Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360) > Reviews (7)

'** This review is also on dooyoo.co.uk by Honest-Dan**

Having owned the game since the day of release I can honestly say I still play this game to this day, there are so many great features within this game.

The graphics and likeness of each of the boxers is incredibly accurate from their appearance to each characteristic. The roster of boxers available is excellent with a huge selection of well known faces such as Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ricky Hatton and of course ''Iron'' Mike Tyson.

In my opinion the most important game feature within a boxing game has to be the career mode and in this case ''Legacy Mode''. This mode gives you the opportunity to fight with a real life boxer or a user created one, in your chosen weight division.
The great part about this mode is you start from scratch and progress as you take on more opponents, you can see and feel your fighter getting more powerful and quicker with each fight. This is achieved through doing the necessary training modes which adjust certain aspects of your boxer from hand speed to head and body movement, although these training modes are not straight forward and do require some skill to get the maximum attribute points available. There is the ability to skip training sessions, but this way you only acquire the minimum attribute points which does affect your fighter incredibly once you get higher in the ranks.

What is great about this game mode is the ability to import your created or downloaded boxers into your career mode. This is achieved by downloading user-created boxers online from the EA Sports community, this enables you to throw David Haye, Nikolai Valuev, the Klitschko brothers and loads more into your career mode which you will fight along the way to becoming champion.
Initially there was a slight bug upon release which is common among various games, the bug prevented you fighting against imported boxers in Legacy Mode, but thankfully this was fixed with a downloadable patch.

::: In the ring :::
In my opinion this has been massively improved since the previous version, fights feel more authentic and competitive, the boxer's animations from punches to ducking/swaying are smooth and incredibly realistic.
I feel the most impressive inclusion within fight is the uncertainty that you could get put on the mat at any moment, the power and stamina gauges/bars are there as a reference but it can only take one sweet punch and your fighter will go down, which is a fantastic moment if you're struggling throughout the fight.
Another great improvement is the way fighters go down, in the previous versions I felt the boxers were like puppets once they had been knocked out but this version has made it a more crisp and realistic animation.
The only downfall within the ring is the inclusion of illegal blows such as low blows and headbutts. I feel these are not necessary and should of been available as one of the options for the fight, as this tends to get exploited online which ruins the whole experience.

::: Online :::
The online mode is very good but it isn't without it's flaws, originally I couldn't wait to compete online for a World Championship and at the beginning I had some fantastic fights.
Unfortunately there are a few minor flaws regarding spam punching and with illegal blows, although fighting against a spam puncher isn't common you will come across an opponent who will literally throw the same punch over and over again completely eliminating your ability to fight back and ruining the fight.
But this shouldn't put you off this game as the pro's definately outweigh the cons.

::: Overall :::
This would get a 5 star if it wasn't for the unfortunate online issues, but I still regard this as a definate purchase in my eyes and the best boxing game I've ever played. Looking forward to the next installment.