Cert: 16+
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: Sport Sim
One thing is obvious when you slip this much anticipated follow-up to the excellent Fight Night Round 3 into your console for the first time: Round 4 can easily claim the world title at being one of the finest looking next-gen games ever made. It's that simple. As soon as you select your first boxer, be it real or created, and step through the ropes of your first ring, this game will blow you away, and reaffirm the power and capabilities of the next-gen systems.
A collective who's who from the boxing world are available, spanning all weight classes, so you can choose from the likes of Ricky Hatton to the great Muhammad Ali, and also making his Fight Night Debut, the enigmatic Mike Tyson, each fighter bearing an incredible likeness to their real-world counterparts.
But it's the Legacy Mode where most of your time will be spent, as you create and sculpt fighter, customising him as you see fit (including the option to import your own image through game face) before you set him on the path to achieving your eventual World Title glory. There's also the option in World Championship mode to take your boxer online and compete for titles around the world.
Newcomers to the franchise may at first find the controls daunting and slightly awkward to begin with, but after your first few bouts you'll realise how much sense the control system makes: push the top of right analog stick for a right hook, push the bottom for a body shot, pushing it the other way for a left. It's a really clever and simplistic control method, and here it works perfectly.
Powerhouse stuff.
Rent or Buy: Buy
Graphics: 5/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Replay Value: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
Reviewd by: Simon Rubbathan
