The fighter
reels from the hard blow to the noggin, time slows. You move in for the kill. He
is blocking, leaning, trying to avoid your onslaught. You watch his frenetic
dance, more reflex than anything else. Body shot, head, head, body, and the
sweat flies, dotting the air as stars on a clear night. He hits the canvas. The
camera rewinds, shifts, shows the blow again and again from different angles.
It’s enough
to make you flinch.
Welcome to
Fight Night Round 3 for the PlayStation Portable handheld console system. Very
much a reflexive exercise, the game manages to combine thumb exercise with a
certain intelligence, based on fighter movement while paying close attention to
the health and energy meters that border the top edge of the PSP screen.
EA Sports
sent along preview code for the pending title, and while certain attributes were
not available – like the multiplayer capabilities – still what was there
provided a solid look at what promises to be a very good handheld experience.
There are
several modes of play, including the Play Now (instant fights), Rival Challenges
(in which you get to repeat history or even change it in classic rivalry fights,
beginning with Ali versus Frazier), and a two-mode tab called Game Modes (broken
down into Career and Hard Hits – the latter is a fight based on knockdowns, not
time). Multiplayer will feature both Ad hoc and Infrastructure, and there is
even a function that allows you to go into EA Pocket Trax to shuffle the song
list or remove some of the 12 mostly-hip-hop tunes that are featured.
You can
create your own fighter, work through the rankings beginning at the amateur
level and move up to vie for a world title and the big paydays.
The Create
Champ options are varied and quite good, allowing players to customize the
appearance of their fighter. You can manipulate various aspects of the head, and
pick the weight class and body appearance. As you fight and earn wins, you can
unlock new elements from the Fight Store that may give you a boost to your skill
stats.
Essentially
the way the career mode works is you are given a selection of potential fights
to pick from, each with a payday and each allows you to scout would-be foes.
Once you sign the contract for the fight, you go to training. There are three
styles of training, which are linked to intensity – normal yields the lowest
results, confident will give better results but there is a chance of injury and
aggressive carries the best chance for top results, but the injury risk goes way
up. You can focus training in three areas, as well – balanced, power and speed.
Once
training is complete you climb into the ring. There are several ways to set up
the controls. The default will have the hot keys controlling punch locations
with the analog stick in charge of the fighter movement. The D-pad will allow
for the special punch (like a wind-up haymaker), taunt, clinch or illegal blow.
The left shoulder trigger is for leaning and body shots and the right controls
blocking.
Across the
top of the screen is the health meter (which diminishes with each blow taken)
and energy meter. You can replenish your energy by stepping back and moving
around the ring.
The default
camera angle is ringside, keeping the fighters in profile.
For a
handheld device the action is very solid and the venues are well done. From the
dingy rings in Lower Flushing to fairgrounds in Idaho, and some of the nicer
arenas as you move up in the rankings, the game does sport a nice backdrop to
the action. It is the latter – the action – that takes center stage in this
vehicle, giving players a solid and challenging experience. The game does have
some load times (which may be tightened up by the release date) but they are not
overly long. The animation is very fluid and the controls are responsive.
Some of the
actions and animations can be a little cheesy – in reference to the fighter
standing over a downed opponent, and there is some repetition in the corner chat
between rounds, but these are all easily overlooked. There are also a few
clipping problems, but again, this is no big deal.
Players may
enjoy the challenges of looking for the openings in their opponent’s defense and
the tapping in a jab to alter the stance, and combining it with hooks to the
body, or vicious uppercuts. Stagger your opponent and he can go down at any
time. He will usually rise before the 10 count if early in the fight, and from a
bar that was bottomed out, he will regain health, but is susceptible to more
devastating barrages.
Fight Night
Round 3 is a very good PSP title, sporting great sound and graphics and
challenging gameplay. This title is slated to hit store shelves on Feb. 22 and
is a certain early contender for favorite PSP titles in 2006.
