Fight Night Round 2 Review

Sheesh, if I don't watch it, this will become a gamer's blog, instead of the mish-mesh that it currently is.

Okay, picked up Fight Night Round 2 last night. Again, praise and honors need to go to my patient gf who knows how I get when I count down to something. I had it all planned out in my head. She was going to stop by Gamestop, pick it up, I'd have it in my hot little hands by 5:00; 5:20 we'd be home and I'd THROW the laundry into drawers and whatnot; and by 5:23 I'd be loading up the game.

Well, needless to say, my plans were thwarted. By 5:35 I was fuming. If one took an ultra-violet picture of me just then, one would've seen plumes of steam billowing from my head. First of all, the guy at Gamestop gave me the PS2 version. Then Taco Bell took forever! Okay, it was probably 2 minutes longer than usual but still!

When we went back to the store to get the XBox version, this ol' bitch of a lady said, "There's a line!" and proceeded to do the following: "How much is that? Okay, add that to the total... oh no, too much, take that item off. How much is this? Okay, add this to the total."

I huffed. I puffed. I explained that it takes TWO SWIPES and I'd be out of there. This batfaced lady screeched again "There's a line!" Thank goodness, the Gamestop guy took pity on my impatient soul and ignored her for 45 SECONDS to handle my exchange. I thanked him profusely, then drove like I was living in GTA: San Andreas.

Okay, here's the quick review:

I LOVE IT! I've not found anything to dislike yet about the game, but honestly, that's how I felt about the first game. It wasn't until weeks later that I found myself wishing for a better tactical/defensive game, for being able to change weights, for wanting the changes in stats and physical appearance to actually mean something. (One day, I want to talk about this sentence - actually mean something. Okay, this is a software program. Nothing I'm talking about here actually means something in the real sense. I gotta remember this)

Fight Night Round 2 so far delivers on all those desires. You can defend yourself while leaning back now so if you want to make like Ali and rope-a-dope, you can. Just be VERY VERY careful. I got knocked out trying to use that strategy. You can also walk ahead of you and cover your head, so if you want to make like present-day George Foreman and be a lumbering giant who just throws out heavy jab after heavy jab, one... jab... at .... a .... time... you could. (But seriously, who'd want to do that? I'm sure Foreman, if he played this game would be playing a younger him, not the present day him.)

So far, my agility isn't high up so I'm having trouble developing the jab and move style. When I have the patience, I am a countering fool. It's fun to hear the whoosh of the miss. Haymakers look like they're easy to do, but I'll tell you this much. Every time I threw one, I was surprised.

The mini-games are okay. I do like the fact that there are different weeks between fighters and you can choose which person to fight depending on how many fights you want to have a year. I don't like the fact that if you choose the EA special fight, that it's over 20 weeks and you can only train from one mini-game during that entire time.

And yes, it's much more fun than the original. You actually have to try and move your guy around a lot more now.

Filed under Reviews and Gaming-Obsess Much?.