Games of the Generation: Fight Night Round 3

So I plan to bore the internet and myself with a bunch of posts about the games that defined the seventh console generation for me (starting with the Xbox 360, including the Wii and the PS3). These are going to be either the best games of the generation, or milestones in the generation, or just games that meant a lot to me personally.  The first of these is the game that really helped define the beginning of the seventh generation:

Fight Night Round 3

This may not be the best boxing game of all time.  It may not even be the best one in the Fight Night series.  Actually I'm pretty sure it's not.   It is, however, the moment that I knew the next generation had arrived.  Specifically when I first played the demo.  There were only two boxers in the demo: Roy Jones Jr., and Bernard Hopkins. Extremely canny choices by the development team, it showed these guys really knew boxing.

At the time, I didn't really know boxing.  I had only vaguely heard of Roy Jones Jr., and I had never heard of Bernard Hopkins at all.  I certainly didn't know that Jones had beaten Hopkins in a boring unanimous decision with only one usable hand, and I didn't know that fans had been clamoring for a rematch during the intervening years.  I did, however know that the overall visual fidelity of what I was seeing on my screen surpassed anything I'd ever experienced in a video game before.  It really no longer looked like a game.  It looked like a CG movie, and at times, it could almost be mistaken for a real boxing match. 

When the game finally came out, I poured hours into it, I created a boxer and finished the career mode (thousand pointing it as I did so).  I re-played famous fights over and over again.  Ali-Frazer, Robinson-LaMotta, Jones-Hopkins, Leonard-Hagler.  The game turned me into a boxing fan.  I had to know all about the men these avatars represented, I studied up on boxing, learned about Floyd Mayweather, and both Sugar Rays, I learned about Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya (you'll notice not all of these guys were even in this game).  I would watch boxing on TV and between rounds play Fight Night.  I would watch TV and play Fight Night during commercials.  If I ever had any down time, Fight Night went in. 

The mechanics were brilliant, the Sweet Science boiled down to a few button presses.  Set up the heavier blows with the jab, duck, move, counter.  Is your guy fast?  Keep away.  Is your guy strong?  Get inside and fight in a phone booth.  You can never really capture the style of a guy like Roy Jones, but you can feel what it is to be the faster man, and what it is to pack a huge wallop.  Fight Night executed on this beautifully.  Eventually the game felt a little shallow, with the haymakers and the counters possibly being slightly overpowered, but it didn't stop me from playing. 

Visually, it set the bar for what fighting games should look like, a bar few have met.  The fight night and UFC games from EA are in a league by themselves when it comes to fighting game visuals.  At least in my opinion.  Blood and sweat coming off the body, great cloth simulation, and that slow motion punch to the face.  Just amazing visual moments that truly set this game apart.

I bought the next two Fight Night games and thoroughly enjoyed them, but Round 3 will always have a special place in my heart.