Fight Night Round 4

Fight Night Round 4
Developer(s)	EA Canada
Publisher(s)	EA Sports
Designer(s)	EA Sports
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	NA June 25, 2009[1] EU June 26, 2009[2]
Genre(s)	Sports, Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution	Blu-ray Disc, DVD-9

Fight Night Round 4 is a boxing video game developed by EA Sports. It is the sequel to Fight Night Round 3, released in 2006. It was released on June 25, 2009 in North America and on June 26, 2009 in Europe, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.^[3] The game's featured boxers are Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.^[4] It contains 48 licensed boxers^[5] as well as several new modes, such as Legacy mode.^[6][7]

Soundtrack

• Mercury - Bloc Party
• In Effect - Beans
• Flyentology (cassettes won't listen remix) - El-P ft. Trent Reznor
• Run It (Duke Dumont Mix) - Scion A/V Remix Project
• Exhibit A (Transformations) - Jay Electronica
• I Come Prepared - K'naan ft. Damian Marley
• Rocker - Mickey Factz
• Tron - Mike Relm
• Life in Marvelous Times - Mos Def
• Again & Again (Matt Helder's remix) - Roots Manuva
• You Can't Stop Me Now - RZA Bobby Digital ft. Inspectah Deck
• The Baskervilles (Amplive Die Hard Remix) - Tokyo Police Club ft. Aesop Rock & Yak Ballz
• Ready for the Fight - The Young Punx ft. Count Bass D
• Cheah Beah (Fight Now Remix) - Young Dre The Truth ft. Snoop Dogg
• Bang Bang - Lady Sovereign
• N.A.S.A. Music - N.A.S.A ft. Method Man, E-40, DJ Swamp
• Haterz Everywhere (Fight Night Remix) - B.o.B. ft. Young Dre The Truth
• ROQ ROQ - Times Neue Roman
• This is Easy - Mikey Rocks ft. Dude Royal & Hollywood Holt
• Can't Hold Back - Aceyalone ft. Treasure Davis
• Shove It (Three 6 Mafia Remix) - Santigold ft. Project Pat
• Field of Dreams - Bliss N Eso ft. Paris Wells
• The Rumble - Afrika Bambaataa ft. M.C. K~Swift & Young Dread

Marketing

Demo

On May 14, 2009, a demo of the game was made available to those that had pre-ordered the game from GameStop, although it was made available for everyone to download later that month via Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. The demo features a three round exhibition match between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao in the wake of their fight on May 2, 2009. A tutorial mode is also accessible at the beginning of the demo, which is featured in the final release.

On August 27, 2009, a new updated demo was released. It now features a ten round exhibition match between Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, in addition to the previous Hatton vs. Pacquiao match. It also features the return of the classic control scheme for the game where players can use the controller buttons for most controls instead of the right analog stick. This control scheme was originally in all previous Fight Night games, and it was brought into Fight Night Round 4 after fans were complaining about using the new control scheme and suffering from blisters.^[8]

Downloadable Content

On July 27, 2009, the first piece of downloadable content for Fight Night Round 4 was released. It is free of charge, and includes a new training gym, new gameplay sliders, new equipment and an alternate version of Sugar Ray Leonard.

Additional trunks, gloves and shorts were released along with face button control support in a free update at the end of August.^[9] EA Sports have also announced that the next piece of downloadable content, the 'Boxer Pack', will contain Oscar De La Hoya, Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir Klitschko, as well as alternate versions of James Toney and George Foreman which became available on 27 August and can be purchased through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace.

On November 2, 2009, EA announced its newest DLC plans. In early December, a new pack including Bernard Hopkins, Evander Holyfield, Sonny Liston and two new modes (Old School Rules & Ring Rivalries) would be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

PlayStation Home

On July 16, 2009, EA Sports released a themed game space for Fight Night Round 4 as an expansion to the EA Sports Complex in the European and North American versions of PlayStation Home.^[10] The game space is called "Club Fight Night" and features a Club-DJ mini-game with rewards, two video screens and seating for avatars. In an upcoming update, there will be a robot boxing mini-game available to play. This space was released in the Japanese version on October 9, 2009. On November 25, 2009, two producers of Fight Night Round 4, Mike Mahar and Brian Hayes, were in the space for a live chat with the Home community.^[11]

Reception

Fight Night Round 4 garnered positive reaction from critics for its strategic gameplay and strong multiplayer component. The PlayStation 3 version received an 87.89% and an 88% from review aggregate websites GameRankings and MetaCritic respectively.^[14][12] The Xbox 360 version garnered an 87.36% and an 87% from GameRankings and Metacritic respectively.^[15][13]

GameSpot's Justin Calvert praised the game's fast action and its online play.^[18] 1UP.com's David Ellis commented that the physics engine improved the gameplay, and made punches feel more realistic.^[19] GameSpy's Will Tuttle noted the game's "stunning visuals", and praised the online gameplay.^[20] GamePro's Andrew Hayward thought that the gameplay flowed better as a result of the frame rate, which ran at sixty frames per second.^[21] IGN's Nate Ahearn felt that the game delivered "the best pure boxing ever seen in a video game."^[17]

Criticisms were mostly focused towards the single player aspects of the game. IGN's Nate Ahearn commented that the minigames found in the legacy mode were too difficult, a sentiment echoed by GameSpy and GameSpot.^[17][18][20] Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann criticized the legacy mode for being wrapped in "layers of unnecessary menus".^[22]

References

External links

• Fight Night Round 4 Official Game Page
• EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4