Fight Night Champion – Review

Our rating:

By: Electronic Arts

Version #: 1.01.22

Date Released: 2011-03-15

Developer:

Price: 4.99

User Rating:

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EA Sports’ Fight Night series is undoubtedly the dominant boxing game series on the home formats. Its incredible graphics, wealth of famous boxers and brutal realism have made it a flagship title for EA. It was inevitable then, that they’d bring the series to the iPhone sooner rather than later.

The iPhone version of Fight Night Champion is, unsurprisingly, very different to its console counterparts. The roster is smaller, the game modes are fewer, and the graphics are blockier. Nevertheless, it utilises the iPhone’s touch-screen technology very well, making it a challenging but fun boxing game rather than a mere cash-in on a popular series.

Movement around the ring is performed by tilting your iPhone in the desired direction, which works OK, but needs to be re-calibrated fairly often. Punches, meanwhile, are cleverly pulled off using various swipes with your fingers. An upwards swipe, for instance, pulls off an uppercut, while a sideways swipe is a hook, tap the top left corner of the screen for a left straight, and the top right corner for a right straight. This system works very well, and a good planning of your combinations will reward you with fast-fisted flurries of punches.
 
The graphics in FNC are impressive. The modest handful of licensed boxers bear a good resemblance to their real-life counterparts, and they even have facial expressions; though these are mostly pained grimaces as the fighters absorb the punishment you dish out (or vice-versa). On top of that, sweat flies, blood sprays, and bruises burst; for a mere iPhone game, EA have paid plenty of attention to the little details.

Aside from one-on-one fights, there are also Legacy and multiplayer modes in FNC. While the multiplayer works smoothly, more effort could have been made to make the legacy mode for satisfying. In it, you create a boxer (or use a pre-existing licensed one) and fight random opponents until you get a title shot. The training between fights is simply a matter of picking easy, medium, or intense training, and hope for the best as the computer randomly generates what you got out of the session. The lack of depth in this area is disappointing.

Despite a lack of game modes, Fight Night Champion is the most entertaining (and toughest) boxing game on the iPhone. It’s not a game in which you can win by frantically swiping and smearing at your touch-screen, and you’ll need time to feel comfortable with its control scheme. With its challenging learning curve, good roster of boxers – past and present – and an enjoyable, if lightweight, legacy mode, FNC is the game to get for fans of the ‘sweet science.’

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