Back in 1990, choosing Buster Douglas was the thing to do. The path to Iron Head is as easy with Buster Douglas as it is with Kim Nang, so choosing a boxer is all about who the player prefers. More like Dynamite Dork, am I right, folks?Įach boxer handles essentially the same in Knockout Boxing, so there really isn’t any advantage to picking one boxer over another. ( Seriously: Iron Head will destroy you.) Iron Head, according to the game’s instruction manual, is “the toughest battle of your life”… and that’s not an exaggeration. In order to reach Iron Head, players must win the Championship belt by defeating four boxers and then defend the belt four times. In this version, two new boxers-Buster Douglas, and the game’s final boss, Iron Head-are added to the coin-op roster, which includes Dynamite Joe, King Jason, Kim Nang, and Fernando Gomez. Knockout Boxing is actually an altered version of Final Blow, a 1988 boxing arcade game from Taito. Unfortunately, as far as the underlying game goes, Knockout Boxing isn’t anywhere close to being a contender for Boxing Video Game Champion. Douglas was similar in his underdog status to where SEGA was versus the Nintendo juggernaut in the console video game industry at the time. When Douglas beat Tyson via knockout in the tenth round of their fight on February 11, 1990, it made sense for SEGA to sign Douglas to a deal for a boxing game. James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing tried to take advantage of one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Be sure to follow him on Twitter never felt a blow so final.
It's a simulation in the dullest sense of the word.This review is brought to you by the one and only Retro Referee, Peter Skerritt. This is literally a glorified spreadsheet, and not in that joking way that people call Football Manager a glorified spreadsheet: this is actually Excel with a boxing-themed interface.
There's not even a semblance of gameplay here: there are no management options, you can't start training a young fighter from bar fights to international tournaments, you can't do anything remotely fun.
#TITLE BOUT CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING GAMEPLAY FULL#
What you get is a screen full of numbers and meters, and a little 2D image of your sluggers in a ring, occasionally moving, or if you're lucky, knocking one another to the mat in a single frame of animation.
#TITLE BOUT CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING GAMEPLAY SOFTWARE#
Well, being bored out of your tree.Ĭombine the two and you get TitleBout Championship Boxing, a piece of software (it definitely doesn't fall under the definition of 'game') which allows you to take two of over 4,000 fighters and make them fight one another. Whereas Excel spreadsheets, boring grids teeming with pointless numbers, statistics and variables, along with confusing arrays of digits and long words, bafflingly intricate options and almost non-existent graphics echo traditions of. Every jawshattering punch, every deft duck and weave and every bloodied and shattered face echoes traditions of an ancient sport. Boxing, the visceral and primal sport, a battle of endurance, stamina and strength between two finely-tuned fighting machines, a clash of veritable titans.