We are proud to present our interview with Kudo Tsunoda, Executive Producer of EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 2.

Kudo: Hey!! Thanks for letting me do this interview. Being a big sports gamer, I am a big fan of your site.

Operation Sports: Are you able to customize the gear of licensed fighters and/or created fighters in Exhibition fights?

Kudo: Fight Night Round 2 gives gamers the highest level of character customization available in any sports game. You can customize each piece of your boxer’s gear: shorts, shoes, gloves, mouthpiece, etc. You can take your customized characters in to any of our one or multiplayer gameplay modes.

Operation Sports: Do you have to unlock gear for each fighter or is unlocked gear available for every created fighter once unlocked?

Kudo: Once you unlock a piece of gear, it is unlocked globally across the game. Any Career mode boxer or created boxer can use them. You will still need to purchase them in Career mode but they are unlocked.

Operation Sports: Can bouts be stopped by the referee because of excessive cuts and/or bleeding?

Kudo: This is a feature we added for Fight Night Round 2. If the area around either of your eyes gets closed by swelling, or if you have a lot of blood flowing in that area, the referee will stop the fight. But if you are taking a pounding in the ring, don’t worry. In this year’s game, between rounds, instead of getting a non-interactive movie of your trainer yelling encouragement, you get to take control of your cutman and work to reduce the damage on your boxer’s face. So if your boxer has been hurt, patch him up and delay the stoppage for a round or two. Then go for the KO!

Operation Sports: Will each hand and punch have a separate power rating?

Kudo: In last year’s game, Total Punch Control gave gamers total analog control over their fists. This changed Fight Night’s gameplay from the mindless button mashing seen in all other boxing and fighting games and turned it in to skill based gameplay where control of your boxer is key. But one big flaw in last year’s game is that you could not in any way control the power or speed of any of your punches. For this year’s game, we have the EA Sports Haymaker that allows you to add extra power to your punches. To throw a regular right hook with the analog sticks you move the right analog stick to the right and then arc it forward to throw your punch. To throw an EA Sports Haymaker hook, you move the analog stick to the right, crank it back, and then arc it forward to throw the punch. The farther you crank the stick back the more powerful the punch. So you can control the power of your punches thrown with either hand.

Operation Sports: Will there be footwork or foot speed ratings or will everybody still able to dance around like Ali?

Kudo: :) Each boxer in the game has an agility rating which is their foot speed. The big difference for Fight Night Round 2 is that each weight class has ranges for each boxer rating. In last year’s game, you could max out any rating of any boxer in any weight class. So Heavyweights and Featherweights could both have an agility (foot speed) rating of (100). In this year’s game, each weight class has strengths and weaknesses. So the heavyweights cannot move as fast as featherweights but can hit a lot harder.

Operation Sports: Was reach something that was included in the game?

Kudo: Every boxer has a different reach based on their height and body type. The length of the boxer’s arms plays a big part in how easy it is to land punches. Especially as we increased the power and significance of jabs Fight Night Round 2.

Operation Sports: Did you consider or include a create a stance?

Kudo: Our Create a Champ feature allows you to customize not only the look and ratings of your boxer, but how you fight as well. You can choose different stances for your boxer, whether they fight orthodox or southpaw, and their signature punches.

Operation Sports: Can you create a boxer from a different country?

Kudo: Boxing is such a world wide sport. You can build boxers and will fight boxers from dozens of countries around the world.

Operation Sports: Are there more skin tones on the CAB system?

Kudo: The key expansion in this area was the variety we added within each skin tone. For Fight Night Round 2, our Create a Champ feature revolutionizes how you build your own character in a game. Instead of having to choose from pre-made body, head, and face features, in Fight Night Round 2, you can actually sculpt each of these features on your boxer using the analog sticks. You have the same control over building your in game model that our artists have building models in the development environment. This required greatly expanding the number of skin textures we used in our CAB system. Instead of just having one skin tone, you need to build individual skin textures for all the different body types as well as building more skin tones. So if you build a chubby character with a certain skin tone, his skin tone is not only correct but the skin actually looks a chubby person’s skin.

Operation Sports: Will you be able to edit how much body hair a CAB has?

Kudo: :) Not in this year’s game although I will put that on the wish list for next year!!! Total Body Hair Control!!!!

Operation Sports: Are there more hairstyles on the CAB system?

Kudo: Hair is a big part of getting your character’s look visually correct. We not only added a bunch more hair styles this year, but for Fight Night Round 2 all of the hair styles now animate as well.

Operation Sports: How many venues were included in the game?

Kudo: There are 3 types of venues in the game: Prospect Venues, Contender Venues, and Main Event Venues. In Fight Night Round 2, there are 10 venues overall.

Operation Sports: Will you be able to break your hands, ribs or have any other injuries during a fight?

Kudo: There are two main times you can get injured in Fight Night Round 2: in the ring, and during training. If you get injured during training, it will hamper your boxer’s abilities. In the ring, your boxer will swell and bleed during a fight. This affects your in the ring abilities as when your eye swells closed or has blood flowing in it, you cannot see punches coming as easily from that side. This means your ability to block and lean out of the way of punches is diminished as well.

Operation Sports: Will we be able to switch from orthodox to southpaw during a fight?

Kudo: Not during a fight no.

Operation Sports: Is there a "tale of the tape" before fights which includes height, weight, age, record, reach, etc.?

Kudo: You are able to see how you match up with any opponent or potential opponent before a fight. It shows all of their in game ratings allowing you to customize your training and fighting style to maximize advantages you have and avoid areas where your opponent can dominate you.

Operation Sports: Did you include breakable records such as quickest knockdown, most belts in different weight divisions, youngest champion ever in a weight class, oldest champ, etc.?

Kudo: There are records and awards you can earn all during career mode. These are both overall career records or outstanding performances in a single fight. Each of these achievements are recognized with a trophy or belt you can keep in your Trophy Case.

Operation Sports: Is the crowd more interactive this year? Are there people holding signs, flags, cheering for their favorite fighter, booing a close decision?

Kudo: The crowd is such a big part of boxing and we really wanted to bring that out in the game. First big improvement is having the crowd react to big moments in the fight a lot better than they did last year. Big punches, times when a boxer is in trouble, you will hear the crowd erupt, accentuating the moment. The crowd also gets in to the fight chanting boxers name, urging them on, pushing for the big KO!

Operation Sports: Will the computer retire and generate young up and coming fighters during a career mode?

Kudo: Our Career Mode is not just a linear experience based solely on what happens to the person playing the game. As you are scheduling fights and moving up the rankings, all of the other boxers are also fighting and progressing your career. Title belts are changing hands, there are big upsets, and new up and comers that are constantly moving up the rankings. As a computer controlled boxer loses fights or gets older, they will retire and new younger boxers will take their place.

Operation Sports: Did you add a boxing magazine?

Kudo: We did not add a boxing magazine, but for Fight Night Round 2 we added a sports ticker that keeps you updated with all the information and results going on in the world of Fight Night Round 2 boxing.

Operation Sports: Are fighters’ ratings editable, just in case we don't agree that Chris Bird is the greatest heavyweight ever?

Kudo: You can take any created or licensed boxer in to career mode and build their ratings however you would like. Although, Chris Byrd does kick some serious butt in real life. :)

Operation Sports: Will there be warnings and point reductions for low blows, head butts, clinching too often, etc.?

Kudo: Yes, each of these tactics can cost you points during a fight. Sometimes the ref catches you breaking the rules, sometimes they don’t. But if you do it repeatedly, you can lose points and possibly the fight.

Operation Sports: Is a fight stopped if you are injured during it, or do you have the choice to quit or keep fighting?

Kudo: Both of these are true. The fight can get stopped due to injuries and you can also “throw in the towel” at any time.

Operation Sports: Will we have the options to take legendary fighters out of a career mode?

Kudo: Any of the legendary fighters in the game you can play in any of our gameplay modes: Career, Hard Hits, My Gym, Play Now, or Online.

Operation Sports: The one thing that nobody ever mentions is the flurries. Boxers with fast hands should be able to do this in the game. In Fight Night 2004 you were able to pull them off with the combination of any two buttons. This couldn’t be achieved with the analog stick, only a few combos. Will they implement flurries in the new game?

Kudo: This is one of the big new features added to Fight Night Round 2. We have implemented some quick analog combos in to our controls allowing you to throw hooks and uppercuts in rapid succession if you have fast enough hands. You can now combo as fast using Total Punch Control as you can hitting the buttons.

Operation Sports: We would like to thank you for your time with this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

Kudo: Again, thanks for giving me the chance to do this interview. As big a jump in quality as we made from the old Knockout Kings to Fight Night 2004, we have made an even bigger jump in quality for Fight Night Round 2. On top of all the new gameplay features, we have the most realistic looking and acting characters in any sports game on any console. Our new AI system produces a much wider variety of fighter styles and can adapt on the fly with human-like intelligence and decision making. Fight Night Round 2 is a fun and addictive game for anybody who like sports, fighting games, or any kind of head to head – multiplayer competition. The game comes on PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube March 1st. Hope you have as much fun playing the game as we had making it!!!!