Boxing’s Finally Making its Way Back into the Gaming Scene
Recently, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have made their way into EA Sports’ newest UFC game, and the unified world champion even features in the latest FIFA game. Yet, the colossal sports game publisher continues to decline to make another triple-A boxing game.
It’s been almost a decade since Fight Night Champion, but luckily, plenty of other developers have been picking up the slack. With the resurgence of the sport’s popularity, boxing games are rising to prominence once again, so here are some of the best ones to dig into now and look forward to in the months to come.
Boxing on consoles
Often peoples’ go-to devices for gaming sessions, home consoles like the Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo have a decent collection of exciting boxing games to play. One of the best across multiple platforms is Punch Club. It’s more of a general fighting game, but you can specifically hone your character to be a pure boxer in this retro-style, story-driven boxing management game.
Given that 2020 has been a year of weight gain across the board, there’s nothing better than Fitness Boxing 2 on the Nintendo Switch for a more hands-on approach. It’s very highly-rated by this review page, citing its two-player support, stat tracking, and routine difficulty levels as some of the key reasons why it’s a must-get game for boxing and fitness enthusiasts.
Of course, boxing fans tend to want to play games that lace them up as the would-be champion, which is exactly what you can do in the classics revived by Arcade Archives, Punch-Out!! On the other hand, you can wait for the next high-quality boxing game to hit the market, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. Featuring the stars of the Rocky franchise, the arcade boxing game is set to be all about big hits. The report on this site even says that there’ll be training montage mini-games.
Boxing on PC
The PC platform is perfect for in-depth sports management simulation titles, and while rather unique and not highly-publicized, World Boxing Manager offers a solid experience for fans of the sport. In the game, you play as the manager of your own stable of boxers, recruiting new stars, training them in your gym, and deciding when and who they’ll take on in their next bout.
If it’s just some boxing thrills that you’re after, rather than learn a complex boxing game, the best platform to turn to is the browser-based Video Slots. Not only does it have Michael Buffer’s Let’s Get Ready to Rumble, Rocky, and Knockout Wins, but the online blog article featuring reviews and bonuses gives you 11 no-deposit spins to try the games out for yourself, for free. Just like boxing, the online casino industry is very competitive, with many duking it out with various bonuses to get your attention.
For gamers who stick to the high-priced world of triple-A gaming, boxing’s set to make a highly-anticipated return to the top with eSports Boxing Club. Currently in the works and billed for an early-access release on Steam soon, it’ll feature a career mode, online tournaments, and a whole roster of licensed boxers from the past and present.
The foundations of boxing in gaming have been re-established by some superb smaller games across all platforms, and now, we’re not far away from triple-A titles breaking onto the scene again.
