Tit for Tat: Give a Black Eye, Receive a Black Eye in Fight Night Round 2

by Louis Bedigian

“In between rounds, instead of getting the same non-interactive movie of your trainer yelling at you that you see in all other boxing games, you are actually able to take control of your cutman and reduce the swelling and damage on your boxer's face.” 

In this corner we have Johnny Bobbin, 23, weighing in at 240 pounds.  An onslaught of the arcade, an assault on his enemies, Bobbin was voted ‘Most Likely To Kill a Man With His Bare Thumbs’ by his high school classmates.

In this other corner we have Bobby Johnson, 11, weighing in at 110 pounds.  Nicknamed The Annihilator after defeating Mortal Kombat’s finest, Johnson is one of the most lethal fighters the world has ever seen.

Tonight these young men will battle each other in a competition of apparent unfairness.  Who will win?  Will it be the six-foot-two Johnny Bobbin?  Or does the little guy have a chance at taking home the belt?

In our world, no way.  But in a game world?  My money’s on the kid. 

Gamers young and old, big and small, athletic or not, will once again get the chance to settle their differences in the Lord of the Boxing Rings: Fight Night Round 2.

Pummeling its way to game consoles everywhere, Fight Night Round 2 is expected to have all the blood, sweat and tears you could ask for.  GameCube players will be treated to a port of the SNES classic Super Punch-Out!!, while Xbox and PS2 get exciting online features.  There are, of course, plenty of extras and new features that all the versions will offer.  Executive Producer Kudo Tsunoda tells us what to expect.

You can't make an EA Sports game without adding a ton of gameplay modes.  So go on – give us the list for Fight Night Round 2.

Kudo Tsunoda: Certainly there is no shortage of different one player or two player Fight Night Round 2 modes you can play. Addictive head to head multiplayer action is a big staple of Fight Night gameplay. You can fight head to head in “Play Now” with each person choosing any fighter they want from any weight class and mixing it up. Gamers can also fight it out in Hard Hits mode. Hard Hits uses a boxing rule set once used in a prison boxing league. There are no timed rounds. You fight until one boxer gets knocked down and that ends the round. There are 15 rounds and the person with the most KO’s wins. Players can also match up online and this year Fight Night is online for both PS2 and Xbox. Any of these modes can also be played by one player so it’s head to head versus our dynamic AI system. We also have added a My Gym mode to Fight Night Round 2 so you can practice any of our training games and really learn how to play the game.

Our most expansive game mode is our one player Career Mode. You can fight simulate an entire boxer’s career with either one of our real life boxers or with a boxer you can create and take in the ring.

In Round 2 you're able to hit your opponent with more force and knock him down with just one blow.  How does this change the way you throw your punches?  More accurately, what does this mean for our thumbs?

KT: The analog Total Punch Control system in Fight Night 2004 completely changed the way boxing and fighting games are played. It took gameplay that was based on mindless button mashing and turned it in to a skill based combat experience based on control over your boxer. For Fight Night Round 2, we have exponentially increased the control you have over your fists and boxer body increasing the tactics you can use to land and avoid punches.

The biggest edition has been the EA Sports Haymaker. With the Haymaker, you can now control the power of your punches using the analog sticks. In Fight Night 2004, you could only throw one type of left or right hook. All hooks had the same amount of power and speed. To throw a right hook in the game, you move the analog stick to the right and then arc it forward. To throw a Haymaker Right Hook, you move the analog stick to the right, CRANK IT BACKWARDS to add extra power, and then arc it forward to throw the punch. The farther you crank back the analog stick, the more power is added but the easier it is to avoid or counter. You can use Haymakers on any of your power punches.

But Fight Night Round 2 did not stop there in giving gamers even better control over their boxer in the ring. We expanded our analog controls to give you total control over you boxer, and not just your punches. In Fight Night 2004, you could not perform simple boxing moves like punching and moving at the same time or punching and blocking at the same time. Basically, you could only control one of our boxer’s body movements at one time. This year, you have total control over you boxer and are able to stick and move or block on the move with the greatest of ease.

We have also added a new all analog fast combo system so you can now throw punches in succession just as fast with the analog stick as you can with the button press punches.

An example of what the Fight Night weight loss program can do for you!

How complex are the injuries?  Can individual body parts be damaged?

KT: For Fight Night Round 2 you can get injured both during training and in the ring. Training injuries to your body will impair your preparation for your fight and decrease your possible power, speed, agility etc for the upcoming fight. In the ring, injuries are focused on the cuts and swelling you get on your face and around your eyes. The injuries are not just visual as they affect your abilities in the ring. If your eye is swollen or bloody, it is harder for you to see punches coming from that side of your face. You block and lean out of the way of punches slower. So as a boxer in the ring, if you see the other guy’s face is swollen or cut, you can repeatedly target that damaged area and drive punch after punch into your opponent’s blind eye.

I'm guessing there's more to the new Cutman system than simply asking to be healed.

KT: The EA Sports Cutman is one of favorite new features in the game. In between rounds, instead of getting the same non-interactive movie of your trainer yelling at you that you see in all other boxing games, you are actually able take control of your cutman and reduce the swelling and damage on your boxer’s face. So when your boxer goes to the corner, you can look closely at his face and see what and where the damage is. Then you choose a tool out of your cutman’s bucket and go to work on the boxer’s face. You can choose the end swell, which is a big cold metal compress, and rub out the boxers swollen areas. Or maybe pull out a cotton swab covered in adrenaline and petroleum jelly and reduce your boxer’s cuts. This is all very important to do as for Fight Night Round 2, fights are stopped due to damage so if you let the damage go, you can lose the fight.

What Round 2's create-a-player mode new and unique?  How is it superior to other create-a-player offerings?

KT: For Fight Night Round 2, we wanted to do something innovative and unique for our Create a Champ feature. One of the things I have always hated about create a character features in all games was how limiting and frustrating they were to use. In trying to build a character, you had to go through a thousand menus and sliders choosing from different pre-created options that you were given. If the create a character did not have a specific nose, or face, or body shape that you wanted…too bad. Choose one that is close.

In making characters for our games, the artists on the team have the ability to sculpt and model any type of character they want. Why can’t we pass that ability on to people playing the games so they can truly make any character they want??

In Fight Night Round 2, you have the power of our artists’ development tools to build your character via the simplicity of the analog sticks on your controller. Instead of having to choose pre-created options, you are able to actually sculpt and mold each feature of your boxers head, face, and physique using our analog controls. A highlight appears on different areas of your boxer showing you what part of the boxer you can currently sculpt. Then you are able to make actual changes to your boxer right on the model by altering his skeleton. The create a champ feature in Fight Night Round 2 gives you total control over building a character exactly like you want, it is a much more visual interface allowing you actually sculpt and mold your character, and it is much more intuitive to use getting away from all the menus and sliders you see in other create a character systems. It takes half the time to build a character in Fight Night Round 2 than it did in last year’s game.

Up close and personal.

How can players train their boxers in Round 2?

KT: Our training system has been totally revamped for Fight Night Round 2. First of all, training is not just for Career mode. You can use a pre-fight training session to sculpt your physique for upcoming fights in any of our 1p or 2p modes. You have 4 basic training routines: Sparring, Weight Lifting, Heavy Bag, and Combo Dummy. Each of the different exercises, and how you do in them will affect your boxer’s ratings for the upcoming fight. But the training does not just affect ratings; it actually sculpts your body as training does in real life. So if you want to build up your boxer’s power and hit the weights, your boxer’s body actually gets more muscular.  So now the boxer’s bodies are an actual reflection of their skills and abilities. You can look at your opponent and know his strengths and weaknesses.

Have any changes been made to the career mode?  Has anything new been added?

KT: Career mode is where we have made some of our biggest gameplay leaps this year. You now have a lot more options for customizing your career. You can build your own corner team including hiring and firing different trainers and cutmen. There is a big amateur mode meaning you can decide to build your boxer up as an amateur champion or turn pro early and go for the money. You have a lot more control over scheduling including taking on special event fights that don’t affect your rankings but will earn you other career mode goodies. A lot of our new career mode features tie in nice with the expanded training exercises in Fight Night Round 2. First of all, in this year’s game you are able to change weight classes so you can lift weights, build up your body, and move up in weight to take on new fighters. You can also train to slim down and go down in weight. Plus, for career mode this year there is no forced retirement like last year. But as your boxer gets older, he will start to gain fat on his body and his ratings will start to slip. If you are excellent in training, you can continue to fight on but the older you get, the harder it will be to stay in peak condition.

Approximately how many fighters do you hope to include in the game?  Any plans to include a few classic fighters?

KT: There will be 36 licensed boxers in the game including a big cast of current champions, big time up and comers, and of course the best classic boxers from the past. Some of the past champions include: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Sonny Liston, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake Lamotta, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and others.

What can we expect from the online content in the Xbox and PS2 versions?

KT: Thankfully, Fight Night Round 2 is online for both PS2 and Xbox this year. I am ecstatic that Xbox owners will be able to play online as Fight Night is the ultimate online game to play. This year we have tried to make our online experience a lot more like our offline career mode. You will be able to take any boxer online, including created ones, join a weight class, fight up through the rankings, and try to win a title belt.

Now that’s some bright lighting.

The last game had spectacular, jaw-dropping visuals.  Thus far Round 2 looks equally stunning – are there any graphical additions that make this version look even better?  Things that the screenshots might not show?

KT: I think the hardest thing to see in a screenshot about Fight Night Round 2’s incredible new look is how powerful and dramatic the big punch impacts are. You get some sense of it from the screenshots as you can see the incredibly facial distortion from the punch impacts with the blood and sweat flying. But seeing it in motion, from multiple close up camera angles really shows off the devastating damage you are dealing out with your fists.  We really focused on this for Fight Night Round 2 including mocap-ing our facial animation making sure we have the most realistic punch impacts possible.

The results are clear just by looking at the screenshots.

Thanks for your time Kudo.