Listen to the players, not the Wii boxers at gamespot.
The game starts out with you basically a low down street brawler who has barely cut his teeth (excuse the pun). Needless to say this means that you are a bit sluggish, a bit clumsy and generally a noob in the ring (carpark, backstreet..... wtvr).
This is CLEARLY where Gamespot and the games reviewers in the magazines stopped playing and went back to flicking their wii remotes.
You CANNOT flick a damn controller for a right hook. You have to, and let me be very very clear, HAVE TO do a full on right hook with your full body in it shoulder and all and BAM you will land a haymaker of a righ/left hook. Same with uppercuts, body blows (get a good one of these and you will hear a rib break) and straight punches. As you get fatigued in REAL LIFE you will punch less on the screen!!! it is THAT accurate.
To give you an idea of what the players avatar will become: one of the trophys is do 25 punches in 15 secs and land 75% of them. When you start playing you will see what I mean by you are sluggish to start as you will be lucky to throw 10 and land them in 15 secs.
You will learn dirty moves as you go from people who will use them in a fight. Personal fave is the first you learn The Hammerfist, but im sure I will learn something better.
The accuracy in the punching is simply spot on. If an opponent is ducking down hitting you in the gut you have to aim your punches DOWN on to them! And this is in my living room where the head detection wouldnt work (I will fix this asap) due to the wife insisting that she has a light on behind me so she could read. (Selfish I know I know.....)
Do not buy this game unless you are ready for a proper workout, you simply wont get anywhere with an occasionaly half arsed punch, You need to give it your all.
The skill up system is simple. You train, you earn points, you put them into your character. Personally im a speed and accuracy guy. Ali did it...... so theres got to be something in it I figure!!! :D
Honestly I just finished playing this for a 3 hour session and my arms feel like jelly, my shoulders ache and im very very certain I need a shower. So on that note....... Want a workout with some serious satisfaction... get this game asap.
Oh on a side note the reason this is not a 10 is that you must, to get the full experience, have 2 wands...... which dont come cheap!! But in PS's defence..... this game is so damn accurate that they didnt have a choice.