Knockout Kings was a valiant effort, as it really tried to simulate the sport of boxing with real fighters, arenas and realistic boxing gameplay. But the game clearly needed more work in the gym, as sluggish controls and punch response, a shallow career mode, and flat, first-generation graphics caused many gamers to throw in the towel with this title.
But the EA Sports development team responsible for Knockout Kings 2000 clearly has trained hard in the last year. The game is vastly improved in all areas, especially graphics and career mode, and ranks as one of the pleasant surprises among the plethora of sports games released this fall. This game truly is a contender for your gaming dollars and one of the most enjoyable titles that EA Sports has released this year. Read on to find out why. Gameplay:
Realistic gameplay was one of the strong points of the original Knockout Kings, and EA Sports has further refined this aspect of the game in Knockout Kings 2000. What makes this game unique and so much fun is that it’s a thinking person’s simulation of boxing. It’s not a smash-the-buttons, arcade-style punch-up. Players must pick their spots, punch, move, block and counterpunch. If you just stand and slug, your butt will hit the canvas quickly. Again and again. Credit EA Sports for staying true to the sim roots of this game with Knockout Kings 2000. It’s the only sim in a world of arcade boxing games like Ready 2 Rumble and Contender, and EA didn’t succumb to the temptation of dumbing this game down. This is a game of planning and thought as much as it is a game of violent punching.
Since realistic gameplay was the strongpoint of the original Knockout Kings, the EA Sports development team instead concentrated on subtle changes to this department for Knockout Kings 2000. There are plenty of small changes, and they all work together to create a much better gameplay experience.
First, fighters now are rated from 1-100 in six categories: power, speed, heart, stamina, chin and cuts. Those categories are displayed when picking fighters, making it much easier to choose balanced fights. There were no ratings in Knockout Kings, so give credit to EA Sports for listening to gamers and fixing this oversight. And speaking of numbers, probably the most important addition to the gameplay is the display of a scorecard after each of the odd-numbered rounds. In Knockout Kings, no scorecards were displayed during the bout, so you never really knew how you were doing. The scorecards in Knockout Kings 2000 give players an idea of their performance during the bout. At the end of a fight that goes the distance, all three judges’ total scores are revealed. Sometimes the judges’ decision is different than the scorecard that’s shown between rounds during the fight, especially in close bouts. But that’s realistic: Just look how Lennox Lewis was robbed in his first fight with Evander Holyfield this year.
The AI of the computer fighters seems a bit better this year. Hurt or tired CPU fighters will either dance around, clinch or shove aggressive human fighters away until they recover. Fighters also use the same styles that they did in real life. For example, Muhammad Ali will dance around, looking for perfect spots to land his stinging jab. But Marvin Hagler and Jake LaMotta will bull forward, constantly on the attack in an effort to land big bombs. Very realistic.
There are only two flaws in gameplay, but they aren’t minor. First, the tips shown for each fighter during introductions seem abstract. There doesn’t seem to be really any specific tips or keys to winning the fight like those in Knockout Kings. Last year’s specific tips for each fighter helped many players avoid taking an early-round beating while figuring out their opponent’s style. Some may say that the feeling-out process necessary in this year’s game is realistic, but let’s face it: All boxers have scouted the style of their opponent and spend round after round before the big fight with sparring partners who use the same style. Better detail in the tips is essential, instead of abstract stuff like “Use the jab” and “Keep moving around the ring.”
The other, and most glaring, gameplay flaw comes when blocking punches. It’s very hard to tell whether you’ve blocked a punch because the glove appears to hit a fighter’s head or body even when it’s blocked. The only cue is the difference in sound, which is minimal, between a blocked and landed punch. Effective defense is vital in boxing, and this confusion must be streamlined and corrected in Knockout Kings 2001.
Longevity:EA Sports is producing deep, deep games this year, and Knockout Kings 2000 is no exception. This is very refreshing, considering that Knockout Kings had the depth of a mud puddle.
The impressive depth of this title starts with the boxer lineup. Fifty of the greatest fighters of all time are featured, 10 more than last year. Fighters include Muhammad Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson and others spread across three weight classes – heavyweight, middleweight and lightweight. EA Sports did a nice job of including fighters from various eras. Two notable omissions are Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson. Jones apparently was left out due to a licensing matter. Tyson? Well, it’s probably not smart business to include him at this point, but it would have been fun to have him in his game at the peak of his career in the late 1980s. Each boxer’s style is represented, and each has a repertoire of special punches that adds to the realism, such as Leonard’s famous bolo punch.
Players can also choose from one of nine arenas in the Exhibition and Slugfest modes. There are real venues, such as Caesar’s Palace and the Great Western Forum, and fictitious sweatboxes like the 4th Avenue Auditorium and the Meatpackers Union No. 440. In this era of pay-per-view spectaculars, it’s quite fun to put Oscar De La Hoya against Pernell Whittaker in the Meatpackers Union hall, for example.
There are four modes of play in this year’s game: Exhibition, Classic Fights, Slugfest and Career. Players can pick two boxers from the same weight class for a fight in the exhibition mode. Nine of the great bouts of all time, such as Ali-Frazier, Duran-Leonard and Marciano-Moore, can be replayed in the new and excellent Classic Fights mode. Details about each of the Classic Fights' real outcomes are provided in a nice historical touch. EA Sports should add more of these classic fights to Knockout Kings 2001, such the Dempsey-Firpo showdown or Louis-Schmelling. The slugfest mode caters to the Ready 2 Rumble or Contender crowd that wants a no-rules free-for-all in the ring. Since Knockout Kings 2000 is a true sim, it could be perceived that adding the Slugfest mode is a waste. But I found it a pleasant diversion for one reason: Fighters can be matched for a bout regardless of weight class. That’s right: The blubberous Butterbean can fight Danny “Little Red” Lopez, for example. It’s pretty fun to try and get a small, quick lightweight to beat a cumbersome, powerful heavyweight. Otherwise the Slugfest mode gets tiresome quickly.
But EA Sports deserves to wear the title belt for the revamped Career mode. It’s a huge step forward over the limited career setup in Knockout Kings. The idea of the Career mode is similar to that in the original game: Create a fighter in a certain weight class and move him through the top 20 contenders to get a title shot. But the similarities end there.
When creating a fighter, players can choose from a huge variety of skin, hair, trunks and glove colors. Players can choose a boxer’s body style, facial appearance and height and weight. They can choose one of many nicknames for their fighter. You then allocate an opening number of strength points in various categories for your fighter, such as power, heart, chin, cuts, speed, etc. But the biggest change is the decision to pick in which gym your fighter will train. There’s a gym in Japan, England, Germany and a handful of gyms in the United States. Each gym specializes in one category of training. It’s your choice. Then you train your boxer before and after each fight, picking specific drills that will concentrate on your fighter’s weaknesses. Once training is done, you have the option to participate in interactive training. The interactive training mode teaches players various punch combinations while increasing their ratings in the various skill categories. Interactive training also gives fighters the ability to use special punches. But if you don’t execute the moves as instructed by your trainer, then there’s no reward for interactive training. Players can skip interactive training, but they would be insane to do it. The mode is a nice tutorial of the game that offers plenty of benefit, especially the special punches.
Controls:Molasses-like control of fighters was the biggest flaw in the original Knockout Kings. Fighters simply responded too slowly to punch commands from the controller, and dancing in cement shoes was quicker than the ring movement displayed by boxers in the first edition of this series. EA Sports has made good strides toward improving the control of fighters in this game, but it still needs some work on the speed bag to get it just right.
Punch response from controller input is much faster this year. In fact, it’s very good. It’s not Tekken-like, but neither is boxing. The response is much more realistic this year. Props to EA Sports for responding to a major complaint from gamers about the original Knockout Kings. EA Sports had added more punches and punch combinations this year, and that’s a nice added boost of realism. But those new punches and combos come with a price tag – it’s not as simple to learn all the punches as it was in Knockout Kings. Many combinations are pulled off by hitting a shoulder button and then two, three or four front buttons in order. It’s not as tough to pull off as some wrestling or fighting game moves, but sometimes it takes too long to pull off some combos without catching a stiff punch in return. The new flurry button lets a fighter unleash a multi-punch combo, but their stamina meter sinks. I like the flurry button and use it just as much, if not more, as some of the complicated combo maneuvers.
While the ring movement is improved this year, it’s still too sluggish. When fighters are a few feet from their opponent, they move about the ring freely. But as soon as blows are exchanged, it’s very tough for a fighter to get away, even after a barrage from a foe is finished. This leads to an unrealistic amount of toe-to-toe slugging, even from fighters who box instead of brawl. Players are forced to brawl too much in an act of self-preservation when under attack because it’s just too hard to move around and escape. Anyone who watched the Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad fight earlier this year knows how important constant ring movement can be in boxing strategy, especially from a boxer-style fighter. Ring movement must have more polish and freedom in Knockout Kings 2001.
There are six camera angles, and in a surprising twist for EA Sports, half of them are useful: the default TV view, the side view and the close-up view. The sky, _ and shoulder views lack perspective and are pretty useless. Camera angles can only be adjusted during a fight. They can’t be adjusted from the options menu, which is stupid. All options should be able to be set from the options menu. That’s why they’re called options, right?
As in most EA Sports releases this year, this game can be tweaked to an option freak’s content. There are easy, normal and hard difficulty settings, with the difference between each level just right. Fights can last anywhere from one to 15 rounds, a great touch. Audio can be adjusted, and pre-fight introductions and referee instructions can be turned on or off. Keep the introductions and instructions on – they’re worth it and get you in the mood for a great bout. Many other bout options can be adjusted, too. Three controller configurations are offered. The first two simply rearrange the ring movement and punch blocking buttons to various places on the controller. The default setup felt most intuitive to me. Three’s also a one-button configuration, which doesn’t give the user access to various types of punches. Hit one punch button, you’ve hit them all. This very limited controller option is pretty useless. In a very nice touch, the help menu is always available by hitting L2. A question mark/L2 help icon appears on all menu screens to remind players of the easy help.
Dual Shock is very well represented in this game. The controller vibrates mildly when struck by a jab or body punch, and it vibrates wildly when a knockdown punch is landed. The interactive rise from a knockdown is new this year. Players must tap the X button rapidly when knocked down to attempt to get up. Slapping the X button until your fingerprint is rubbed away doesn’t always prevent a knockout, but the interactive stand-up feature is a nice wrinkle for the game.
It’s not advertised in any of the packaging, but players can use the left analog stick to move the fighter and the right analog stick to throw punches. Move the right stick up, and it will throw an uppercut just like the triangle button. Move it left, and it will throw a jab just like the square button. And so on. The analog mode is fairly sluggish, which is a shame. This game just begs for analog control of ring movement. I can live without analog punching, but Knockout Kings 2001 needs true, smooth analog ring movement. Ring movement is vital to many boxers’ success, and digital just doesn’t cut it these days.
Menus are very easy to navigate, but there is a bit of annoying lag when sifting through or choosing various options.
Graphics:After popping Knockout Kings into my PlayStation for graphical comparison, it’s hard to believe that only one year has elapsed between the release of the original and Knockout Kings 2000. The graphical improvement is nothing short of stunning.
I always thought that NBA Live 99 featured the most realistic face-wrap graphics that I’d seen in a sports game. Players actually looked like their real-life counterparts, except their cyber versions in NBA Live 99 were a little angular in some spots. The face-wrap technology in Knockout Kings 2000 is at an entirely higher level. It’s stunning. Every fighter looks true-to-life with rich, rounded textures and realistic scalp, facial and body hair. Their bodies show rippling muscles with very few rough edges. Fighters’ eyes even blink when entering the ring or resting in the corner between rounds. Their chests also heave up and down realistically while catching their breath in the corners or waiting for the decision of a fight. Players eyes swell more and more each round if they’re taking a beating. Cuts grow as they’re opened more by an opponent’s punches. Mouthpieces fly occasionally after hard punches, and a shower of sweat droplets rain from a fighter’s head after being hit with a hard punch. Red droplets splash from a fighter’s face when cut, and blood continues to splash when that cut is hit again and again. It’s not gory – it’s realistic. But it’s enough to cause the morality police to give this game a Teen rating. Silly. Knockout punches also cause a red starburst to appear near the stricken fighter’s head right after the punch lands, which can get confusing because it looks very similar to the graphic used when a fighter is cut. No biggie.
The realism also extends to the ring-card girls, who appear periodically between rounds during the fight. They are buxom and well proportioned, wearing just enough to stay within the boundaries of good taste. Well, when it comes to boxing, that is. Hey now! ‘Nuff said.
All boxer and ring graphics are more vivid and crisp in Knockout Kings 2000, especially compared to the flat, lifeless graphics of the original title. A fantastic addition is the entrance into the ring by each fighter. The fighter appears at the head of a pathway into the ring, gesturing to the crowd while theme music plays in the background. The fighter than walks toward the ring, saluting the crowd and slipping between the ropes to enter the ring. It would be nice to see more of an entourage escorting the fighter – a boxing staple – in Knockout Kings 2001. But it’s not essential if it slows down the smooth gameplay of this title or if the entourage includes Don King!
There are only two graphical weaknesses. First, almost every knockdown looks the same. A fighter is hit, turned sideways and falls on his face. EA Sports should implement other knockdowns in Knockout Kings 2001, such as fighters falling backward through the ropes, fighters falling to one knee, and fighters landing on their rear ends. It would add realism.
The crowd’s appearance is improved, but it still needs more work. The first three to four rows of the crowd are three-dimensional and look good. But it almost looks like the same front rows are used for every arena, whether it’s a 16,000-strong throng at Caesar’s Palace or a couple hundred at the Meatpackers Union No. 440. Then it looks like EA Sports simply pasted on two-dimensional backgrounds to match the venue. Some of those backgrounds are realistic, such as the hotel tower in the background and the EA Sports blimp flying overhead at Caesar’s. But the finished product still looks a bit hodgepodge.
Sound:Every fighter has a weak spot or ineffective punch. It’s no different with Knockout Kings 2000: Sound is the glass jaw of this game. It’s really the only consistently glaring weakness.
The first and major weakness in the sound department starts with play-by-play announcer Al Albert and commentator Sean “The Champ” O’Grady. Albert and O’Grady are dry and dull, reciting many of their same lines from Knockout Kings. Their intonation rarely changes during a fight, which is unrealistic. Their calls of punches often lag, but it’s hard to keep up when a fighter is throwing flurries or combinations. Sometimes their calls are just wrong. For example, Albert will claim that a fighter is trying to land the knockout blow when he’s only throwing a jab. O’Grady simply serves as a second play-by-play man, which is redundant. His job as an analyst should be to inform players what their fighter should do to win as well as what he has done already in the fight. O’Grady only lives in the past tense. EA must put a spark into Albert and have O’Grady offer more analysis, or they must be replaced. The outstanding tandem of Jim Lampley and George Foreman would be an excellent candidate for the announcing roles in Knockout Kings 2001.
The announcer in the slugfest mode is more over-the-top than Albert or O’Grady, uttering phrases like “This is war!” in excited tones. It’s appropriate for the arcade-like slugfest mode, but let’s hope that EA Sports doesn’t add that kind of carnival atmosphere to the exhibition mode announcing next year.
Jimmy Lennon Jr. returns as the ring announcer and again does a workmanlike job. It would have been great to hear the “Let’s get ready to rumble!” phrase unleashed by Michael Buffer, but his license was locked up by the developers of, you guessed it, Ready 2 Rumble. Lennon, however, does a good job. Mills Lane returns as the referee and does a good job informing fighters about possible fouls, performing the 10-count on knockdowns and giving pre-fight instructions to the boxers. Plus hearing him say, “Let’s get it on” at the start of each fight really adds to the mood and atmosphere. Lane may not officiate boxing matches any more, but he’s still the best-known, most charismatic ref. It was a smart move by EA Sports to keep him.
The actual punching sounds are excellent. You can hear fighters exhale through their mouthpieces with the usual “Pffh, pffh” sound when punches are thrown. Landed punches have a realistic thud and snap. Fighters grunt when hit with hard body shots or low blows. But there is no audio between rounds when fighters are in their corners. EA should add audio advice from corner men into the next edition of this game. It would add realism and enhance gameplay.
Crowd noise is very appropriate. Cheers ebb and flow as fighters land and miss punches. Big punches that connect will elicit more cheers from the crowd. Stretches of dancing by both fighters will cause a shower of boos. Very nice touch. Plus there’s a steady din throughout the fight. That’s very realistic, as anyone who has been to a living boxing match can tell you that it certainly doesn’t resemble the 17th green at Augusta.
The music is a mixed bag. I’m not a big rap fan, so the theme song “In the Game” by rapper O gets very old very quickly. And it’s played in more than just the opening screens, too. Ugh. Plus it’s just self-serving as hell of EA Sports to have the theme song of one of its games called “In the Game,” which is its advertising slogan. What does “In the Game” have to do with boxing? Nothing. It has everything to do with self-promotion. Lame. But there is one area where the music really hums – during each fighter’s entrance into the ring. Fighters are matched with a variety of different theme songs when they strut toward the ring. For example, mariachi music plays in the background when Mexican-American superstar Oscar De La Hoya enters the ring, 1950s’ rock-and-roll plays when Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta climbs through the ropes and heavy metal plays when Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini prepares for battle. It’s a great touch that really creates more atmosphere.
Overall:EA Sports has done a very commendable job with Knockout Kings 2000. The game is improved across the board and is a blast to play. Thankfully EA also stayed true to simulation roots with Knockout Kings 2000, refreshing considering the way its developers ruined NHL 2000 and FIFA 2000 with arcade-like gameplay.
Knockout Kings 2000 isn’t perfect. The sound, controls and gameplay need further refinement. But this game is a lot closer to being the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world than its predecessor.
And Knockout Kings 2000 is more than just a fun game that packs a powerful punch. It should be a very reassuring title to anyone who cares about console sports games. EA Sports so dominates the sports gaming industry that it can basically produce anything it wants and sell it. Take the mediocre but big-selling FIFA 2000, NHL 2000 and Triple Play 2000, for example. But the release of Knockout Kings 2000 proves that some development teams at EA Sports still care about producing realistic games and listen to gamers’ feedback when producing new versions of a series. Knockout Kings proves that EA Sports can produce a marketable yet realistic title, a trend that hopefully will continue.
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