Fight Night Round 3

This game was really good even though it was on a small screen the game play was not affected. It was a shame to have to send it back really so now i'll have to find one in the shops.

Very good graphics, but found it hard because you need to use too many buttons at once. Would be better on a larger screen/console.

As always with EA Sports Games there is a large variety of options, but the one you will probably want to get stuck into is the career mode. Here you can custom build your own boxer, and the options are truly staggering! You can select 1 of 6 weight divisions, a stance, a style, skin tone, a huge variety of hair styles, facial hair and even eyebrows, then customise the shape of your head with 15 different options, including 4 just for the size and shape of your nose! You can then allocate 25 extra points to your boxers skills, these include attributes such as power, speed, agility, chin, heart and so on.

When you’re finished, you can visit the fight store and kit him out with trunks, shoes, gloves, etc more of which are unlocked as you progress through the game. You start your career as an amateur, and before each fight you need to sign a contract, make sure you read the fine print, or you may commit yourself to extra fights not of your choosing! As an amateur, you usually only get a choice of 2 contracts, but when a pro, you can have up to 7 or 8 to choose from, and they will give you the opportunity to progress up the ranks of your chosen weight division, or sometimes just the chance to win some big money.

At this stage you will discover the slightly confusing system of button punching to throw your punches. But this is not as bad as some people make out, and the more you fight the better you get at it! (Also it is customisable, so can be made simpler).

During the fight there are 2 bars displayed across the top of the screen for each boxer, the top one gradually decreases with each blow the boxer receives, and when empty the next big punch puts him on his backside! Annoyingly they keep getting back up and it often takes 3 or 4 knockdowns before a KO is finally awarded! The lower bar is an energy level bar and this decreases as you throw your punches but quickly builds back up again as you take a breather, in longer fights the bar gets shorter as the fight goes on and so you boxer has less and less energy with which to work.

The training is perhaps the only disappointing part of the game, as you can't choose to train and improve specific areas, you can choose from 1 of 3 levels of training intensity and your attributes will go up (or down!) accordingly.

When you turn pro you can hire a trainer, and a cutman if you want, for a percentage of your fight fee, they appear in between each round of the fight and you have to follow a sliding target with the joystick to bring down the swelling on your face, whilst listening to a few words of wisdom from your trainer.

Before each fight you can hire extras such as entrance music, fireworks and a glamour girl all of which will increase your attributes, and increase your likelihood of getting back up after a knockdown, (and of course cost you money).

If all this is too much, you can simply play as a famous boxer and have a go at battering another famous boxer, or even try to recreate famous fights and make or even change history.

All in all I loved this game, and will be looking to get a copy of this myself as soon as possible, there are 3 levels of difficulty, so there should be a decent amount of gameplay in this.

If you like boxing then you should definitely give this a try.

This really is well thought out. There are lots of moves, styles and punches. However, it's not just bash, bash, there's defensive moves, avoiding the killer blow but working out how to land your own. Lots of strategy and very engrossing.

Only point worth mentioning is that I got this first on PS2 and that has a lot more in it. Theres more to training your boxer in between bouts, and you can get to work as the second, during the fight to patch up cuts and swellings in between rounds . It's more challenging , but that said , this is amazing for a carry-around version

Got the same title for PS3 and was interested in the differences. No 'in the ring' - through the boxers eyes but still a craking game! Works very well on the PSP and even includes a few bits the PS3 version does not - records for fastest KO, commentry as some nice touches. No training mini games but you can hire different combos (no pun!) for your entrance which help you get back off the floor. All in all the best there is at the moment for Portable boxing - enjoy !