Fight Night Round 4

Gaming Age

Fight Night Round 4 can honestly claim to be what Mike Tyson once quoted many years ago, "...I'm the best ever, my style's impetuous, my defense is impregnable, I wanna eat his children..." Well, okay, maybe not the last part, but damn if this isn't a great boxing game! If you are a fan, you are doing yourself a disservice not picking up a copy.

WonderwallWeb

A superb boxing title that is a must have for your collection. Even if you don't like boxing you will be hard pushed to find faults in this A+ title.

Gamervision

It’s faster, more dynamic, and more fun than the previous offering, and it does a better job of emulating its sport than just about any other game out there.

Play.tm

While Fight Night Round 4 is easily the best boxing game of 2009 and also markedly better than its superb series predecessor, the game's perfectly balanced blend of challenge and excitement, relentless action, intuitive controls, jaw-loosening graphics, and fulfilling career mean it's the best example of "the sweet science" to ever grace home consoles.

Cheat Code Central

FNR4 is the most realistic video game portrayal of the sweet science to date as well as being incredibly enjoyable to play. It has improved upon the previous Fight Nights in every way imaginable.

MondoXbox

Fight Night Round 4 is a real masterwork, a milestone in boxing simulations and a tough challenger for all future titles in this genre. If you like sports and boxing, there's not a single reason why you wouldn't own one of the best sports games of 2009 so far.

MEGamers

Round 4 kicks off the sports season with style. There are some problematic nibbles here and there but it mar for what is a solid experience.

Pelit (Finland)

Marrying physics into a boxing game is a stroke of genius. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! [July 2009]

Impulsegamer

EA Sports have created a worthy successor to the franchise with improved graphics, refined and entertaining gameplay that will have you boxing the absolute living daylights out of each other.

Game Revolution

While the physics system is itself a marvel of gameplay finesse, Fight Night Round 4 also utilizes consistently awe-inspiring animation and stunning musculature on the boxer models.

Games Master UK

Faster, better looking and more technical than any other boxing game before it. [Aug 2009, p.64]

1UP

Developed by an all-new team and re-built from the ground up Fight Night Round 4 is in good hands with the team at EA Canada; not only have they matched the quality of the original title, but in many ways they dramatically exceeded it.

Planet Xbox 360

Though not earth-shatteringly revolutionary, FNR4’s additions to its Legacy Mode, greater cohesiveness and focus of its controls and enhanced pseudo-realism has made it the definitive boxing experience on both the current-gen consoles.

Everyeye.it

"Total" is the only adjective to describe Fight Night Round 4. The perfect balance of refined gameplay and astonishing graphics, it recreates the truly simulative boxing experience of this generation. EA Sports scores another Knock Down!

Gameplanet

With Fight Night Round 4, next-gen consoles are once again graced by a highly polished, well implemented and enjoyable boxing title. With a focus on realism and simulation, Fight Night Round 4 provides a stunning view of boxing.

Cynamite

I never knew it, but there's a killer beast inside me! And all it took was Fight Night Round 4: Stunning graphics, a thrilling soundtrack and a challenging career mode make this game an intense experience!

DarkStation

I am happy to report that Fight Night Round 4 is the complete package. If you are a fan of boxing, or of the series, you would be crazy not to go out and purchase this game.

GameSpy

While it's not without its flaws, Fight Night Round 4 is still one of the most entertaining games of the year, no matter what gaming category you think it belongs in.

GamePro

Fight Night Round 4 lacks some of the wow factor of its predecessor, but it builds upon the strengths of Round 3 and corrects most of its weaknesses.

Official Xbox Magazine

Despite the uphill difficulty curve, repetitive commentary, and long loading times, Round 4 is a force that topples its mind-blowing predecessor in every category. You will get punched in the face, and you will love it. [Aug 2009, p.64]

Game Informer

It’s hard to reinvent a sport that’s…well, already a sport. But, developer EA Canada has done a marvelous job with bringing a focus to the fighting that brings out the sweet science.

LEVEL (Czech Republic)

Most realistic sport game to date. From graphics to physics – you can see and feel every punch given or taken. Best game with half-naked men on the market! [June 2009]

Official Xbox Magazine UK

Ironically, Fight Night Round 4 may be the best argument for banning boxing yet. After all, when a game can get this close to the fluid, organic technicality of the real thing, why does anyone need to get hit in the face?... Solid, satisfying and totally revolutionary. [July 2009, p.81]

Totally360

It’s a deep multi-layered game that boxing fans absolutely should not miss out on, and even if you find boxing a little distasteful, you can’t deny that it’s one heck of a game.

VideoGamer

The physics-based fighting is simply brilliant, the career mode will last you an age and the online functionality is solid. If you're not into boxing Round 4 is simple to learn, so you could still become the next Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali with a little practice. It's not perfect, mainly down to a slightly soulless career mode, but it's still a significant step up over Round 3.

Telegraph

You’ll feel every punch, grimace at every brutal knock-down and celebrate every win as if it were your last. It’s a heart-thumping, nerve-jangling gaming experience and, as a sports game, is agonisingly close to perfection. A little more finesse in its Legacy Mode could have made it an all-time classic.

Eurogamer Italy

Nearly perfect game, nearly perfect score. Go on and jump into the ring! You won't regret it!

GameDaily

A beautiful and bloodthirsty representation of boxing, as well as a superb visual showpiece for either console.

GameZone

With a solid new counter system, a great Legacy mode, and incredible graphics, Fight Night Round 4 is one game that no boxing fan will want to miss out on.

MS Xbox World

Fight Night Round 4 continues the wonders of the previous game, while adding more depth to your boxing experience.

Eurogamer Spain

Quotation forthcoming.

SpazioGames

Quotation forthcoming.

Multiplayer.it

As a boxing simulation, Fight Night Round 4 is almost perfect by any standard, starting from its graphical presentation to its deep gameplay. As a videogame in itself, it's clearly designed to appeal to this sport fans and may be boring to those looking for a sport themed beat'em up.

AceGamez

Fight Night Round 4 is the complete package with all the modes you could hope for, excellent gameplay and amazing visuals.

DailyGame

If you like boxing and you play video games, Fight Night Round 4 is a must have.

Worth Playing

All told, Fight Night Round 4 is a solid game, and it's more than just a rebranding of the franchise.

ZTGameDomain

Perhaps the best part of the new Legacy mode is the sheer volume of stat tracking.

X360 Magazine UK

An absolute beast. [Issue#48, p.80]

Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

The fight of your life. This latest Round lives up to the hype - and then some. [Sept 2009, p.78]

Gamer Limit

Fight Night Round 4 looks simply amazing; never has a slow-motion blood-squirting smash to the face looked better in high resolution. Combined with a physics engine that may have no competitor and a control scheme that feels natural and responsive, FNR4 quickly fiddles with perfection, but falls short with some abusing AI and some lackluster career options, though EA Canada’s efforts are definitely in the right direction.

Armchair Empire

All in all, Fight Night Round 4 is an excellent game, that will appeal to the boxing fans amongst us. Not perfect yet, but getting pretty darn close with each version.

GameFocus

Fight Night Round 4 can easily be described as “the most accessible and yet challenging boxing game ever created”. The fighting mechanics have been revamped and refined to please hardcore boxing gamers but EA Canada has also found a great way to make the game incredibly less frustrating to newcomers as well. Yes, the online matchmaking world remains a daunting place to be however what the game has to offer besides that makes up for it.

GameTrailers

The latest Fight Night pushes hard to deliver a game that feels realistic and authentic to the sport while also being extremely playable, and offering plenty of staying power. Even if boxing as a sport barely piques your interest, this game delivers tension, drama, and punishment to rival the best fighting games out there.

TeamXbox

An awesome, visceral experience, especially when enjoyed against a human opponent. It remains one of my personal favorites of the EA Sports lineup. I just hope that in the next iteration they can figure out where the magic went and infuse it back into the series.

GamesNation

Fight Night Round 4 is a masterpiece of boxing simulation. Our vote didn’t reach 10 mainly because there are no real terms of comparison out there, and we would’ve liked a new career mode as well. Other than that, the new collision system, the real-time calculation of the boxers’ body weight and arms extension (not to mention the superb graphics!) translate into an as-close-to-real-as-it-can-get boxing experience.

Xbox360Achievements

There’s no doubting that EA have delivered a knockout punch with Fight Night Round 4 and it truly is the closest we’ve come to boxing without strapping the gloves on ourselves. The physics are spot on, as is the visual appearance of the game, but the inability to map the punches to the face buttons leaves it just short of truly epic.

IGN

A wonderful boxing game. There are certainly issues to be found in the new Legacy Mode, but it’s much closer to what players want from a career mode. The online offering, while not hugely different from the previous Fight Night, still delivers where it counts.

3DJuegos

Fight Night Round 4 is an aggressive, fast and brutal experience that manages to achieve a videogame as brilliant as the third chapter in the series.

Vandal Online

Boxing has in Fight Night Round 4 an excellent installment, stunning, hard and conscious of its qualities, becoming the best game in its genre, hands down.

Meristation

Boxing as we have never seen it. Great visuals, an amazing gameplay and a lot of fun in the most realistic and entertaining boxing game ever. Ideal both for experts and for newcomers who want to enjoy a very good game.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine

With easy-to-pick-up controls and stunning graphics, Fight Night Round 4 is a fantastic experience with plenty of replay value and tons of unlockable content to keep any boxing fan busy for months.

GameShark

Fight Night Round 4 provides exactly what I wanted - with only a few caveats. The training could be better. The load times could be shorter. The “lucky punch” could be adjusted. However, those are relatively minor points in an overall good, solid boxing game.

Game Chronicles

The best boxing game available for next-gen gamers (which includes PS3 gamers this time), and with a fun online experience and the challenging World Championship mode, there is probably more fun to be had after the career than during.

Console Monster

The whole experience was a bit of a back-and-forth of opinions, but only because Round 3 set such a precedent.

Edge Magazine

Genre-defining as it is, the drama of Fight Night remains squarely within the ropes. [Aug 2009, p.103]

BigPond GameArena

Fight Night Round 4 is easily the best boxing game out. Graphically and technically it's unbeatable and it's absolutely an achievement. In terms of gameplay - well, just as Tony Hawk pundits all got used to the FlickIt control system, people will learn to deal with Total Punch Control. I don't like it, and I shouldn't have to, but with everything else the game manages it's forgivable.

Gamer.nl

Fight Night Round 4 is more authentic than previous games. It chooses realism over action packed gameplay, which might scare off some fans of the franchise.

Da Gameboyz

EA Sports Fight Night Round 4 stands as arguably the best boxing game available on next generation consoles.

RealGamer

So there we have it, Fight Night returns with a more refined playing experience then we’ve seen in previous versions! Ensuring it retains its title as king of the ring. A game of note in any boxing or sports fans video game collection, highly recommended.

Gameplayer

We can’t recall the last time we frothed over sweaty topless men, or were so engrossed with slipping the jab. As expected, Fight Night Round 4 is the best boxing game available, and fans keen to get their uppercuts on with other fellow humans should bulldoze their way into the nearest game store and pillage a copy immediately.

games(TM)

A calculated and intelligent game that favours forethought and tactics over button mashing and impatience. [Aug 2009, p.110]

Boomtown

The action in the ring is never short of brilliant. For fans of the sport it really does represent a loving recreation of the skills and strategies required for victory - and reservations about the role of counter-punching aside - Fight Night Round 4 is really very good indeed.

DarkZero

Great production values from EA, which hasn’t rested on its laurels and has gone all out to make a great game. Cracking.

Level7.nu

Round 4 is a really solid boxing experience and a major step forward for the franchise. The already solid foundations laid in it's predecessor have been polished and the controls are close to perfect. The career mode is the one major component we can complain about, but any flaws found there are instantly remedied by the intense fighting during matches.

Gameplayer Sweden

The unique control, the great graphics and the hard hook make Fight Night Round 4 the best boxing game you can get at the moment. The layout and structure for the Legacy mode could however, have been more well done, but won´t change the fact that Fight Night Round 4 is a must-buy.

Giant Bomb

Some of the things surrounding the boxing in Fight Night Round 4 are kind of annoying, especially if you're planning on primarily playing the game by yourself. But the fighting itself is fantastic and the online feels sharp enough to substitute for local opposition.

Eurogamer

An intense, heart-rattling experience that gets more rewarding the more time you invest in learning the nuances. With incredible attention to detail, technical achievements are more than mere eye candy and a deeper, more rewarding fighting system than ever before, it's an essential purchase for boxing fans and fighting game aficionados.

Total Video Games

The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world as far as boxing sims are concerned and arguably the most visually stunning sports game on the market. While a distinct lack of content in the single-player game and some fairly repetitive boxer AI does tarnish an otherwise faultless offering, it's still a must have for boxing fans and well worth a punt for anyone else with a passing interest.

Kikizo

Faster, tighter, better balanced and - astonishingly - even glossier than its older brother. The career mode still needs work, the AI could be sharper and offline punch-spammers have it a little too easy, but otherwise this game is every inch the champ.

GameSpot

Stepping into Fight Night Round 4's ring is definitely recommended if you have any interest in the sport whatsoever, just be aware that not everyone you come up against will be fighting in the spirit of the Queensbury rules.

Teletext GameCentral

The best boxing sim ever gets even better, with stunning graphics and immersive, if controversial, controls.

XGN

Fight Night Round 4 is absolutely the best boxing title on the market right now. The controls work perfectly and it all just looks really nice. Buy this game and get ready for some punches in the ring.

Xbox World Australia

Fight Night Round 4 is a solid game, different enough from its predecessor to warrant a play through, but I'm not completely convinced there's enough to make someone who loves Fight Night Round 3 rush out and grab it.

GamingXP

Fight Night: Round 4 is definitively the best boxing-game this year. Also it's a bit to easy to come on top, but it's funny and interesting, especially with two players.

HellBored

EA's Fight Night 4 is the best looking boxing game ever made, and it also handles brilliantly. Unfortunately, we couldn't load it up without pulling out our network adapter, and found some inherent flaws in the career mode. But for boxing action online or with friends, this is an essential purchase.

AtomicGamer

But if they can get some online updates through to clear up the more glaring issues and maybe adjust some of the stranger problems that plague online and offline play, this will be the best boxing game ever made. Until then, I don't recommend that you run out and purchase this game just yet.

Destructoid

Try FNR4 if you’re looking for a good boxing game or want to experience the glory of current generation pugilism all over again. It’s worth it. Just don’t venture online with wide eyes and innocence. You’ll be rocked.