Review: Real Boxing

As more and more games make the cross-over from iOS and Android to the PlayStation Vita, its game library continues to expand with more niche gaming genres. We have already had a motorcycle trials title in Urban Trials Freestyle and an endless runner in Jetpack Joyride – now the sport of boxing is getting its first Vita entry with Real Boxing from Vivid Games.

The game opens with a brief tutorial, showing you the basics of the game. There are multiple control schemes, including touch screen, face buttons and analog sticks. In this case, I used the physical buttons option as they feel more tactile and you know when you press them. However, Real Boxing isn’t done – Vivid also decided to use Vita’s gyroscope for one of the most annoying mid-fight mini-games I have ever experienced. When you clinch with your opponent (or to the untrained eye, homo-erotically hug them), a balance bar appears. Tragically, the sensitivity and angles the gyro control requires is all over the place.

After completing the tutorial, you are invited to name your fighter. This introduced a personal sore point, in that my full name didn’t fit into the field. After overcoming this egregious affront to my family’s honour (and settling on Tits McGee), exploring the various character options tells you immediately that while Real Boxing doesn’t hold a candle to games like Mass Effect when it comes to character customisation, there are enough options to be getting on with.

The single player component of the game consists of Quick Match and Career modes – the Ronseal tagline comes into play here. Your career consists of three basic competitions, of increasing difficulty – each one places you in a league structure where you compete against seven other fighters, before reaching the semi-final and final. The lack of variety in the competition’s structure can make progression a chore at times.

In still form, Real Boxing looks quite good. Unfortunately, the character animations can feel janky at times. This would not be a massive issue in most other games, but as this is a fighting game, you need to be able to judge whether you are hitting your opponent – or if you are dodging quickly enough to parry a punch.

The multiplayer mode in the game is a little barebones, in that it is primarily a leaderboard challenge. The actual fights are relatively lag-free and fun though. However, when the lag does become an issue, it exacerbates the hit detection issue.

Each fight grants you upgrade points, which can be spent to improve your boxer’s strength, stamina and speed. As you progress through the Career mode, improving your fighter becomes more and more important. Thankfully, the cash you earn from fights can also be spent buying further upgrade points, as well as unlocking more customisation options for your character. There are also goals you can achieve during each fight that can win you additional points. They normally involve simple tasks like knocking out your opponent with a hook. However, they sometimes ask you to do counter-intuitive things like getting up from three KOs and then win – basically almost lose the fight.

Finally, there is a gym where you can train, with mini-games like sparring and skipping rope available. Strangely, completing these tasks does not improve your stats – instead, you unlock perks that you can assign to your fighter, like stamina boosts and quicker health regeneration between rounds. This means that in order to take on later fights, you will probably need to restart earlier title championships to level up your character – which just seems odd.

Real Boxing is a game of ups and downs. For every good control mechanism, there is a dodgy gyroscopic-balancing mini-game ready to ruin your fun. For every nice looking visual, there is an anatomical abnormality ready to take you out of the experience (and freak you out). If you are a fan of the genre, this is a competent, cheap option – I just don’t think there is enough here to make this a knockout punch.

Sorry about that one…