Black & Bruised

When Life Back you Into A Corner, Come Out Swingin’!

NA release: 26th January 2003
EU release: 27th June 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Digital Fiction
Publisher: Majesco (NA), Vivendi Universal (EU)
NGC Magazine: 66%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

There was a big problem with this era of games when it came to “comedic” characters in games. Instead of any humorous takes on anything, every single character are slight variants of the same style: rude and obnoxious. Characters like this when combined with charm and heart (just look at The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park), bit this side was often forgotten about in games like Black & Bruised, resulting in a large cast of characters that you won’t want to play as.

The most frustrating part is that the developers were almost there. The story mode features a little story (consisting of six missions) for each character, and each mission has a cute little video introducing it, with some fun narration. With a better cast of characters, this could have been great.

The cartoon graphics are also rather good, with each boxer having a good amount of detail. As the fight progresses, the boxers will sustain bruises and other injuries, such as misshapen faces and lumps. This visible pain gives the punches a lot more weight. Letting the graphics down are the stages and their 2D backdrops. Some stages, like the cruise ship, almost get away with the effect by placing some scenery before the textured wall, while others, such as the Mexican village, place the flat wall right next to the ring. They’re really nicely painted, but it just makes everything look fake.

As for the gameplay, it’s a good boxing game. The four face buttons are split between each fist, with two punch types, which are then extended by the R button, creating a total of eight different accessible punches, with a combo system on top of that. You also have a high and low block. Black & Bruised also has power ups. One will appear on the HUD with each boxer having a star meter, which you fill up by landing hits. When it’s full, you gain the power up on offer. These can make you stronger, faster, heal you or more.

As it stands, Black & Bruised is quite a decent boxing game, it’s just a shame that the characters let it down as it could have been something special.

Fine

Unfortunately, as an all-out fun-fest of a fighter, Black & Bruised fails to match the delights of, say, Ready 2 Rumble. The characters aren’t as likeable as Afro Thunder and his gang of sparring pals and gals, while, for what is really a cartoon fighting game, the power-ups are lacklustre. Where are the comedy horseshoe-in-gloves? But it’s easy to forgive Black & Bruised all its gameplay faults just because it looks so tasty. And, respite righteous wisdom to the contrary, looks alone can get you a very long way in life. Just ask any MTV JV.
Philip Mlynar, NGC Magazine #81

Remake or remaster?

We could do with something like this done right.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Black & Bruised.