Fight Night Round 2

The Power of the Punch

NA release: 28th February 2005
EU release: 18th March 2005
JP release: 1st September 2005
Developer: EA Chicago
Publisher: EA Sports
NGC Magazine Score: 70%
Mods Used: None

With EA moving from Knockout Kings into their new boxing branding of Fight Night, the first game slipped the GameCube. But with Nintendo convincing EA to stick around with the GameCube by allowing the use of their characters, we got the second. Because the game has a huge focus on bruises and cuts, Mario and Co weren’t suitable, so they went in a different direction.

This time, the Nintendo character isn’t unlocked from the start, you have to earn him by selecting “Super Punch Out” from the main menu and beating the classic SNES game, where you have to carefully analyse each opponent and learn how to counter them. Once you beat it, you get a really disturbing looking Little Mac to play as.

The control method for this boxing game is a bit strange, as drawing different shapes with the C-stick will trigger different punches. It gives you more options than just using buttons, but it means having to memorise them and strangely makes the game feel like a port of a Wii game, with motion control mapped to the second stick. I also couldn’t work out how to finish a fight “legally” as eventually I’d get disqualified for beating the opponent too much.

Fine

Sometimes your opponent backs off so much that you can’t even get a punch in and before you know it, you’re in a clinch and your would-be victim has got half his health back. It’s frustrating and, for what is supposed to be a boxing simulation, utterly ridiculous.
Tom East, NGC Magazine #105

Remake or remaster?

Nothing for this.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Fight Night Round 2.