Sometimes, you just need someone to box. And while the laws of humanity (at least in the U.S.) forbid you from randomly fighting someone in the street, there is an alternative: Fight Night: Round 2. And it’s a true bell-ringer.

It starts with the graphics. Each boxer, real or fake, is personalized in their own way. This is with hair styles, muscle definition, or even tattoos. Along with that, the animations during the fights are splendid. Jabs, uppercuts, haymakers... they all seem to be the real deal. Plus, I didn’t see any collision-detection flaws, just good clean boxing.

Of course, the best part of Round 2 is hurting your opponent. After several rounds, there’s a good chance either you or your challenger will show the effects of several blows to the face. It could either be swelled up like a balloon, or you could have blood running down your face from a cut. Either way, you see the difference in the boxer’s face, showing you where you should focus your punches (or where you should protect yourself).

Meantime, the boxing venues look just as cool. EA used a blurring technique behind the boxers, creating the effect of bright lights on the big stage. And don’t forget about the entrances. With the use of pyrotechnics and other stuff, you feel like you’re ringside.

Fight Night: Round 2 features a single-man commentary that calls a great match. A couple of the lines may get a bit repetitive after you play the game for a while, but regardless, it’s nearly flawless. Another helpful audio feature is between the rounds. Your trainer tells you how you’re doing in the fight, what to do better, where to attack... he evens tells you where to heal the swelling or cuts. Those wounds, of course, are created by the thunderous blows during the fight, which just sound awesome.

I missed the inaugural Fight Night 2004 last year, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Round 2 after years of playing the Knockout Kings series. Like a jab to the mouth, I was completely shocked with the gameplay. Much of the fighting is like the previous series, only better. Bobbing and weaving seem to be more realistic, as do counterpunches and haymakers.

Fight Night: Round 2 doesn’t offer much in terms of different game modes, but then again, boxing is limited to begin with. What is offered is very fulfilling. Career Mode is the bread and butter, where you take a fighter, start out at the bottom, and fight your way to glory. Depending on your size, you can get bigger and stronger, leaner and quicker, etc. As this happens, you have the opportunity to move up or down a weight class – six weight classes are offered. And before each fight, you must select a trainer and a cutman. You can also choose an entourage (a woman in a bikini), music, and any type of pyrotechnics for your entrance. After that, you can train for your fight by working on speed and power.

That is basically what My Gym is. Here, you can either work on a combo dummy, hit a heavy bag, or lift weights. You also have the option for a sparring session, giving you a chance to work on your combos and such. The other mode is Hard Hits, where a knockdown wins the round. Knock your opponent down more than he does in 15 rounds and you’re the winner (if it lasts that long).

And just when you thought the break between rounds was worthless, EA Sports goes and does something new. Remember the secret in NES’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, where hitting Select in between one of the rounds gave Little Mac extra power? Well, Fight Night: Round 2 has something like that, only more innovative than just hitting the Select button. Here, your cutman must either reduce the swelling or close up a cut. Within 30 seconds, you must select an area of the face and work on it using the right analog stick. By moving the stick in a circular fashion, you reduce the damage points in that area. Pretty nifty!

By the way, you can also head online to fight your buddies... if you get bored of hitting a punching bag.

There are different levels of difficulty, but it’s so much more than that in Fight Night: Round 2. The difficulty varies with types of fighter, their size, and speed. Some fighters are more aggressive than others, while others are slower, although they may pack a bigger punch. It all comes down to whether you can defend yourself early on. You won’t last long if you get pummeled early. Likewise if you just swing away at the air. You’ll end up getting tired, and won’t have much in the tank for those latter rounds.

Much of Fight Night: Round 2 deals with the analog sticks. The left stick is for bobbing and weaving, while the right stick is for punches and the cutman’s work. For the most part, it’s all good. However, punch selection can be a little problematic when you’re in a rush to throw something. Throwing a jab is much quicker and easier than throwing a hook or a haymaker because you have to wind up the stick for those punches. However, I like using the analog stick much better than using three or four buttons for the different punches, but it’s still not perfect. Why can’t we just go back to the days of Little Mac of left, right, and Super Punch?

One other thing kind of bugged me. When trying to pick yourself up off the mat in the past, it came down to button mashing... even for Little Mac. But in Fight Night: Round 2, you have to line up two circles (L and R) with a third before the referee counts to ten. At first I thought this was creative. But really, it’s crap. Basically, you have no way to “fight” your way off the mat. At least with the old way, you had a chance – depending on how fast you could mash your buttons. But with this new way, the computer seemingly has determined whether you’ll be getting up or not.

Other than that, Round 2 is right on. The loading time is quick, and the memory card is spared.

If you haven’t yet, get out and give Fight Night: Round 2 a try. It’s definitely a heavyweight in the boxing genre.