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Don King Presents: Prizefighter Review

12:59 PM - June 16, 2008 by RaychelSnr

We have just posted our review of Don King Presents: Prizefighter.

Don King Presents: Prizefighter screenshot gallery - Click to view

Game: Don King Presents: PrizefighterReader Score: 3.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: NDS / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 10 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 Complex @ 06/16/08 01:13 PM

A little generous in teh score, but over all the review hits home. Gameplay is very lacking.

# 2 fistofrage @ 06/16/08 01:19 PM

I pretty much agree with your comments. I gave the game about a 7, but I could see even giving this game a 5. In the end, I'll get 40+ hours of gameplay out of it so its not too bad. You nailed it though, the game is a little stiff, it can turn into button mashing if you don't learn all the controls, and the story mode has little or no replay value. On top of that only 5 created boxers really brings the game down. The atrocious scoring system may be one of my biggest complaints too.

I think it was a good 1st effort. If they fix some things and add a robust career mode, I would buy PF2 if they ever make it.

# 3 jpringle @ 06/16/08 01:28 PM

Now I never been a fan of boxing games on last gen or this gen(I did love Mike Tyson's Punch-Out & Ring King, but that was so long ago)so maybe my opinion shouldn't matter, but I must say the hit detection in this game is by far the worst I have seen in a boxing game. I was watching my cousin play it yesterday & he was loving it I was like "you are staggering him and ur barely touching him." I give this game a 2 out of 10. Stick with Fight Night. Its looks better & moves more smoothly.

# 4 BlyGilmore @ 06/16/08 03:19 PM

Stick with Fight Night ... at least until Facebreaker comes out ;-)

It certainly hasn't been a very good spring for 2K Sports critically, with both this and MLB 2k8 not exactly earning rave reviews.

What really concerns me is that both of these games seem to have been shipped no with "that's not a big deal" kind of problems and flaws but instead "that should never be allowed to happen" problems and flaws.

Like MLB 2k with the stuttering and frame rate issues and made the game very tough to play early on. And now a boxing game that apparently isn't good at knowing whether either boxer got hit or not.

As the saying goes, once is a fluke. Twice is a pattern.

# 5 BlyGilmore @ 06/16/08 03:31 PM

i think his complaint was mostly about when playing the computer in career mode ...

# 6 fistofrage @ 06/16/08 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcxiv


	I dont think you can even button mash in career mode. The cpu will knocked ya out quick. At least from my experiences. If you box smart and know how to throw combos you can take them all out fairly easy. I am only 18 matches into career mode with a 15-3 record and 9 knock outs.

I wonder if you lose a certain amount of fights if it will make you stop. I am 23-8-1 with 16 KO's. I have only been KO'd twice. There is one dude that will give you fits. I wish I could remember his name, but if you are 18 fights in, he'll come up quick. He wanted to fight toe to toe, but I moved that to the outside because he was lightning quick. When I moved to outside, he did too and he was still lightning quick. I lost to him twice on the third fight I caught him in the 9th and knocked him down and then finished him off with a liver shot for the TKO. I've had a couple guys beat me twice. Every fight is pretty much a challenge, although I destroyed that Silva clown 99-91 on all 3 cards.

# 7 JayBee74 @ 06/16/08 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thelwig14


	And of all my fights online, anyone who came out button mashed either got destroyed or immediately adjusted.

No, button mashing doesn't work-for one thing it will induce immediate fatigue and slow you to a crawl.

# 8 NINJAK2 @ 06/16/08 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayBee74


	No, button mashing doesn't work-for one thing it will induce immediate fatigue and slow you to a crawl.

I agree. This game has some issues with my main gripes being judging and collision detection (which you can argue are very important in a boxing sim). For some reason though I can't get enough of it as I really enjoy the pace of the fights, esp. multiplayer. I've played this way more than I did FN3. Good Review though. I'd give it a 7.5-8.0, even higher if those two issues were fixed.

# 9 jpringle @ 06/16/08 08:10 PM

I just can't believe they released this game with the hit detection as horrible as it is. I mean how you gonna get knocked downwhen the glove just barely hit ur chin & to make it worst they show the knock down in slow mo so you can see how bad the hitdetection is. Some1 at 2K needs to be reprimanded for let this flaw slip through.

# 10 Lakers 24 7 @ 06/16/08 08:51 PM

There are glitches, the hit detection is bad, the judging is bad, but the core gameplay is still the best on next gen consoles. That's if you're truely into boxing and understand the simulation aspects of it. As with mostly all of 2ks games, especially APF and now PF, they don't really cater to the casual fan. So, there's not much there if you don't care for having to setup combos, sticking and moving, establishing the jab, jabbing to the solar plex, working angles, etc etc

# 11 Lakers 24 7 @ 06/17/08 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metallicatz


	Why is it that some people always just assume that people who don't like a game as much as them "don't understand the sport"? You can only block up and down in PF, not side to side. There's nothing sim or pure about that. Supercharged signature punches from a charged adrenaline meter? There's nothing sim about that. As far as the playing the career mode, the animations are so bad that you can generally see which punches are coming from a mile away, which then enables you to simply and easily counter-punch your way to victory.....even on Champion difficulty. The AI is extremely predictable on every difficulty level as well. While the Step-in jab isn't as much of a money punch on Champion difficulty, you can still often catch your opponent near the ropes and land them in succession. I once counted 8 in a row on Champion difficulty......either that or the AI (on every level) will often counter being hit with the step-in jab with a signature punch from way out of range and all you have to do is time it to continue landing more step-in jabs. The regular jab is generally only effective in this game as a counter punch. My opinion, this is pretty far from a sim boxing experience. You can say what you will about the review scores from sites like IGN and Gamespot and claim the reviewers are "casual gamers that don't anything about boxing", which is an assumption based on wishful thinking more than anything, but when Operation Sports also gives it a subpar rating? At that point you gotta start facing reality. Something tells me that the guys who run this site are pretty into sports and sports games. And they ended up goving it the same exact review score I did on this board. If you like the game then that's cool, but don't try to tell other people they don't understand boxing because they don't like it near as much. After all, the Sweet Science isn't exactly Rocket Science.

I agree with you, like I've said many times now the single player just doesn't present the ideal boxing simulation. It has also been noted that not everything about the gameplay is sim, no game will ever be 100% sim. Also, with all due respect to everyone at OS, I don't think their review is the be all end all for rating sports games. We all have our own preferences which is the basis for our opinions.

# 12 JayBee74 @ 06/17/08 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metallicatz


	You can say what you will about the review scores from sites like IGN and Gamespot and claim the reviewers are "casual gamers that don't anything about boxing", which is an assumption based on wishful thinking more than anything, but when Operation Sports also gives it a subpar rating? At that point you gotta start facing reality.

What reality do I have to face? I guarantee you I have played the game a lot more than you and above mentioned reviewers. I doubt that you have put few minutes into the game online, so what's your purpose now-to endorse the reviewers? You say you're cool with other people liking this game-your words say otherwise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEWYORICAN


	Good review! and deserved score....I'm so looking forward to FN4...it can't get here any faster!

I'm still trying to figure out the giddiness for a game a year away.

# 13 JayBee74 @ 06/17/08 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NINJAK2


	I agree. This game has some issues with my main gripes being judging and collision detection (which you can argue are very important in a boxing sim). For some reason though I can't get enough of it as I really enjoy the pace of the fights, esp. multiplayer. I've played this way more than I did FN3. Good Review though. I'd give it a 7.5-8.0, even higher if those two issues were fixed.

I'm in your range, in big part to Xbox Live. I can't go higher because of the collision detection and I'd like a little more crispness with the combos. I totally disagree with the OS reviewer saying the negatives are button mashing and replay value. Try the game online (replay value) and try button mashing to win.

# 14 LP @ 06/17/08 05:07 AM

It seems to me that button mashing means nothing more than "no TPC." If you really think about it, you "mash buttons" in every game.

# 15 fistofrage @ 06/17/08 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayBee74


	I'm still trying to figure out the giddiness for a game a year away.

Didn't you already return Prizefighter?

. Its the hopes of an open career mode on Next Gen. I played through PF career mode and really enjoyed it, the only problem is that now its over, now what? I guess I go online. Buty I would have loved to play through a career with a few more weight classes.

# 16 JayBee74 @ 06/17/08 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fistofrage


	Didn't you already return Prizefighter? . Its the hopes of an open career mode on Next Gen. I played through PF career mode and really enjoyed it, the only problem is that now its over, now what? I guess I go online. Buty I would have loved to play through a career with a few more weight classes.

Nah, I was blitzed that night, thought I should have won a couple of fights that I got draws, and then made that stupid post. I usually refrain for posting in that state, but not that time.

# 17 CaptainZombie @ 06/17/08 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayBee74


	Nah, I was blitzed that night, thought I should have won a couple of fights that I got draws, and then made that stupid post. I usually refrain for posting in that state, but not that time.

It happens to all of us JayBee. The love/hate relationship that this game has is kind of crazy. There are times where I enjoy it and then there are times I sit back and certain things that I have mentioned drive me up a wall. I am in no way about the graphics, and the graphics here are fine. But the more I have been playing, the collision detection is driving me nuts considering when you play older boxing titles from 3-4 years ago and punches land so realistically, but here they don't look like they land properly. It wants me to pull out any remaining hair that I have on my head. The inconsistent AI as you progress through career. I could be walloping on a dude for 3 rounds straight, and all of a sudden they become Superman, even after rematches.

This not only goes with boxing titles, but this generation of gaming for sports has been just blah all around. Sports games don't have the proper representation of their career/franchise modes or they do and something else is broken. Look at SDvR08, the career mode is an abomination and it kills me that after so many releases in that franchise, how could they mess things up. Look at Fight Night 3, not a bad boxing title, but the career mode to me is just blah. They should have copied to the tee what they had with FN2 and said that they will do something even better with FN4. But then look at the lapse between FN3 and FN4, we are talking 3 years.

I have been playing more PS2 games on the PS3 the last month or so and have been getting some rather nice enjoyment.

I guess I can stop ranting/complaining about some of the gaming being an abomination this generation.

# 18 fistofrage @ 06/17/08 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candymanGT


	It happens to all of us JayBee. The love/hate relationship that this game has is kind of crazy. There are times where I enjoy it and then there are times I sit back and certain things that I have mentioned drive me up a wall. I am in no way about the graphics, and the graphics here are fine. But the more I have been playing, the collision detection is driving me nuts considering when you play older boxing titles from 3-4 years ago and punches land so realistically, but here they don't look like they land properly. It wants me to pull out any remaining hair that I have on my head. The inconsistent AI as you progress through career. I could be walloping on a dude for 3 rounds straight, and all of a sudden they become Superman, even after rematches. This not only goes with boxing titles, but this generation of gaming for sports has been just blah all around. Sports games don't have the proper representation of their career/franchise modes or they do and something else is broken. Look at SDvR08, the career mode is an abomination and it kills me that after so many releases in that franchise, how could they mess things up. Look at Fight Night 3, not a bad boxing title, but the career mode to me is just blah. They should have copied to the tee what they had with FN2 and said that they will do something even better with FN4. But then look at the lapse between FN3 and FN4, we are talking 3 years. I have been playing more PS2 games on the PS3 the last month or so and have been getting some rather nice enjoyment. I guess I can stop ranting/complaining about some of the gaming being an abomination this generation.

Preach on brother......Its sad that we still don't have a boxing game on the 360/PS3 that has rankings.....RANKINGS!?! Boxing is all about climbing the rankings, choosing your fights along the the way. My gosh, its sad, but games on the Sega Genesis had a better career mode than FNR3 and PF. PF's story was decent, but a short stroy mode makes a game a rnetal IMO. I will probably go online, but there are alot of fools on Xbox Live so I tend to enjoy single player better and PF has very little replay value in SP.

# 19 lasthour @ 06/18/08 09:29 PM

8th Round:

I've been downed twice....STILL SHOCKED.
I decided to relax and just go out fighting. We approach each other.

I start out with jabs to keep this guy off me. I then proceed to side step cross to his face whenever I see him leave it open. I take some hard shots and dance around the ring to get my head back right. The next thing I know I threw my guard down and hit him with some jabs and uppercut combos. I just watched his movements and ducked and dodged his punches never even trying to block. I was hitting him whenver I wanted to and then out of no where I was doing training routines on this guy. I believe it was a blackout cause all he was doing was getting hit and missing..........I did not even know I could do half of the things I was doing. When it was over I felt my(IRL) adrenaline had kicked in and the guy I was boxing was finished with 2 signature shots back to back. I WISHED HE GOT BACK UP!!

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Don King Presents: Prizefighter Review