Don King Boxing: Close to the real deal?
Posted by Sport.co.uk on: 14 May 2009 - 11:55
Author: Ben Moss
In a gaming world increasingly saturated by boxing games ‘Don King Boxing’ does little to engage the participant or better the numerous efforts that preceded it.
In truth the game is as curious as its endorser, the bizarrely animated yet ultimately dated Don King. Part pandering to the boxing fanatic and half hoping to snare the intrigued, the game play fails to grab either. Sure, the Wii controls remain a novelty but ultimately the format and characterisation is hardly revolutionary.
The ‘legend’ format is tired and mundane, and the obligatory and annoyingly compulsory training sessions merely serve to heighten the frustration. The animated montages of boxing legends past do little but serve as a reminder of the languid game-play.
Despite its obvious and numerous flaws the game can occasionally entertain and at the very least serve as a brief flirtation with a cardiovascular workout. If you can commit to the same format seen in the game’s predecessors such as Knock Out Kings, and Wii Boxing, then Don King’s effort has its charms.
Ultimately battering your rival, no matter the tawdry rehashed arrangement, is fun. The relentless hammering of your opponent’s visage and his subsequent dramatic, slow-motion descent to the canvas can both amuse and encourage another try, while if you really throw yourself into proceedings it can serve as a laboured workout.
The Wii controls retain their kooky charm, although their tempered with the occasional delay during a fight, and the left hook manoeuvre is near impossible to execute for this amateur Wii boxer.
Presumably this is as close as you can get to real boxing, but it feels more like a vociferous form of Pilates or yoga, and you don’t half look like a Wally doing it. For a game that seems to pride itself on being ‘street’ with its gangster rap, and occasional coarse word, its nigh on impossible to look like anything other then the village idiot while playing it.
The problem with Don King Boxing is it tries so hard to be cool and in the process takes itself far too seriously. More attention should have been paid to the game-play rather then the slick menu screens, and sound bites of the aforementioned King add little or nothing to the Boxing experience. It’s effectively Wii boxing without its innocent charm and kitsch little characters.
Its an utterly pointless addition to an already inundated area of arcade and because it does not better anything previous, it’s a fruitless task that sporadically entertains but ultimately disappoints.