Yesterday, I had the displeasure to do a review on George Foreman’s KO Boxing. One of the worst sports games I had ever played, Foreman’s game was an ugly, painfully flawed title that made me wish George Foreman had never boxed. That’s quite a statement, as he’s one of the most recognizable and appreciated faces in the world of Boxing. So defying all laws of reality, a second game bearing Foreman’s likeness was released, called Foreman For Real. Are you for real? After that abomination of a video game, someone actually thought it would be a good idea to release another? Well, for some reason I decided to give this a shot. Was Foreman for real this time?
Is that the principal from Back to the Future in the ring with George Foreman?
After a brief opening showing Foreman working a body bag with one of the worst looking digitized faces in video game history, I go ahead and pick exhibition match. Selecting a boxer is a chore in of its self. Instead of a select screen that you can navigate, you press up or down on the dpad to change boxers. There’s a second and and half delay between pressing up or down and the screen changing over. There’s well over a dozen boxers to choose from, so it takes a while to get to the one you want. But why would you want to play as anyone but George? After you end up picking George, you have to select your opponent. Again, if you want someone specific, it’s a chore to get to him, so you’re better off facing the first guy you see.
After that debacle, you begin your match. The ring look absolutely huge, with a crowd that consists of the same three cut outs placed in the same patterns. It’s sad to see Doc from Back to the Future, ATF Agent Flemming from Beavis & Butthead: Do America and Curious George multiplied a dozen times and spread around to give the illusion of a crowd watching.
Notice Curious George behind and to the right of the boxer? Doc is right near him as well.
Lets talk about the boxers themselves….they animate with quite a bit of fluidity. They look like a mix between digitized and cartoon-like characters, in terms of appearance, with their heads and faces looking much darker than the rest of their body. Some of these boxers look scary as all hell, and its all unintentional, due to the digitized heads. As a whole, between looks and animation, this is so much better than that terrible slop from Foreman’s first title, but still pretty sickening. However, punch animations also lead up to the beginning of numerous knockout blows.
Punches feel so delayed because of the amount of animation to them. It makes throwing out combos in a fluid manner nearly impossible. Not only that, but for some reason I throw out a second punch half the time I throw one punch out with one button press. It’s beyond infuriating to throw two haymakers in a row and have no control over the fact that you pressed the button once. It makes the fact that Foreman For Real has more than two punch variations seem like a total waste when you’re not in total control half the time. Blocking seems to be pretty useless as well, as no matter how I try to block, a haymaker will always plow through and land on me. One laughable bit comes when you try moving all the way to the right side. Basically, if you’re player one, you’re always facing towards the right and your opponent to the left, and you can’t change that around at all.
The boxers animate very well for a 16 bit title, but the digitized heads look far too scary.
Opponent AI seems spotty as well. The first two rounds I could wail away, throw a ton of punches and he’ll take those hits, while not being very aggressive. Round 3 comes, and he’s ducking every punch I throw, landing counter hits half the time I miss. It’s not punishing and unfair like the first game, but its still pretty annoying. Then there’s the health bar….or is it the stamina bar? I land a lot of hits and I see my opponents bar dropping. He throws out a punch and loses more on his bar. When no action is taken, it regenerates with a good speed to it. In theory, the system is pretty good, as it takes in damage, stamina and fatigue into consideration. However, when you get your opponent to 20% of his bar left, and he starts to duck punches and avoid damage, and magically he’s back to 100%. You can do the same thing as well, giving you a chance to catch a breather and recuperate before a potential knock down. I commend Akklaim for trying something that makes sense, but it was poorly executed.
Foreman For Real proved it wasn’t really as bad as the first game that featured Foreman, but it still doesn’t resemble a memorable boxing title. Too many fundamentals to a boxing game are either undeveloped, or horribly butchered. Slow punches, control issues and a health system that’s easily abused by player and AI alike prove that Foreman is no contender for any titles. For Real.
The loser of this fight - anyone who bought this game.
Rating: 4.4
