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Electronic Arts
By: Elton Jones
Published Jul 5, 2023
It's easy to get caught up in the hype of a highly advertised boxing match when a room full of excited party patrons explodes at the sight of a sudden knockout. The art of one of the most brutal sports in the world is incredible to watch unfold - all sorts of weight classes are focused on to emphasize the carrying speeds, punching power, and stamina of professional pugilists. If you consider yourself both an avid follower of boxing and a hardcore game, then we already know you keep some of the picks on this list of the best boxing games in the tuck whenever the homies come over for a quick multiplayer session. These 12 games bring the best elements of boxing forward and feature distinct art styles, control schemes, and rosters. And we will always consider them the very best of the boxing game genre.
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Best Boxing Games
Electronic Arts
1. ‘Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!’
Available on: Nintendo Switch, NES
For any of you out there that got punched into early retirement by Mike Tyson at the end of this boxing game, kudos to you. Even with all the tips and tricks figured out by everyone and their grandmother years after this NES classic was first released, we still have a hard time avoiding the fierce fisticuffs Tyson has mastered in his 2D form. Before making our way to one of gaming's ultimate bosses, we had the time of our lives swiftly dodging our opponents' punches and putting them to sleep with some haymakers of our own. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! will always be remembered as one of the best boxing games due to its signature player viewpoint, engrossing fisticuffs, and hilariously named original rivals (shout out to Super Macho Man and Soda Popinski!).
2. 'Super Punch-Out!!'
Available on: Nintendo Switch, SNES
Once the NES generation came to a close, the "Super" era of Nintendo's 2D consoles arrived. And with the arrival of the SNES came new and improved versions of our favorite NES titles. Super Punch-Out!! is one of those games since it made the jump from 8-bit to 16-bit graphics and introduced some new rivals to knock out on the road to the W.V.B.A. Championship. Everything that works in this game's predecessor still remains a fun time in this sequel - punching and dodging against boxers of increasing difficulty never gets old here. We still got all the smoke in the world for Dragon Chan for kicking during a damn boxing match, fam!
3. ‘Knockout Kings 2001’
Available on: PS2, PS1
When we first got our PS2, we went crazy on two sports games - Madden NFL 2001 and Knockout Kings 2001. The latter got hella playtime out of us and plenty of other PS2 owners at the time due to several winning factors. This game's roster is full of bonafide boxing legends, such as Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Shane Mosley, and Oscar De La Hoya. And on the gameplay front, it felt so good to go against the grain and pull off some dirty moves just to screw around with some human competition. Knockout Kings 2001 will also be memorable for being the first (and only!) game in the series to give female boxers their rightful time to shine in video game form.
4. ‘Fight Night Round 4’
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360
We debated over placing Fight Night Round 3 and its sequel in this spot on our list of the best boxing games. After lots of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that Fight Night Round 4 is the better of the two thanks to the newly added physics engine that truly pushed the series and boxing games as a whole forward in a highly progressive manner. The high accuracy of that system did a phenomenal job in making all those landed punches look and feel as realistic as possible. The top-notch visuals still shine, plus the fact that this game blessed players with plentiful DLC additions, such as new modes (shout out to "Old School Rules" and "Ring Rivalries") and extra boxers (we had no issue paying for Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya, and Sonny Liston!).
5. ‘Fight Night Champion’
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360
If we're going to mention another Fight Night game on this list, it most definitely has to be this one. We've never had a better story mode for a boxing game since Fight Night Champion hit the scene (which is such a sad and sobering thought when you say it out loud...). Following the trials and tribulations of the fictional boxer Andre Bishop still resonates with us due to all the obstacles thrown in his way (D.L McQueen is such a huge POS!). Besides this game's amazing single-player campaign, Fight Night Champion sticks out as another boxing game favorite of ours thanks to a retooled control scheme, improved physics animation system, and super fun "Bare Knuckle Mode."
6. ‘Creed: Rise to Glory - Championship Edition'
Available on: PS VR 2, PS VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive
The original version of this virtual reality boxer is great. But it's the upgraded version that's worth returning to every now and again since it adds so much worthwhile content for boxing fans. Creed: Rise to Glory - Championship Edition throws in a short yet satisfying single-player campaign mode called "Legacy," improved graphics (especially on the PS VR2!), a bigger roster, more arenas, and new modes that work hand in hand with intense exercise sessions. Training under the great Rocky Balboa and stepping into the ring with a bunch of famous faces from the Rocky and Creed movie franchises in first-person VR form is such an eye-opening experience.
7. ‘Ready 2 Rumble Boxing’
Available on: Dreamcast, PS1, N64, Game Boy Color
When we consider the best boxing games that go for a more arcade-like feel instead of a simulation feel, our minds revert to Midway's zany in-ring brawler. Ready to Rumble Boxingfeatures a collective of charismatic boxers that have hilarious names and unforgettable character designs. We always gravitated toward the likes of Afro Thunder, Selene Strike, and Nat Daddy! Thanks to the more button-mashy gameplay approach, there is so much more fun to be had with the game's wild movesets (pulling off a "Rumble Flurry" feels so damn good!). Having Bruce Buffer in place as the game's official fight announcer did wonders for this game's amazing presentation. The Dreamcast version is obviously the best one to play, folks!
8. ‘Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2’
Available on: PS2, Dreamcast, PS1, N64, Game Boy Advance
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 will always stick in our memory banks due to how wild its roster ended up being. Alongside all the awesome boxers that popped up in the first game, there are a ton of playable celebrities at your leisure here - the great Michael Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton all get in the ring to land some nasty KOs! What we love most about the gameplay here is the ability to reach up to three levels of a boxer's "RUMBLE" level, which produces an automatic ring knockout (literally) upon landing their maximum special maneuver.
9. ‘Wii Sports’
Available on: Wii
Wii Sports commanded the attention of young folks, middle-aged gamers, and senior citizens when it originally launched as a pack-in game with the Nintendo Wii in 2006. Tennis, bowling, and baseball stood out as our go-to games as part of this motion-controlled minigame collection. But the one we returned to more than anything else was the boxing game, which could have an entire living room full of patrons screaming at the top of their lungs as they use the Wiimote to pull off cartoonish punches. Smacking around our friends that look just like their Mii avatars still resonates with party-minded gamers even to this very day.
10. ‘Punch-Out!!’
Available on: Wii
Nintendo and Next Level Games must have taken a closer look at all the fun Wii owners were having with the boxing portion of Wii Sports and decided to revive a throwback boxing IP to keep those boxing fans entertained. Little Mac and his eccentric cast of foes got a worthy graphical upgrade in 2009's Punch-Out!! The use of the Wiimote, Nunchuk, and Wii Balance Board come together wonderfully to produce a great workout regime and addictive motion-controlled approach to climbing the ladder through the "World Video Boxing Association." "Title Defense" mode is awesome because it gives players a good reason to take on the same rivals they'd beaten to get to the top since those same opponents adopt new techniques to throw you off your game.
11. ‘Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory’
Available on: PS2
The Hajime no Ippo manga/anime has been given its flowers for being of the best sports takes on the genre and one of the best series period. You may have missed out on this underrated PS2 fighter when it was released in 2001. Now that we're bringing it to your attention, do yourself a favor and give it a shot because it's better than you'd expect when you consider the quality of anime fighters from the sixth console generation. Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory features a graphical style that mimics the actual manga/anime, a good mixture of simulation & arcade-style mechanics, and a shockingly immersive story mode. We get as much enjoyment out of playing this digital boxer as we do when we catch the CPU clobber each other.
12. ‘Wade Hixton's Counter Punch’
Available on: Game Boy Advance
It will always blow our minds just how gorgeous this game looks in motion on the Game Boy Advance when we consider the actual power of the hardware Nintendo's little handheld has. Wade Hixton's Counter Punch wraps up this list of the best boxing games thanks to its aforementioned visual style and gameplay mechanics that bring back the best elements of Nintendo's Punch-Out!! games. With Wade Hixton taking the role of the up-and-coming boxer role that Little Mac is so regaled for, players got to smash all sorts of quirky characters (major kudos to Rocco McScrub and Mimi Li!) on their way to the top of the boxing mountain.
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