Fight Night Champion News Post

What If You Could Float Like a Butterfly in Fight Night?

10:05 PM - January 22, 2011 by RaychelSnr

It’s Fight Night. I’m dodging and weaving, eyes focused on the heart of my opponent. The right cross is thrown. I dig my soles into the canvas and parry with the left. He’s moving to the inside, his stance strong as his feet swiftly shuffle forward. Jabs, crosses and uppercuts smash leather on leather as I cover up. I’m shook, and all I can do is grasp to hold on.

My controls don’t allow me to circle out and survive past round four.

Having a strong, evasive defense creates champions. Ali in his prime, and Mayweather Jr. are true students of the sport. These champions are authors of untouchable footwork.

Read More - What If You Could Float Like a Butterfly in Fight Night?

Game: Fight Night ChampionReader Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 17 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 Sausage @ 01/22/11 10:55 PM

Nice write up. Hopefully they tweaked it some more since the community day input from guys like Phobia. Good stamina system (I hope) + footwork = magic. Currently it will just be a good boxing with more phone booth exchanges than "The Sweet Science".

# 2 JayBee74 @ 01/23/11 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMChrisS


	It’s Fight Night. I’m dodging and weaving, eyes focused on the heart of my opponent. The right cross is thrown. I dig my soles into the canvas and parry with the left. He’s moving to the inside, his stance strong as his feet swiftly shuffle forward. Jabs, crosses and uppercuts smash leather on leather as I cover up. I’m shook, and all I can do is grasp to hold on. My controls don’t allow me to circle out and survive past round four. Having a strong, evasive defense creates champions. Ali in his prime, and Mayweather Jr. are true students of the sport. These champions are authors of untouchable footwork. Read More - What If You Could Float Like a Butterfly in Fight Night?

And then the other side of the equation. What happens to the balance of power between the boxer and the slugger? I would love to see footwork perfected. But it's perfection is a very slippery slope.

# 3 jjsmitty34 @ 01/23/11 09:52 AM

I'd love to be able to work the fighter in and out with ease if they have the footwork speed, as of now it feels like your fighing in sand/mud..

# 4 BezO @ 01/23/11 11:28 AM

I'm digging it. A defensive modifyer would be cool, allowing for some dynamic defensive moves. This needs to be in addition to better, quicker general footwork, which should be analog... more pressure, quicker movement, less pressure, slower movement.

And we definitely need more angles. Circle & back is not nearly enough.

IMO, this game is stuck in the last generation, less graphics, until this is addressed.

# 5 BQ32 @ 01/24/11 12:25 PM

Not to discredit your post but if any of you tried to catch me in a match online when I wanted to box and move it would be very frustrating for you. If the footwork were ajusted to be more powerful then players with great movement and counter tactics would have a large advantage. And you absolutely can step to the side as a counter tactic which actually can be much more effective then going straight back because the game does not alwasy allow for a straight step back. The game can be mastered for people wanting to box first and brawl second and those types of playeres at the highest skill are usually the most difficult to defeat. I would love to see realistic fluid footwork but it also has to be countered by an in fighters ability to close distance enough to be effective ( I would love to use mike tyson against the best players but currently you are at a huge disadvantage). The lunge in punch animation I have seen looks like a good start, and if less punches land as in actual boxing but do much more damage when they do then it could help balance out the boxer vs infighter delema. Also with the movement being worn down by damage accumulation and body blows then the pressure fighters can get outboxed early but wear there opponants down through the course of the fight. Just my thoughts anyway.

# 6 BezO @ 01/24/11 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BQ32


	Not to discredit your post but if any of you tried to catch me in a match online when I wanted to box and move it would be very frustrating for you.

Maybe because the footwork is broken for evading AND stalking? Sounds like you've learned how to work around it while evading.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BQ32


	If the footwork were ajusted to be more powerful then players with great movement and counter tactics would have a large advantage.

They'd have the advantages they had in real life. Good stalkers would have their set of advantages as well.

FN doesn't represent ring generalship, period, evading or cutting off the ring.

Same issue I see in Madden. You can get realistic results, but the process will look nothing like it does in real life.

# 7 JayBee74 @ 01/24/11 01:31 PM

Yeah, MMChrisS's post talks about Mayweather and Ali dancing out of trouble, but footwork has to be a usable asset for a power puncher as well. Positioning themselves properly for that perfect power shot is part of the footwork game.
Even if you have Rocky Marciano rated a "7" at footwork and Ali a "10", you should still have some stick skill leeway to get Rock into position to cut the ring off or set up the right cross.

# 8 acarrero @ 01/24/11 02:45 PM

Footwork is definitely improve-able in this series. I can use it to evade just enough in FN4 (post-patch), but I worry that it will again be a weakness of the gameplay, leading to a lot of phone booth fights indeed. As long as it's at least as good as FN4's footwork post-patch, then it will be ok. But the series is due for a serious improvement in footwork.

# 9 Vast @ 01/24/11 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayBee74


	And then the other side of the equation. What happens to the balance of power between the boxer and the slugger? I would love to see footwork perfected. But it's perfection is a very slippery slope.

Its not a slippery slope. Increase the footwork ability, and increase the power of flush shots landed. Give the slugger the abilitiy to drop you with one punch and make the boxer have to land a succession of punches to get the knockdown.

Slower boxers/sluggers have to learn to cut the ring off; to be effective against elusive outside fighters.

Tyson was an animal because he was soo damn fast. His footwork was great. He would use it to get inside in a flash on much taller fighters. Extremely rare for a slugger.

Great write up OP. I agree with everything you've stated.

# 10 acarrero @ 01/24/11 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayBee74


	Yeah, MMChrisS's post talks about Mayweather and Ali dancing out of trouble, but footwork has to be a usable asset for a power puncher as well. Positioning themselves properly for that perfect power shot is part of the footwork game. Even if you have Rocky Marciano rated a "7" at footwork and Ali a "10", you should still have some stick skill leeway to get Rock into position to cut the ring off or set up the right cross.

I think that is already in the game. If you saw the Hagler-Hearns video, Hagler won because he was landing all these lunging punches, where he would step up and punch, as opposed to Hearns who was just standing back. thos ehave to be timed and you have to sue footwork. Footwork mattered in FN4 as well (post-patch), a lot of the best boxers I fought online (not spammers) would take a step back to make me miss and then step fwd to counter. So while I like this article, and I think there is room for improving the footwork, let's not exaggerate the quality of the footwork in this game. It was a factor in FN4 and I am hoping it will take another step with FNC.

# 11 Vast @ 01/24/11 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acarrero


	I think that is already in the game. If you saw the Hagler-Hearns video, Hagler won because he was landing all these lunging punches, where he would step up and punch, as opposed to Hearns who was just standing back. thos ehave to be timed and you have to sue footwork. Footwork mattered in FN4 as well (post-patch), a lot of the best boxers I fought online (not spammers) would take a step back to make me miss and then step fwd to counter. So while I like this article, and I think there is room for improving the footwork, let's not exaggerate the quality of the footwork in this game. It was a factor in FN4 and I am hoping it will take another step with FNC.

If they made the step back move more effective (ie. a jump back move) then that would be enough to satisfy me.

# 12 JayBee74 @ 01/24/11 09:51 PM

We should find out more February 1st, particularly with Ali-Tyson.

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What If You Could Float Like a Butterfly in Fight Night?