this skill yourself will make any victory seem far more elusive. That being said, if you play this game, learn to counter-punch.  

In closing, what we have here is a strong graphical package coupled with excellent voicework and simply outstanding presentation, particularly in the vivid storytelling of the career mode. All of this is tied together by a well-balanced, fluid fighting engine that proves quite fun. I know, I know, Heaven forbid there be a sterling alternative to something published by Electronic Arts. The truth is, though, Don King Presents Prizefighter, even when compared to the Punchout!!Series, is the most balanced, enjoyable and thorough boxing title. But I’ll go farther than that: this is the best boxing game ever made.