GENRE
	Sports
	DEVELOPER
	EA
	PUBLISHER
	EA Sports
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	CONTROLLER PAK
	yes
	RUMBLE PAK
	yes
	RAM PAK
	no
	BUY NOW AT

The best boxing game I ever had the pleasure of playing was Greatest Heavyweights for the Sega Genesis. This game featured only the top portion of the boxer's body but you could trash talk, throw combos, it had many boxers and you had to train your boxer too. Leave it to Sega to lead the way in the sports world. Well, EA has jumped aboard the 'Sweet Science' express with their Knockout Kings series.

I have to admit that the game stacks up pretty nicely when compared to my old favorite on the Genesis. EA sports may actually have modeled this game after Greatest Heavyweights because it mimics the "hot off the press" release after your fight and a few other goodies looked familiar too. It should be said sports fans that KK2000 is a very challenging game that requires you to learn all of the nuances of the sweet science including defense, timing and strategy. In fact, some boxers you simply cannot beat unless you go in with a gameplan. While there are some disappointing aspects to the game the overall feeling is one of quality. KK2000 is a good sim and will undoubtedly offer you much more enjoyment in the long run the Ready 2 Rumble's "flash in the pan" arcade game play.

Despite what you may have heard about KK2000, the visuals are actually rather nice. The animations are breathtaking as every swing is accurately represented. When you rip out a gut buster combo or furious fists it's just so sweet to see the boxer let it go. In addition, there are several arenas with their own characteristics including a crowd that grows as you progress through the rankings. The lighting and palette use in the game is great. Finally, the graphics are accurate and crisp as you can see each boxer's face and some great details (e.g. mouth piece flying).

While some may call the color bursts that correspond with certain punches overdone I thought that they were rather useful in helping me determine who hit what and where. For instance, a hook or haymaker makes a yellow green swirl while a body blow makes a white flash. What was NOT helpful was the lag and framerate drop that seemed to pop up at the worst times. It seemed that as the camera turned to catch the action a little better the framerate would drop down. Now this drop wasn't so bad that it ruined the game but hey, KK2000 would have done better without it. I noticed that sometimes, when your opponent attempts to shove you the animation on his end will occur and then 2 seconds later you'll be pushed back. These types of graphic issues are inexcusable. Another example is after the double hook combo there would be an awkward pause in the action that seemed to be a space where the game had to catch up? Again, these problems didn't ruin the game for me at all, but they were there.

As for the front end. Lousy. All of the menu screens had load times and were as slow as molasses. It was so frustrating navigating these menus getting to the fight. EA Sports should take a page out of Acclaim Sports menu pages to see how this is done properly. Seriously, I feel that the poor effort in the front end menus almost had a more detrimental effect on the game then the framerate drops and lag.

Overall though, KK2000 is a solid graphical effort that just needed a little (very very minor) touch up work and a quicker, more efficient front end.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with the animation of the ring girls between rounds at all! I'd like to have a 'motion capture' session with the blonde!

Great detail work here. Not only do you get Judge Mills Lane but you get a fairly cool pre fight audio blast with the announcer tearing in and some small amounts of play by play. It would have been nice to hear some play by play that rivaled NBA Jam 2000's non-stop yappers. But Black Ops had enough issues with the framerate with no audio imagine if there was a ton of it going on? The play calling that is there kicks in at major events in the brawl with unoriginal lines like "he's goes down" or "the leather's flying now." Man, just imagine the announcer from ISS64 calling an Ali fight! "He goes in for the loop! What a cracker!!!" HA! Boxing really lends itself to play calling and there just wasn't a strong enough effort in the development schedule on EA's part here.

One thing that I miss in this game is the taunt. Greatest Heavyweights had it and it absolutely made the game. Each fighter had a signature taunt (Ali said "Oh I'm so pretty".) Unfortunately, as much as I pressed the control pad and the left shoulder button there was no signature taunt for the fighters. A real pity.

The crowd was great in this game! Man they got so loud when things got heated in the ring! I have no idea what the heck they were chanting but it sounded great! You'll also hear all of the pummeling sound effects that you'd expect from a boxing game. From leather flying to solid "umphs!" Finally, the music was rocking too. From the wicked little rap at the beginning intro to the nice little effects during training.

As mentioned in the intro, this game is tough! I got my ass kicked to crud the first twenty times I tried this game. The reason, I figured you just go toe to toe with a foe and wail. Nope. That's the part I love about KK2000, it's a sim at heart. Even though there are features like "super punches" the game still requires you to train well and have a plan of attack for different opponents depending upon their skills and attributes. Very challenging stuff here means that you'll be playing this game long after the dust collects to a three inch blanket on your Ready 2 Fumble cartridge.

You get the option of a quick mode and slugfest which are generally the same things. The only difference is that you pick you boxers in Slugfest. You also get a competent create a boxer feature that doesn't touch WWF Attitude but does serve a purpose well. You can adjust physical attributes, skills and more.

The real heart of the game is the career mode. Where you have to climb the ranks to earn a belt, defend it and drive off into the sunset in a Porsche. The cool thing is that you have to train your fighter to improve his skills. Either you choose offense or defense and complete the objective to acquire skill points to improve your man. Real cool. In fact, I thought the training part was so cool I wish they would have made a dedicated "skills" mode where you're challenged to perform certain boxing training tasks like skip rope, punching bags and more. This would have been a much better mode then the cheesey assed quick mode. Think of that one for next year EA. Finally, I liked fighting the plumbers and no name guys a lot, I think you get to the big time a little too quickly in KK2000. It would have been nice if the beginning section of the career lasted longer so you could really get that minor league feeling.

As for the interface, very responsive despite the cases of lag mentioned above. 99% of the time when you throw a hook it flies pretty quick. The one thing that was awkward was that if you were in the heat of an exchange you sometimes throw the same thing twice in the excitement and then shoot another punch. The game gets lost and tosses that original punch twice, but in a slow, awkward way. But overall, you'll actually catch yourself saying HOLY (#*% and some exchanges because the fight gets really intense. Just straight beatings. Although I sometimes felt that the punches were a little too snappy and arcadey, I could see that EA was trying to maintain the speed of the sport. And they certainly captured that while maintaining some of the deeper aspects of the sport.

Hey, what could be more fun then literally kicking the piss out of your little brother? Doing it without getting charged and put on a Fox TV Show. KK2000 is a great two way game that'll have you coming back for more. Only thing, two player vs. training mode. That would have rocked! BTW, here's where the lack of taunting really hurts the game.

I like Knockout Kings 2000 a lot despite its flaws. I think most sports gamers out there should give this game a try and at least try to get over the learning curve by making a genuine effort to establish how to fully play the game via good defense and offense. What bugs me though is the small number of fighters in this N64 version. EA, wake up, N64 gamers money is just as good as PSX money, it's unfair that we have to resort to outdated or inferior product when compared to the PSX EA sports catalogue. It is for this reason that I don't strongly subscribe to your product line on the N64. In the end, there's some things that I would have liked to have seen added or implemented: taunting, a dedicated training mode with unique tasks, better play by play calling and more fighters. But I think that KK 2000 is great first step. Lets hope this franchise doesn't go A.W.O.L. like the NHL series has.

8.5/10