First look: Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing

Codemasters has released the first details on Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing, a game that the company recently announced for the Microsoft Xbox. The game, which can be played in either third- or first-person views, will let players create up to four custom boxers. A variety of characteristics, including themes, taunts, speeches, and knockout moves, can be customized for the created boxer. Once a boxer is created, players must take part in bouts of increasing difficult in order to face off in the ultimate championship fight against "Iron" Mike Tyson.

"My kids talked me into doing last year's PlayStation game, and now that they've got their new consoles, they want to see me on those too," said Mike Tyson. "So it's cool Codemasters wants to continue with the Tyson games. The ideas for the new game sound awesome and it'll be good to see me going face-to-face in a heavyweight only game."

"Tyson's a remarkable global presence and this game is full-on total heavyweight championship boxing," said Jon Hare, the project's Lead Designer. "We've got the right elements to create the definitive, most playable boxing game to date. We learned a lot from the production of the original Tyson game and with that experience, and the fresh approach Atomic Planet will bring, I'm confident we're onto a real hard-hitting winner."

Codemasters is codeveloping the game with Atomic Planet. Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing will be released on the in April 2002. Other console versions also remain a possibility at this time.