His shirt looks like it's covered in the nuts they make Nutella out of.
I realise that, with the game now on sale, a preview seems a bit redundant. But I also realise that a lot of people aren’t going to buy or play Don King Boxing on DS. So here is a preview I wrote that appeared in issue #186 of Hyper magazine. Now you’ll know what you may or may not be missing out on! Clickety click for more words on a page!
Fingers - Don King has them.
system: DS
category: boxing?
players: 1-2
developer: 2K Sports
If there’s one complaint I have to make about public transport during summer, it’s that there are too many big, sweaty men whose armpits I tend to find my face buried in during peak hour. It’s not pleasant, but it happens. So you can imagine the joy I felt when I recently found myself on the train, in peak hour, wedged between the sweaty pits of hairy giants while on my DS screen were more big sweaty men, splashing digital perspiration in my general direction.
Ported from the Xbox 360, Don King Presents Prizefighter stays true to the original, from the training mode (more on this later), to the small beads of sweat that fling their way across the screen every time you deliver a decent punch to an opponent. The game requires you to choose and customise a character before guiding them through their boxing career, which involves taking part in fights and managing their fame.
Character customisation is rather limited as all your options look like a sleepy Vin Diesel, but you can name your boxer and change their accessories. With Eye of the Tiger blasting through the DS speakers and a strong Rocky vibe to the game, I decided to name my boxer Bogs and adorned him with a shiny pair of boxing hot pants, green boxing gloves, and a gnarly tattoo. During this stage, I was also given the option to alter Bogs’ skill set, such as increasing/decreasing his strength, dexterity, agility, and stamina. The problem was that I couldn’t come back to this screen to re-adjust Bogs’ skills after I’d tested them out in a fight. As such, I found myself making another character, Meatloaf.
With a properly adjusted skill set, Meatloaf faired much better in fights and was much less frustrating to play. Using the DS stylus, you tap and draw horizontal and vertical lines across the screen to control your player. The tutorial makes the process seem fairly straight forward, with direct taps equating to straight bunches, horizontal lines being hook strokes, and vertical lines being upward punches. There are also combo sets that require several taps at certain points on the screen. In the actual fights, however, things aren’t as straight forward. As hard as I tried to apply the tutorial’s moves into practice, Meatloaf seldom responded to my directions and I found myself resorting to stylus mashing.
Accompanying the main ‘story’ (or lack thereof) are a series of mini-games in training mode, such as jump-rope, heavy bag, focus mitts, and speed bag. Most of these mini-games require you to tap the screen or hit a series of buttons at the right time in response to what appears on the screen. While these games are incredibly simple, they complement the ‘story’ and are highly addictive, if not a massive blow to the self-esteem. Case in point: when you miss a hit or jump, you’re berated and put down by some mafiaso-sounding trainer. It’s spirit crushing. Yet, I kept coming back for more.
While this isn’t a meaty type of game inasmuch that it’s not something that will require much time investment, it’s light fun in a spirit-crushing sort of way, with emphasis in the ‘light’ and ‘spirit-crushing’. Now excuse me while I go and cry about disappointing Don King.
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