~ CHAMPIONS FOREVER BOXING ~
Distinctive Software / NEC
HuCard
1991
My early impressions of this one weren't at all positive. The famous/infamous "hip hop" title-screen music disappointed me, as I found its "beats" technically unimpressive and the accompanying Fighting Street-quality voices unamusing. And then there was the
horrid in-fight animation. Isn't boxing supposed to be the "sweet science"? There's nothing graceful about these plodders, and their blows seem extremely weak.
But once I got going in the career mode, I started to appreciate Champions for its gameplay style. It ain't about button mashing (though two-player battles can degenerate into back-and-forth bludgeon fests). It's about taking your time; utilizing your jab
during a match's early stages to whittle away your opponent's stamina while powering up your blows of choice; and breaking out your power punches later on, when your foe has been sufficiently bloodied up. Most boxing games, especially older ones, take after the brief,
action-packed slugfests of Rocky III, but Champions embraces the epic, go-the-distance style of the first Rocky.
It's a nice departure from the boxing-game button-smashing norm, but it's very methodical, and it won't make for nearly as good a test of your hand-eye coordination as Mike Tyson's Punch-out would. In fact, it's ridiculously easy unless you play foolishly. I
didn't lose a single round in the fifteen-match career mode, let alone a whole fight.
And if anything, Champions is too averse to the unpredictable. I wish that it allowed for the possibility of solid, well-placed hits wiping out a fighter's vitality in the blink of an eye--the sort of random killer blows that are occasionally delivered in
Andre Panza Kick Boxing. Devastating, tide-turning shots do happen in real-life boxing, after all. Champions' matches are very long and very easy; even the slightest chance that the computerized opposition could turn the tables on me with one huge punch would at least keep
me on my toes and make things a bit more interesting. As it is, knockdowns are the results of systematic pummeling, which gets boring after a while.
