Don King Boxing

10 Review to this product

• 

  Superman
  October 8th, 2010 on 10:58 pm

  Rating

  I heard this game was going to be better than prize fighter, so I was highly anticipating it’s release; however, when I got the game and popped it in and started playing dissatisfaction followed. You can’t create your own boxer, you don’t have the option to choose to train or to go to a magazine photo shoot for a cover story. There isn’t much liberty in deciding your road to fame. You also don’t necessarily train as done in prizefight after every match. You can get out of story mode and choose to do so, but as far as training within, I have yet to have to do so. It’s hard to understand some of the video footage. It’s nowhere near the fun I thought, but still entertaining. I gave it a three because I bought it and don’t want to think that I bought a game that is only a 1 or 2 star, but that may be more fitting. Nonetheless it can be fun.
• 

  Eagle Vision
  October 9th, 2010 on 4:10 am

  Rating

  Don King Boxing is a solid boxing game. As you progress in your quest for more wins, you unlock boxers to fight in Classic Fights and get to use them in exhibition. The most notable boxers are Leon Sphinx, Joe Frasier, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano.

  There are four mini games to include jumping rope, heavy bag, speed bag, and focus mitts. 2 of the games use the X, Y, A, B buttons and the focus mitts and 2 use the stylus. As you beat tasks with the speed bag, jump rope, heavy bag and boxing mitts, you can add 10 points to 4 characteristics of your boxer – making him a formidable fighter. There is no way to add more points once you have performed the milestones of the different skills. This takes a lot of hand eye coordination and there is a pattern to the various tasks. The boxing mitts, heavy bag and speed bag are the easiest whereas jump rope requires multiple button pushes which are more challenging.

  The theme music is the same but catchy. On Career Mode, you get to hear the Rocky theme. Practice mode allows you to learn the basic movements around the ring, dodging, blocking, uppercuts, super moves, jabs, straight punches and combinations.

  This is a 1st person perspective where you visualize your gloves and face your opponent. Surprising, you have a lot of control to move around the ring (I try to corner my opponent as I pummel him with punches). You can adjust your level for easy, medium or hard. There is a learning curve to being able to box and block so use the practice mode. I highly recommend training your boxer for every opportunity to increase your attributes by 10 points.

  Graphics are good for a DS game. I was playing it on a DSi so I noticed none of the ‘slowdown’ in the heat of battle, as I have heard from some people. Everything is replicated to be pretty ‘realistic’ such as your coach saying how slow you punch, as you train. There is the introduction of your fighter, the start of the match when the boxers faceoff, and the sound of the bell. Even the detail from your round by round score is posted. As your boxer gets injured, he gets bruises on the face and body on the insert screen. It is odd that the bruises reset after someone is knocked down or when the next round is played. You don’t have to worry about blood, since there are no effects of blood splattering.

  One of the most interesting effects is when you get knocked down. Instead of rapidly pushing buttons, as you would on this games predecessors, you have to wipe off blood from the screen with your stylus (Very neat effect). As you are about to get knocked out (as I was the first 2 to 3 rounds), your screen turns red as your energy flashes; quite a nice touch.

  Gameplay is fun, whereby you navigate through the ring with the cursor pad, block with the L or R buttons and hit by tapping/sliding the stylus. Some have told me about the game slowing down but I didn’t notice that on my DSi.

  Career Mode lets you battle with one boxer. As you defeat each boxer, a green check mark appears next to the Ring’s name. There are no ‘rankings’ like in conventional boxing. As you win, you unlock the boxers you defeat and you unlock rings in which to fight (and unlock ‘classic boxers’ from the 30s, 70s and 40s, as stated above). What is not too realistic is your boxer fights in the lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight classes.

  This is a very entertaining game and it captures a lot of the essence of boxing from training to fight night to the fight percentages, at the conclusion of the match.

  Once you beat all of the boxers, you get to wear Golden Gloves, shorts and shoes. There is no ‘title belt’ or title defense. Replay is fun but there are a limited number of boxers to fight (you end up fighting the some of the same boxers in different fighting venues).

  PROS
  
  1st person perspective boxing
  
  Career mode
  
  Graphics
  
  Game controls

  CONS
  
  Limited customization of boxer (color of skin, color of gear, small tattoos)
  
  Limited number of boxers

  Great game. I really enjoyed it.
• 

  Lisa
  October 9th, 2010 on 8:43 am

  Rating

  After I bought the Wii and got hooked on Wii Sports Boxing, I began looking for a more realistic boxing game that was more challenging and expansive. Naturally, when I saw that 2K had hooked up with Don King for a game I was excited. I was really hoping for a game that would have the size and depth of EA Sports Fight Night, but would successfully integrate the Wii movement based controls creating a game that was both fun and a good fitness tool. Unfortunately, the game is just not what it could be. In career mode, the story and the training are not integrated. I think it would be better if training exercises were required in between fights to get ready. However, while training improves the user profile, it is not directly associated with the fighter in career mode. I was also disappointed that a lot of the greatest boxers of all time are no where to be found in the game. Naturally, they took the few guys who are still around that Don King seems to have a relationship with along with some classic fighers from the past. Still, no Ali, no Foreman, no Leonard. On the plus side, the fighting itself is far better than Wii Sports. The movement recognition is better and the fights are more challenging. You can’t just sway back and forth and punch when the other fighter misses. All in all, it’s a good game if you’re in it strictly for how bad you can beat down your friends or computer opponents, but it doesn’t reach the full potential of a Wii boxing game. Until EA Sports puts out Fight Night for the Wii, this is probably the best true boxing game out there.
• 

  Samuel Schwartz
  October 10th, 2010 on 5:56 pm

  Rating

  DK Boxing for the wii is pretty good. The reviews out there are pretty accurate. After that it’s a matter of taste so I recommend try before you buy.

  Pros
  
  Controls capture about 80% of the punches I want to throw. In contrast to wii boxing, the left jab is hard to effect, while the left uppercut and hook are much easier.
  
  Moderately Fun
  
  Historical Fights Bring Back Good Nostalgia

  Cons
  
  Depth perception is a problem
  
  Not clear when you hit and when you get hit
  
  The story mode of the kid was wasted on me.
  
  Training mode is repetitive. It would be better, and seemingly not so difficult, if the program constructed specific exercises based on previous performances.
  
  Tutorial seems to have some bugs where you get stuck
• 

  G. Wilson
  October 10th, 2010 on 8:06 pm

  Rating

  This game is so much fun, its the best boxing game i own, the graphics are just great, and i actually love playing it , you get a great workout that is so much fun you do not realize that you are getting in shape at the same time! It actually makes exercise FUN!!
• 

  still6345
  October 10th, 2010 on 11:32 pm

  Rating

  Only played a few minutes, but to this point the game is not that impressive. The balance board doesn’t add much to the game, and you can also play without it. It’s used for dodging and ducking, without it you just move the Wii Remotes. Somehow the Wii Sports Boxing feels more intuitive and you can just do a lot of punching rather than positioning. This game has basic punches jab, straight, and uppercut.

  Also, there are few recognizable name boxers in the game to start such as Joe Louis and Norton and you cannot create your own boxer. The story mode is all documentary video clips and on my tv they are a little grainy. The boxers during fighting look ok.

  Overall somewhere in the middle I think, but no where near a great game to get excited about, and reasonable to pass on if you so choose.
• 

  Lotte
  October 11th, 2010 on 6:10 am

  Rating

  This game was not as entertaining or fun as I thought it would be. It is more of a game you can play with a group of friends at a party…but not something that is going to keep your attention solo. I wouldn’t be missing anything if I did not have this game.
• 

  William Ferrell
  October 11th, 2010 on 8:28 pm

  Rating

  SUPER ! still WII remote hand movement is a tad off but faster and more accurate than most. Super calorie burner ! May sound fake but I use it as a pre-heavybag workout,I wear 12 oz gloves or wieghts and get my hands movin.Works GREAT I just won my division at the gator nats. !
  
  my beef is tht so far I havent figured out how to make the character that I build up via training to by my fighter , I always gotta use the pre-packaged fighters. Don is cool too with his played -out hairdoo !!
• 

  DVD Watch
  October 12th, 2010 on 10:33 am

  Rating

  Don King Boxing is a nice extension of Wii Sports. You pick a boxer to be and train as hard as you like to be successful. The gym where you train looks gritty enough and your trainers look like they were cast in a movie. But this game does make you work, even if you have to endure Don King a little. It’s a good boxing workout for anyone who wants a realistic atmosphere for boxing and not family oriented gameplay. One very big plus is the music — I don’t know of any other game where you can play with James Brown singing behind you. (Another song featured is the original version of “Harlem Shuffle,” a song I loved when the Rolling Stones did it. The original is even better.) Anyway, this is a very enjoyable game. Not the best workout, maybe, but one that will get you moving.
• 

  S. Dorsey
  October 12th, 2010 on 10:37 am

  Rating

  I usually stick to the playstation and PSP for playing games, but figured I’d try out the Nintendo DSi. There is no Fight Night title for the DSi, so I figured I’d check out this Don King boxing game. I’m surprised to find that the game is very fun to play. It has a few drawbacks, but otherwise, I would recommend you give it a try.

  The punch controls are great. The screen is split up in four sections and each section represents left and right head punches or left and right body punches. You tap the stylus in one of the four areas for a straight punch or jab, move it left to right for a hook, or up for an upper cut. I have found that the controls are not only easy, but pretty accurate as well. You use the L button to block. You can also use the directional buttons to move around the ring.

  What is good about the first person perspective on this game, is also what’s bad. When playing games on the Fight Night franchise, you see your boxer, the full body. This is a first person perspective where you are shown the angle of facing your opponent, and you can only see your gloves. The good thing is you can see your punches land easier. The bad thing is that you cannot see where you are being hit, so it’s harder to block or cover up. Also, because you only see the gloves, it appears a bit more sloppy because most of the time the gloves don’t even appear to be attached to any body at all, they are cut off before the elbows even. Yet, this does not make the game any less fun.

  I find the game challenging, and the more you practice your punches, the better you get. You could find yourself having hours and hours of fun with this game. You get to unlock different opponents in the game as you progress. The trainer tells you things between rounds via text on the top DS screen.

  The game is no Fight Night game, and it’s not perfect, but for the Nintendo DS or DSi, this is as good as it’s going to get right now. I have a lot of fun playing this game at 33 years old, and I’m sure you will too. Give it a try…it’s one of the best DS games I’ve played so far.