Even those who've never seen an uppercut up close should gravitate to the interface with ease.ĭig a little deeper, and you'll see it's all part of the developers' intentions while realistically inclined touches permeate the action, gameplay is pointedly slanted in favor of amusement over authenticity. Light touches produce small motions, with heavier presses producing more pronounced results. Staring at an adversary, you can bob and weave effortlessly, using the gamepad as a natural extension of your body. Luckily, Knockout Kings 2003 alleviates all our woes, having been blessed with an extremely workmanlike control scheme.

Ropes, rings, gloves, trunks, crowds the whole lot of objects and personalities populating each of the ten available arenas has a rather nice appearance, which gives them an endearing quality, even if it's the fighters themselves who'll command the majority of your attention and admiration.īut I'm like you - always dubious of a title whose looks could possibly outclass its gameplay. Animation quality is excellent too, as the roster of huge names (Ali, Frazier, etc.) attached to the game perform like their real-life counterparts, charging each other like raging bulls right out of the gate. Punches hit so hard you can feel them - it's that intense! Boxers sport a semi-unrealistic sheen (meant to be sweat, one can only assume), but other than that are quite natural looking. Still, emotional connections might work against sensitive types when combat gets underway. All the hours you've invested in your character won't be for naught - you'll actually grow attached to your little glass-jawed bugger as a result. Accept it as a small blessing that an equally robust career mode with a killer 'athlete creation' engine lets you design a mug and torso that fit the scenario. A perfectionist could waste days blowing through rematches simply to increase his or her stats, in fact. Starting off against simple opponents, Knockout Kings difficulty levels are subtly cranked upwards as fights are won, because as you go, attributes are rated and improved through performance rewards dished out according to just how well you cripple the competition.

Knockout kings 2003 roster