Overview

Artist Song Other games O In The Game O All-N-All O But They Can't O Rapid Fire Alien Fashion Show Crazy Moon Knockout Kings 2000 (known as Box. Knockout Kings 2000. All new music soundtrack sets the tone as boxers enter the ring, and new sound effects bring the grit of boxing to the user as he hears not only the blows landed by the.

Last year, when EA Sports ported their distinguished boxing simulation over to Sony's next-generation hardware, the level of anticipation among PS2 pugilists was extremely high' and for good reason. Like many of their other fine sports franchises, the Knockout Kings series has consistently offered gamers a compelling mix of solid graphics and high-octane action. With an impressive list of features, modes of play, and licensed fighters, it's no wonder that many gamers consider it to be the premier boxing video game.

Unfortunately, Knockout Kings 2001's debut on the PS2 was marred by extremely sluggish prizefighters and an awkward control scheme. As a result (to no one's surprise) the game received several unfavorable reviews that deemed it as a 'rent only.'? With this year's game, EA Sports attempts to redeem itself, and enters the ring with a brand new game engine. Among other things, this year's game boasts a radically new control system for faster, more- furious fighter control, all-new boxer animations including stumbles, knockdowns, and signature moves, eight different boxing venues, and of course, a sweet stable of legendary fighters from the past and present. But does it have enough to go the distance? Well, get to yer corner and sit on yer stool, fool! Round one comin' up' ding!

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

From the main menu, you can get into the ring in Play Now Mode (Quick Start), select an advanced game mode, or adjust the game's rules and options. Game modes include Exhibition, Tournament, and Career. Exhibition Mode is a one-fight affair for one or two players. In Tournament Mode, you'll take on a full slate of boxers in a single-elimination tournament. In Career Mode, you'll start fresh from the ground up and take on all comers, in an attempt to become the next great champion. The game features a total of 45 boxers'21 real fighters and 24 fictional ones'which are divided into three different weight classes. You can choose from among any boxer featured in Knockout Kings 2002, or create one of your own. At the Create-Boxer screen, you'll first select a nickname and weight class for your fighter. Next, you'll select your fighter's physical characteristics, such as height, weight, reach, and damage. You must then disperse your 'Points Reserve'? in order to delineate your fighter's skills in the attribute categories of Power, Speed, Stamina, Chin, Heart, and Cuts. In the beginning of your career, you'll start off at the bottom of the Fighter Pyramid. As you progress through a predetermined number of fighters at each level, you'll move up the pyramid, with an eventual shot at the championship. Along the way, you'll earn additional reserve points to increase your fighter's skills, but be careful! If you lose three fights in a row before you win the championship belt, your days as a boxer are history. And if you do manage to become the champion, you must defend your title'suffer three loses in a row, and you'll be forced into early retirement.

At some point, you'll inevitably find yourself standing in the middle of the ring with your opponent staring you down. It's time to don the gloves, and get to brawlin'. Lucky for you, the developers have reworked the control scheme to now offer much more responsive and fluid control of your fighter. The sluggishness from last year is a thing of the past, as this year's fighters stick and run with a whole new sense of speed and purpose. The PS2's four basic controller buttons are used to execute the basics punches, which include hooks, jabs, crosses, and overhand rights. The other controller buttons are assigned to the more advanced moves, which include uppercuts, blocks, taunts, and a multitude of special moves and illegal punches. The pressure-sensitive left analog stick is used to maneuver your boxer. With a full move of the analog stick, your boxer will move left and right, and back and forth around the ring. Attack your opponent, back away, or circle around in an effort to corner him. Once you're in tight, a slight move of the analog stick will adjust you boxer's upper body. Avoid your opponent's blows by ducking, crouching, leaning back, and bobbing left and right. Then go on the offensive and knock him out! The beauty of this control scheme is that it allows you to move and throw punches at the same time. The control mechanics work and work well, however, I do have one minor complaint in regard to the block button. A press of the block button will protect your fighter for only a split second (unlike last year's game, which allowed you to hold down the block button to cover up indefinitely). As a result, far too often blocking becomes cumbersome and ineffective, eventually forcing you to go on the offensive for almost the entire fight. Make no mistake about it; most, if not all fights are slugfests. Read on.

Knockout Kings 2002 features decent AI, which will keep you on your toes throughout each fight. On the easiest difficulty setting, CPU boxers will not offer much of a test of your fighting skills. However, as you move up the difficulty ladder, the challenge becomes greater. On the hardest difficulty setting, CPU boxers tend to block and evade most of your punches and fight with a distinct level of smarts. They'll pick up on your moves in the early rounds, and adjust and counter later on in the fight.

No question, the game is not for the feint of heart. The action is always fast and furious, thus making it more of an arcade experience than a full-fledged boxing simulation. A quick look at the final stats after most fights yields an unrealistic number of punches thrown and landed. I would have preferred a game engine that offered a more realistic pace than what we have here. Nonetheless, the game is fun to play, offers a stiff challenge, and delivers a decent replay value.

Graphics

Without argument, the graphics in the game are good'very good. Fighter models are depicted with clean and detailed textures. And while the physical appearance of each boxer may be somewhat exaggerated with arms, legs, and torsos bulging with layer upon layer of muscles, the effect is cool and the message is loud and clear'these warriors mean business! For the most part, the fighters' facial features bear a reasonable likeness to their real-life counterparts. And as you progress through each fight, an assortment of damage effects, such as swollen eyes, cuts, bruises and contusions will clearly indicate when your fighter (or opponent) is takin' a beating.

The biggest improvement to this year's game comes in the form of highly impressive motion-captured animations, which bring a whole new level of interaction and realism to the ring. With the addition of all-new hand animations and motion blending techniques, the boxers exhibit extremely fluid movements. They'll punch, sway, bob, and weave with the same speed and agility of their real-life counterparts without any noticeable slowdown. And when a fighter is about to take a dive, he'll wobble, stagger, and stumble before his ultimate crash to the canvas. Furthermore, you'll also find new facial animations that display a host of facial contortions brought on by a series of lethal blows and devastating combos. The game also features impressive visuals of each of the fighting venues. Ringside textures are clean, colorful, and highly detailed. The fans in the stands are reasonably detailed and offer an assortment of animated reactions to the fight at hand.

Continuing the trend in EA Sports' most recent lineup of sports software, Knockout Kings 2002 offers an impressive selection of slow-motion cinematic sequences, which go a long way in capturing the brutality of the sport of boxing. You'll witness that fierce knockout punch, up close and personal. As you lie on the canvas, you'll be treated to a hazy first person view of the referee who'll begin his count as you attempt to clear the cobwebs (Get up, fool!). Much like the game play itself, the visual effects are a bit over the top' but cool nonetheless. Although several camera views are at your disposal, the default camera offers an excellent view of the action at all times.

Audio

While the sound effects in the game are adequate, they certainly don't do anything to broaden the value of the game-play experience. The one exception is when the ringside combatants make contact. Landed punches reverberate with exaggerated whacks and thuds, making it all the more enjoyable to knock your opponent silly. Otherwise, the music and crowd effects are strictly ho-hum.

The game's commentary, handled by Larry Michael and Max Kellerman, is somewhat improved over last year's effort, but it's still a far cry from what it should be. On the whole, the announcers do a better job of keeping up with the action, but they use the same tired phrases over and over. Furthermore, during the actual fight, they don't make reference to a fighter by name as often as I would like. As a result, during several heated exchanges you'll hear, 'He's in trouble now'?. Uh, exactly 'who' is in trouble, here

Bottom Line

When all is said and done, Knockout Kings 2002 represents a substantial improvement over last year's game. The graphics and animation have been overhauled to near perfection. Subtle improvements in the audio department include ringside commentary that does a better job of callin' the action (much better than last year, anyway!). Most importantly, last year's control scheme has been reworked to now offer extremely responsive and fluid control of your fighters. Are the fights realistic? Well, not really. Let's face it folks, this game is boxing on steroids. If you're a diehard boxing fan who demands a more realistic pace to your fights, you may be a bit disappointed. However, if you like your action fast and furious, you won't find a better game in which to practice your penchant for passionate pugilism.

We had the opportunity to contact Associate Producer, Erik Wahlberg, and ask a few questions about EA Sports' latest incarnation of Knockout Kings on the PlayStation. Here's what he had to say:

Please explain your title and level of involvement in developing Knockout Kings 2000?

I am the Associate Producer for the PlayStation version of Knockout Kings 2000. Although I have several roles in the position, my main contribution was game design and day-to-day interface with the development team to ensure the game met our schedule and quality standards. The development team, by the way, is internal this year, and they are fantastic. That makes my job that much easier, and is one of the main reasons Knockout Kings 2000 turned out so well.

I was pretty surprised to learn that the PSX version was conceptually different from the N64 version. You have to admit that it's rare for publishers to finance two separate games baring the same name (since porting is usually the norm), so why did it happen and what was the reasoning behind that?

That's a good question and I'm glad you asked, Chi. Looking at the N64 demographics, EA decided to go for an easy-to-play, arcade-like experience for that version. The PSX players tend to be more of our typical 'EA SPORTS fan' type, so the PSX was more sim-focused. Which is fine for me, because I am a big fan of boxing and I've always wanted to help deliver the kind of boxing game EA SPORTS fans would want.

Were any actual boxers or boxing experts consulted at any point during development?

Yes. Ex-lightweight champion and current boxing analyst Sean O' Grady was used in the motion-capture this year. Gears 5 wallpaper. We also used some motion-capture from last year that was done by Shane Mosely, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya. We also worked with boxing writers to ensure accurate biographies and statistics for the fighters in Knockout Kings 2000. To ensure authenticity in portraying the licensed fighters (proper signature moves, taunts, power ratings etc.), we worked with an ex-boxer (and boxing historian) named Mike Bazzel. We also reviewed many fight tapes and accessed many written documents on the fighters. Escape whisper valley big fish games 2.

KK2000 musically, has a hip-hop tone. Why was that decision made? And tell us about the rap artists involved with the project.

EA has some great contacts in the music industry, and Hollywood records provided a lot of music for us, including the original 'In the Game' song by new artist 'O'. The song, and video, are in Knockout Kings 2000, and I'm happy to say the song is in the top ten on the rap charts. Randy Eckhardt, who works in the production group, also got us some other licensed and original music for the game. Randy even managed to get us an original tune 'Knockout' by Mix Master Mike. As for direction, we all agreed that rap was a good direction as it felt was a good fit and the response has been good so far. A funny story about 'O'; He came to one of our company meeting last week and I told him I'd heard his song so many times I had it memorized. He said 'OK, hit me with it.' So, I started rapping, and I use the term loosely, but he thought it was great and he started rapping along with me! It was pretty funny. Good thing no one got that on videotape!

Boxing is notorious for having some of the biggest egos in professional sports. Were there any particular boxers who were overly concerned about their digital representation and wanted hands-on-control? Did any one of the licensed boxers make any strange requests?

The boxers were actually a pleasure to work with. Most of them were really pumped to be in the game and be associated with EA SPORTS. For example, Shane Mosely wears the EA logo on his trunks during fights and Lennox Lewis showed up on the Tonight Show wearing a Knockout Kings 2000 jacket, just because they like the game and wanted too! Oh, and we do need to get Ali's sign-off for how he looks in our game, but he hasn't had any complaints yet.

High profile names like Mike Tyson, Prince Nasim and George Foreman aren't in the game. Please explain why they couldn't be included.

We went to great lengths to sign the very best boxers of yesterday and today. Time, money, and other influences affected who we did and didn't sign. I am pretty proud of the line-up, though. In addition to last year's fighters, we added Joe Frazier; the best boxer of all-time Sugar Ray Robinson; Julio Caesar Chavez; and more.

I would like to think that those boxers would want their names in what is the most comprehensive boxing videogame ever and alongside ring legends like Dempsy, Marciano and Ali. Was it frustrating to have such this impressive lineup of boxers and then come up short for those one or two high profile names?

Unlike a sports license, like the NFL, we couldn't just sign the boxer's as a group. We had to deal with dozens of agents from all over the world, and we had to track down some of the families of the deceased boxers. All this with a very tight deadline as the game was being developed. As I said before, I'm proud of the line-up we have.

I was laughed my butt off when I found out Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs and Marlon Wayans from the WB Network is actually in the game. So what's the story behind that?

EA has a great cross-promotion deal with a great clothing company, Ecko. Wayans, Duncan, and the other celebs are actually in Ecko's ad campaign, and in the ads you will see, say, Q-Tip, and the Ecko ad will note 'Play as Q-Tip in EA's Knockout Kings 2000 for the PlayStation by going to Career Mode and spelling his name'. Something like that, anyway. I saw a funny post by a consumer who thanked us for putting Duncan in the game so he could beat him but for beating his 'beloved Knicks'. He went on to ask if we could put his boss in the game so he could beat him up, too!

If Mike Tyson was in the game and be honest, would there be an 'ear chomp' attack? 🙂

Probably not specific to Tyson; his camp probably wouldn't like that. If you haven't found this year's hidden illegal move, press all four face buttons (x, square, etc) during game play and see what you get!

Thank you for your time. As we close this interview, is there anything else you would like to mention to the gaming public about yourselves and Knockout Kings 2000?

The franchise is only going to get better. With a great internal development team, strong upper management, and a dedicated production team, Knockout Kings 2000 will stay well ahead of the competition and give gamers what they want, and then some. I, for one, feel both excited and lucky to be working on such a great game with such talented people. Thanks for the opportunity.

Chi Kong Lui

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