Fight Night Champion - An EA Sports game

There’s few things in life we can rely on – Football referee’s will always be hated, The UK will always be overpriced, and EA will release it’s a yearly deluge of sports games: Madden, Tiger Woods amongst others, and of course Fight Night gets released every couple of years. This latest version, labelled “Fight Night: Champion” promises to be much more gritty than its predecessors and I’m going to see whether it’s a champ or a chump.



The graphics on FNC are what you would expect from EA Spots: Crisp, atmospheric and totally beautiful and the above picture really shows how beautiful! Each of the "real" fighters are instantly recognisable and look like their real life counterparts. The animations during the fights look like you are watching a real bout on TV, and the replays during a knock down, make you feel each and every blow, with your opponents face rippling from the impact to the blood and sweat flying off as a result of the previous impact and you genuinely feel like you’ve hurt them. I really cannot fault EA for this and it is top notch work which you would expect from an EA sports title.

The sound is standard fare for a boxing game, the fights have running commentary and you can hear your trainer shouting at you at various points of the fight which all adds to the realism. The voice acting of the “story” characters is top notch, and is something we haven’t seen in an EA sports title before, full marks to the development team!


There's a few different game modes for you to play through, the standard “Fight now” exhibition, Champion mode, which see’s you play amateur boxer Andre Bishop and his quest to become to the champ. Legacy mode is where you can either create a boxer or take a real life boxer through a career of which there are 50 to choose (Yes, 50!!) including: Bernard Hopkins, Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Lennox Lewis and many many more top boxers. There is also a mode where you can try all the training games from open sparring, to heavy bag combos and everything in between (which there is an achievement linked to, for getting a “Champion” rating on all of them).. Finally, there is the online section which houses online world championships, exhibition mode and also “Prize Fighting” which is sponsored by Virgin Gaming’s “Red Zone”. Finally in the online section you can create your own gym to host tournaments between the gym members or have rivalries with other gyms.


Gameplay in FNC, has been simplified for this year’s release, with all the punches being controlled with the right thumbstick by moving it in one of 6 directions either on its own or by holding the LT for body blows or RB for power punches. This works surprisingly well and you will be doing pretty good combos and knockdowns within a couple of fights once you get used to it. Champion mode gameplay is truly something that is a joy to play, the story is gripping, filled with shocks, swearing and moments which really make you feel for Andre as you progress through his career. Within Champion mode, you have to fulfil a certain criteria to progress to the next part of the story (i.e. one fight has you trying to protect a cut above your eye and you are only allowed to be hit on that area a certain number of times in a round or the ref will call a TKO, or a win a last man standing bare knuckle fight in prison) and most of the fights have different requirements. This is a fantastic addition to the game and I really hope they plan to do a couple of different stories for the next version! Legacy mode gameplay is pretty normal, with you scheduling fights, levelling up your boxer with XP, training for the fights in the weeks up to the fight by way of mini games and then the fight itself in a bid to become the greatest of all time (or GOAT).

Online is a different kettle of fish as people are very good already – In my first online fight of a heavyweight championship, I was knocked out within a minute of the first round (Stats are balanced online so you can’t fight someone who has a massively better boxer) but there does seem to be still some advantage to the person with the better stats and in 30 or so online fights over different weight divisions, I am yet to win one. I am happy in how FNC plays and I think EA should be given kudos for pulling off something that is easy to learn difficult to master

In terms of achievements, most of them are pretty straight forward (a lot of them linked to Champion mode, by beating people in a certain manner etc.) and some are linked to online and some are just a heck of a grind (Jab 10,000 times and also one for defeating EVERY boxer in the game in “Fight now” mode!) so if you are a completionist, you will be in this for the long haul!

Overall, I think FNC is a pretty solid game. I love the champion mode storyline, and wish there was more of them! Legacy mode has plenty to keep you going for quite a while and although online seems to be fairly busy at the moment it isn’t my cup of tea, however, there is plenty to keep the multiplayer aficionados’ happy! Good Job EA!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

nice review mate. But I can't see me ever wanting to try this one

Good effort mate!

Sounds really good, but I won't be trying it out. Far too many games to get through! Plus the fact that I always feel slightly exploited and dirty when I buy something with EA's name on it! THE MONEY GRABBIN' BUGGERS!!! Ahem, sorry!

nice review pal

not a title I would buy though, but your efforts are well appreciated

haz sum rep

I have this game and it is AWESOME.

best boxing game EVER made