Ok so Boxing might be on the back burner thanks to an ear-eating chap by the name of Mike Tyson but the sport still has an ardent following. Perhaps no more so than in the UK where we (yeah WE) have our own World Champ that goes by the name of Prince Naseem Hamed (HBO subscribers will know who he is since he fights in the US). Basically he's the biggest ticket in World Boxing right now and therefor UK based Codemasters (our next stop on this long and meandering UK tour) have licensed the man in question and based a whole PC game around him. Of course you'll be able to choose from another 16 fighters (including Naz) and up to eight players can participate in a round-robin tournament. For those of you that want to pick up where Burgess Meredith (Mick from Rocky) left off, you'll not only be able to fight but also train and manage boxers as well. You'll need to manage their diet (so don't choose Big George Foreman), training and fight diaries. Sadly you won't be allowed to play the role of the ever so pleasant and angelic Don King. Shame that.
Codemasters has gone for sharp graphics (via the use of a 3D accelerator) meshed with a touch of realism that includes boxers being able to sweat (how nice) and boxer dynamics that affect recovery rates after knockdowns. You can pull all sorts of punches (wow what a pun eh?) including, attacking jabs, hooks, upper cuts and ear biting (we wish). As well as the offensive manoeuvres, you can also defend yourself by ducking, weaving or using a block punch. Tactics will also play a significant part as you can fight as a regular right hander or indeed a more unconventional southpaw. Sadly you won't be able to yell, "Adriaaaaan!" at the conclusion of a bout though.
All that's left to say is that we can see that this game will go down as well as Naz himself does on the canvas when the game is released in Q2 of this year across the board on PC, PSX and N64. Ding ding.