Near pugilistic perfection.
This is one of the best and most innovative boxing games i have ever played. I am no boxing fan, in fact in gerneal i find it broing both in terms of games, and in terms of a live event. However this game is as good as any fighting game i have played of any style, ever.
The graphics are great for the time, and the create a boxer is fairly decent also. I managed to create myself a 7ft tall ginger scotsman with a right hook from the bowls of hell, all very impressive.
The game also pioneered the use of the right analogue stick as your weapon of choice, so gone were the days of button mashing which, lets face it, is so 1980s. A deft flick of the stick will create a hook, jab, straight or uppercut depending on the motion of the stick itself. This allows players who wish to dedicate the effort to finding a perfect technique.
It may have been me, however i found the stick sometimes unweildy and hard to link together punches with. In my limited experience of professional boxing i have noticed that any boxer worth their salt can hit out with a flurry of devisating punches to knock down the opponent. Yet with the anologue stick i found this near on impossible at 1st, finding it hard to switch right left right left with any speed or ease.
The good news is button mashers and 80s children such as myself can give up the new ways and change back to the old style, in which case the right stick becomes your blocking controls. You can still use it to throw punches by using a R1 as a kind of Shift button......but it makes it not necessary unless you need to uppercut in a hurry.
The career mode is also well structured as you fight similar level opponents to gain skills and work your way up to the top of the rankings, to eventually become the champion. This is one area where i would definately liek to have seen done a little better. Profession boxing has many different titles, and i wouild like to have seen three or so choices of group. Each of those would have perhaps certain characteristic elements and such like, and only once you have reached the top in one could u fight the top in others and become the undisputed champion.
This not withstanding it is a great boxing and fighting game, with very few flaws and a lot going for it. While in 2007 it certainly isn't a Next Gen stlye game, for it's day it was one of he best around