8mo Mike Arrani
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Game

Fight Night Champion WikiData IGDB
2011-03-01
genre: Fighting / Simulation … platform: PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 developer: EA Canada
Fight Night Champion is a boxing video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the fifth entry in the Fight Night series and was released on March 1, 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game takes a drastic turn from its predecessors, depicting a "grittier", "darker" setting with animations and player damage that "truly conveys the brutality of the sport of boxing."

Andre Bishop is a boxer serving time in a correctional facility. After winning a jailhouse boxing match against another inmate, he is cornered and brutally beaten by several prisoners including his opponent. Bishop wakes up severely injured and damaged. The game then flashes back 4 years to his rise as a professional fighter.

Bishop's pro career begins after defeating 9-time amateur champion Joel Savon, which earns him significant recognition as a contender. After a few successful bouts, he and his trainer Gus Carisi are approached by DL McQueen, famed fight promoter and longtime foe of Carisi who offers to promote Andre under the management of his daughter Meagan. The two refuse, causing a dispute between the crooked promoter and Bishop. McQueen continues to urge Andre to sign a deal with him, only to be denied each time. He soon frames Andre of police assault with the help of two crooked cops. Andre is then sentenced to over 5 years in prison.

After a series of fights inside of jail Andre is framed and ambushed in the showers where he gets a rough beating. Soon after recovering from his injuries, Andre begins to train himself and keep fit while imprisoned. He is angered to discover that his brother Raymond had become a professional heavyweight with McQueen Promotions, the company that framed him. Soon after being released, Raymond organizes him a job as an assistant trainer. Now a heavyweight and a focused fighter, Andre beats two ranked heavyweights during regular sparring sessions. Meagan approaches him soon after and offers to get him a new professional license, having split from her father's business due to disagreements. Gus returns as Andre's trainer and helps him make an unexpected comeback as a heavyweight.

Following several successful heavyweight bouts, Andre's brother Raymond challenges him to a fight to secure a chance against the world heavyweight champion Isaac Frost. During the fight, Andre goes down but does not get up to allow his brother a chance at the title. Raymond then fights Frost, and is defeated in the first round by a devastating KO. Angered, Andre challenges Frost himself and manages to defeat him by KO. He becomes the world heavyweight champion, and McQueen is arrested after his crooked business with the framing of Andre is revealed.

finished playing Fight Night Champion 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
The only other Fight Night game I've played was Round 3 for PSP, so I can only compare this to that.

The new story mode they added here is completely uninteresting to me. Who needs a story mode in a boxing game anyway?

The Legacy mode is still as much fun though. I'm not a big fan of the Skills training, but the fact that it's optional means that you're still getting largely the same experience, except of course the graphics and physics being better here, though I don't know how much better (if at all) they are compared to Round 3 and 4 on PS3. I noticed some details here I didn't notice in the PSP game, for example you can hear your coach shouting tips at you, and they are genuinely good ones. And the commentators are just delightful, and it's crazy how well they're able to read the existing save data and comment on your career, not just on the current fight.