Fight Night Round 3

Gameplay

Fight Night Round 3 puts the player in the shoes of a boxer starting off as an amateur working his way up the ladder. The game utilizes the right and left analog sticks for ultimate control punches and dodges, but the player can also elect to use the face buttons to control punching. The game has many modes, with career being the most involved. In career mode you can create your own boxer or play as one of boxing's legends like Sugar Ray Leonard or Muhammad Ali. When you start off as an amateur your boxer will wear full head gear to protect him from cuts and bruises. At each and every fight you earn money that you can spend in the fight shop to buy new gloves, mouth guard, shorts, and the like. Some of these items grant attribute bonuses. In the fight shop, you can buy new signature punches, taunts and outfit your boxer with tattoos and scars.

Once you have surpassed amateur rank your boxer will no longer use the head gear leaving him fully open to getting cut or clobbered. The game features a cut man that you control in between rounds. You have the options to heal cut's and reduce swelling with an ice pack. You simply control the cut man's hand by going left to right on the analog stick. While you help to fix your boxer your trainer will be letting you know how you did and who won the round. He will give you advice as to whether you need to counter more or start protecting your face. As you move your way up the ranks you go to different events like the Everlast or Dodge tournaments where you can win alot of money and even some gear. In the Burger King event you earn the opportunity to have the King come out with you as your trainer. Each trainer gives you benefits in your training routines before a match there are 4 trainers in the game including the King. Before each fight you must train and the game does this through a series of mini games. There is Combo Dummy where you practice hitting quick high low punching combinations. Weight Lifting where the analog sticks act as your arms you must lift weights only bringing them up to a certain point on the scale. There is then the punching bag where you practice hitting high and low when told to. If you want to just practice you can do that in the sparring selection where you just practice against another boxer.

All in all the career mode offers plenty of fights and character development to keep you busy for awhile. The game also features and ESPN Classics mode where you play historical fights with real boxers kind of a challenge mode. There is also of course the standard fight now mode where you can just choose 2 boxers and duke it out choosing any venue you unlocked to do it in. The PlayStation 3 version added one new mode as it released later, the new feature was get in the ring mode where you duke it out in first person. All you see are your arms, the game plays the same as the other modes but from a different perspective. It can get fairly disorienting as the screen gets purple and red as well as starts to close in if you get hit in the face enough. The worse your condition gets the screen will blur and it will become harder it is to see due to the damage you have been taking.

Multiplayer

Fight Night features an online mode where you can participate in ranked or unranked battles climbing your way to the top for the championship. There is also a local mode where you can take on your friends on the same screen.

Roster

Fight Night features a varied roster of both current boxers and former champions. The boxers are separated into six different weight classes. Along with the cast of 27 real boxers, the game features three unlockable characters who have no relevance in the sport.

Featherweight:

• Marco A. Barrera*
• Diego Corrales*
• Erik Morales*
• Manny Pacquiao

Lightweight:

• Diego Corrales
• Roberto Duran*
• Arturo Gatti*
• Juan Lazcano
• Vicente Escobedo
• Jesus Chavez
• Erik Morales
• Marco A. Barrera

Welterweight:

• Roberto Duran
• Arturo Gatti
• Ricky Hatton
• Ray Leonard*
• Ray Robinson*
• Micky Ward
• Oscar De La Hoya*

Middleweight:

• Bernard Hopkins
• Jake LaMotta
• Ray Leonard
• Ray Robinson
• Jermain Taylor
• Winky Wright
• Oscar De La Hoya
• Marvin Hagler
• Roy Jones Jr.*
• Roberto Duran

Light Heavy:

• Evander Holyfield*
• Roy Jones Jr.
• Jeff Lacy
• James Toney*
• Rey Mo**

Heavyweight:

• Muhammad Ali
• Joe Frazier
• Evander Holyfield
• Roy Jones Jr.
• James Toney
• Calvin Brock
• Floyd Patterson
• Goliath**
• Big E**

* designates fighters who are present in two weight classes

** designates hidden fighters

Soundtrack

• Back Again - Dilated Peoples
• Crook Dancin - Slic One
• Don't Stop - Roc 'C'
• Itz Nothin - Young Roscoe
• Knock Em Down - L.T.D. A.
• Never Gonna Get It - Sean Biggs feat. Akon & Topic
• Night Night - Consequence
• Round One - Kray Twinz feat. D&G
• The Arrival - Atmosphere
• The Best Out - Dipset
• Uh-Oh - Brasco
• Wanna Know - Obie Trice

Additional Notes

Fight Night Round 4 was developed by EA Canada and features former boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson as the poster boys for the game. The game was released on June 23rd, 2009.

The PS3 version of Fight Night Round 3 was actually ported/developed by EA CANADA.

Xbox 360 Game Installation

Fight Night Round 3 requires 3.4GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.