Fight Night Round 4

But Hayes was also adamant about changing one of the fundamental elements of gameplay in the Fight Night series: parries. Yup, they’re outta here. “In boxing, it’s hit and don’t get hit — it’s not hit and counter,” he says firmly. “If you ever meet Tyson and he throws a hook at your head, do not try to slap it out of the air! Make your opponent miss and then make him pay — that’s what boxing is about.” Kinda hard to argue with that, really.

Besides, even with those big puffy gloves on, blocking a ferocious punch is hardly a pain-free experience, so Round 4 requires more moving and leaning. Hayes is quick to add, though, that his team has also fixed the leaning exploit of Round 3. You can’t just tip your head to one side and never get tagged: your opponent’s punches will automatically retarget your skull’s new location, just as any real-life boxer who hadn’t been clubbed senseless would do. And if you camp on the Block button, you’ll start seeing punches squeak through the gaps in your gloves and realize it’s time to move your feet.

While all this focus on authenticity should make the core gameplay even richer, this series also needed to modernize its structure, and that’s where Legacy and World Championship modes come in. The first is the new career mode — picking from eight weight-class divisions, you start out a prospect and blaze through a career, trying to become the greatest of all time, rather than a has-been bum. A lot of factors determine your success: winning titles, unity belts, moving up in weight class, how accurate you are, your pound-for-pound status, and more. You can check out division rankings any time and schedule your bouts on an actual calendar — little stuff, but they’re also important details that the series has always lacked.

On Xbox Live, World Championship mode lets you fight for belts at the regional, national, and international levels. You’ll create your own boxer, but they’ll all be leveled as far as skill ratings go, “so you’ll fight based on skill,” as Hayes puts it. We got pretty decent at Round 3, but we have a feeling that Round 4 is going to send us back to school before we can claim to have skill again… and that’s the best news we’ve had in a while.

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