The stories that make up this mode are as realistic as possible; many of which are pulled from Don King as the team spent several days picking his brain about such things, and decided to incorporate all of these amazing anecdotes into the game itself. You need to worry about TV exposure, media attention, hanging out with “hot girls” – more than just winning fights. King provides a lot of voice work as does HBO boxing commentators Jim Lampley and Emanuel Steward – which could add some real juice and authenticity to the audio.

In addition you also get several other modes of play such as single round elimination fights over Xbox Live, a Fight Club” last man standing” scenario, online tourneys, and the ability to use five custom fighters from various weight classes online as part of your boxing stable. The game ships with 40 pros as well as some classic fighters. The team wanted to use a lot of newer fighters to keep things current but with boxing ratings on the decline how many gamers will know who Kelly Pavlic is? (You should, he’s brilliant, but hardly a household name.)

We’re still unsure how the game actually plays – other than that it won’t be as difficult as the Rocky games and that the AI has received a lot more attention to add more variety. Supposedly it isn’t just about standing toe to toe and slugging, but about moving and timing – but how this will all actually work, well, we’re not sure. We do know that the game doesn’t totally mimic EA Sports’ Fight Night and its Total Control method instead using a Street Fighter-like button mechanic, and there’s going to be a lot of buttons to keep track of.

Sadly, there will not be any TKO system in place other than the three knockdown rule – the refs won’t stop a fight in mid round or due to a bad cut, which is a bit of let down as no game seems to simulate this part of the sport well at all.

Seymour said numerous times that they were looking to make an authentic, playable boxing game, but we’re still waiting to see how it all comes together; we’ll know soon enough as it hits streets this Tuesday and a demo is planned and should be available “ASAP.”

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