| Knockout Kings 2001 The Kings of the ring all join up minus a couple for a showdown of the best boxers past and presant.Muhamed Ali vs Leneox Lewis?, yes completly impossible in real life but the PS2 makes dreams come true in this stylish boxing sim. Game modes range from exhibition matches, long drawn out career mode to the arcade style slugfest action. Lets start with the slugfest mode, basically this is more aimed at the arcade beat em up fans, blows seem to land much harder and blood is spilled much easier, it's also slighly faster, it is an enjoyable mode if you just want to cut straight to the action. The career mode is the most difficult of all the modes, it requires you to make your own boxer with sadly only a few shorts and gloves designs, set the boxers stats up and then fight your way up the rankings, simple? I don't think so. Career requires a certain amount of training time down at your chosen gym, there you will learn all the hints and tips at becoming a true knockout king and will also gain points to build your boxers stats up, until he is nothing more then a killing machine. Sadly the career mode can become quite repetitve with samey training and also you will find yourself going up and down the ranks, paitence is needed that is for certain. Fantasy Fights allow you to stage some fights that never happend. That just leaves the two player mode, which I can say can become rather intresting if you both keep your defence up more about this later. The graphics are amazing but sadly flawed in some places... The boxers all look brilliant, and move swiftly and realisticly round the rings, its just a shame about those horrible looking crowds, they just look so out of place, and so flat. What would happen if you got punched in the face loads? er bleed of course, yes the boxers bleed, and it has never looked better then this, eye gashes open, cheeks swell and noses make satisfying crunching noises, some punches splatter blood, wow it all looks so good in the ring, just don't look at the crowd as I said earlier. The glove to glove action is some of the most exciting fighting action ever seen in a boxing game, as I said earlier two player fights can be glorious to watch and play if you use the right type of tactics, blocking and dodging etc... Like the real sport, KOK2001 requires defensive movement to keep on your feet, without it, it is just another beat em up minus all the special moves. KOK2001 is a great spectacle and more importantly a great game, it contains loads of famous boxing legends and some great fights, the best boxing game I have ever played is all there is left to say!Chris Wigham 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |