Hopes were high for this one: Venom, developer of the decent enough Rocky games; a wealth of documentary footage from boxing legends (and Don King); and the promise of a career mode more complete than any seen thus far. There was even, in good old boxing tradition, a bit of lip aimed at the competition by the game’s producer: Fight Night Round 3 is apparently “mostly just beautiful, and that’s about it”.

So, the tale of the tape. The documentary footage is diverting enough, but doesn’t present a coherent story – often simply hinting at events which the game doesn’t fill in, such as the early rivalry with Jesus Silva. The career mode is lightweight: pick your next fight, then choose whether to play two minigames to boost your stats, or sacrifice one for a media engagement which gives you more fans, and hence more adrenaline, when you’re in the ring.

It’s here that Prizefighter falls flat. The in-ring fighting has problems that are simply fundamental for a boxing game. Never mind the sluggish movement, repetitive phrases from trainers, or ability to trap the AI in combination patterns: at the most basic level, Prizefighter has suspicious collision detection and a great many gloves that clip through arms and heads. Given that a boxing game’s focus should be getting the confluence of two upper bodies right before all else, it’s unforgivably lax, and renders pointless any of the video footage or other dressing around it.

Verdict: 4/10

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