Other times your blow will just kind of rub along the other fighter, as if the hit marker wasn’t there. Sometimes your fighter’s arm will bend the wrong way, as if he has an extra joint, against his opponents arm. These can range from mildly odd to both confusing and frustrating. On a purely gameplay level, things are mostly fine (once you have a vague grasp of the controls anyway), but there are some visual glitches that are more than a little annoying. This isn’t helped by some of the odd things that happen within the bouts themselves. Sure, it’s the sort of game that you can just pick up from time to time, but it also could be much more. Without giving you anything out-of-fight to focus on, and without offering much in the way of variety within the fights themselves, it won’t be long before you start feeling you’ve played too much. This really messes up the pacing of Real Boxing.
Except you won’t get as many upgrade points the second time around… This leaves you with only one option: keep playing for as long as you can stick it without much in the way of progress. Levelling your character is very important, as the opponents you’ll face level quickly and you might suddenly find yourself in need of going back over old fights. You can also buy these with in-game currency. “A company is very impressed with your last fight…”Īfter each bout you’ll earn upgrade points which will improve your skills somewhat.
One of my biggest disappointments is that there’s no real managing your career – even sponsorship feels like a vague afterthought, not unlike a Monopoly chance card. It’s never as close to a simulation as it would like to be. That could have probably been the tag line for Real Boxing. ‘Real’ Boxing might be a stretch, but it’s a nice approximation. Not having perfect control might matter if you want to become the number one player online, but for the career mode it’s more than passable. Combining the two will just about work, but hammering buttons is never too far away. The directional buttons require you to take your finger from the first analogue stick (used to move), and the second analogue stick has too much mapped to it to really be clean and tactical. Punches are mapped to both the directional/face buttons, and to the second analogue stick and neither is an ideal input. Without giving you anything out-of-fight to focus on, and without offering much in the way of variety within the fights themselves, it won't be long before you start feeling you've played too much The controls aren’t massively easy to get used to, and that initial bout will have you getting used to dodging, learning when to throw punches… Ready to RumbleĪlthough there’s a tutorial involved, your first fight will be something of a learning experience. Yes, at first glance, there seems very little to complain about. The fact that they actually become more bloodied as a fight progresses is impressive. The fighters, by and large, move realistically and seem decently built. The crowd are realistic, and not just a collection of copies (although that’s largely down to the great lighting, as opposed to anything special with the crowd itself).
Real Boxing has been made in Unreal 3, and it looks fantastic. There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount in the way of customization – you’re not going to be able to spend hours crafting a perfect likeness of yourself – but it doesn’t necessarily feel like there’s anything missing.įocus on visuals has gone into other areas. The creation of your character is done when you first start your career. Real Boxing has you create and train your very own boxer. With a sharp idea unavailable anywhere else on the Vita, you may be able to overlook the fairly constant shortcomings and see your boxer through to the final belt. Real Boxing is the first of its kind though, and is the sort of game you might not know you want until you see it. The Vita is a treasure trove of titles, offering more or less everything you might want to play within only a few taps of your grasp.