Boxing greats George Foreman and Roy Jones Jr. highlight
HBO Boxing. Those two fighters are just a sample of the 35 boxing stars from today and yesterday that are provided. Others include Robinson, Camacho, La Motta, Duran, Hagler, Vargas, Tua, Grant and more! Also included but not to be forgotten are the women fighters like Mia St. John & Bridgett Riley, who are making their debut to the video game world. With both the men and women, you are capable of playing in a few different modes: Quickbout, Single Bout, and Pay-Per-View. With Quickbout and Single Bout, it basically is just an Exhibition between any two fighters. With Pay-Per-View, you can create your own TVKO Pay-Per-View from HBO with up to 16 boxers, where belts can be on the line to add to the excitement.
There is also a Career Mode, where you create a boxer, start him from the bottom, and work your way up the rankings. You can change his appearance, choose different boxing styles, weight classes, and even his nickname. The way to improve his Power, Stamina, Foot Speed, and Invincibility is by getting great trainers, which will cost some money (or points). After each match, you will receive points (more if you win and less if you lose). Between each fight, you take your boxer through workouts to help those features, and depending how good your trainers are, that's how good your workout will be. I didn't like this feature, because I like being in control of how good my workout is. Once you've fought your way to championship glory, you can retire your fighter, but that won't be for a while. Believe me.
The gameplay itself tries to stay true-to-life with fighter tendencies and styles, actual boxing venues in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and signature punches. The problem with my created fighter however was that I never got a real chance to use my signature punch since I was always on my backside. I was able to get my opponent to bleed every now and then, but no matter what fighting style I used, I was always getting knocked out.