Is Fight Night 2004 The BEST Boxing Game EVER? [EA Sports Fight Night 2004 Review PS2/XboX]

Virtual pugilism at its finest.

[@mauricefromyt]

Fight night 2004 is my favorite boxing game on the ps2

[@stormapproachin6969]

Try out victorious boxers 2 it's also good

[@nicksrandomreviews]

Victorious Boxers 2 is a goddamn masterpiece. I want that shit up in the Leuvre.

[@donavonhoward114]

Fight Night 2004 allows you to use lateral movement to actually turn your opponent like in real life. For instance, if you move laterally circling away from a punch, your opponent will miss with their straight punches, or uppercuts. When you throw a punch, your fighter will have to plant his feet for a split second, even if they are jabbing, and they cannot move while blocking at the same time. Also, when you move laaterally, but your opponent stands stationary, their feet will actually move to adjust instead of just magically sliding in place like in Fight Night Champion, or Fight Night Round 4. Basically, the footwork is more realistic in a boxing game made back in 2004 than any boxing game that has come after it. Fight Night Round 3 is also pretty realistic in a similar way, but I still don't think it's better than FN 2004 overall. Round 4 is a great game as well, but unless you play it on an emulator, it doesn't have a button option for punch controls out of the box. They patched it after it was first released and added button controls for consoles, but the servers have been down for a long time now. Fight Night Champion is probably the best Fight Night game as far as an overall simulation, but I have come to prefer FN 2004 a little bit more personally.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

Out of the three I've played so far, I would say 2004 definitely has the best movement in terms of realism. I think Round 2's is a bit chunkier. It feels like I'm piloting my boxer like the goddamn Megazord. Which fuels my theory that Lennox Lewis is in fact being controlled by five teenagers in colour coded spandex. Round 3 is the best movement in his it feels. Yeah, it is the least realistic, which means that it kind of fails at what it set out to do, accurately depict the sport of boxing, but it feels more natural and intuitive. It feels more game-y, for lack of a better term. It isn't factually correct, but it just flows a bit better. 4 is...oh god. Spoilers for my Round 4 review, but I don't like much about 4. It just feels gross to play. Champion is clunky, right back to feeling like I'm piloting a mech, but everything else is so good, that I can sort of overlook that.

[@HansCast]

I personally feel that the Fight Night series peaked at Champion. Great review. This channel deserves more subs.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

Champion is a damn solid game, and I am psyched for the chance to talk about it. I feel like nobody has actually put it under the microscope, and I'm excited to get to it.

[@SlowMoImpact]

Champion is terrible. Auto blocks body and head with one button meanwhile 2004 has 6 directional block and parry.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@@SlowMoImpact Complexity isn't always an indicator of quality. As much as I like 2004, and Round 2, I found that the games focused too much on parries. A lot of my matches were spent waiting for a shot, parrying it, landing a few more shots, then just back to waiting for parries. Mind you, as a long time fighting game player, I am aware this is likely not an issue with actual human opponents.

[@kam01096]

@@SlowMoImpact its still not really a trash game just less sim overall

[@KimfeeYT]

Stoppage due to cuts does happen. I played it for months. I think jabs never KOs and makes a stoppage. But just keep hammering the cut and it will stop. Maybe it is in the options

[@nicksrandomreviews]

I learned much too late that they do happen, just not nearly as often as in later games in the series. Probably going to have to do a video on all the things I get wrong in my reviews.

[@goodlookinouthomie1757]

Is the total punch system not the same as what they used in Round 3? I've been playing that and really liked the controls. Maybe it's just that the XBox 360 has more responsive analogue controls.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@@goodlookinouthomie1757 So yes, and no. The TPC saw steady improvements as the games went on. Despite sharing a name, the controls in Round 3 feel a lot more accurate. Whether or not its due to the 360's more responsive sticks, or EA just fine-tuning things on their end is anyone's guess.

[@rodsimpson518]

I personally think this is the best Fight Night game. The graphics are better on Round 4 and Champion obviously but Fight Night 2004 had the best gameplay.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@@rodsimpson518 2004 is such a damn good game, and I really have a hard time picking which game in the series I prefer, because even when one does something I don't like, there's always something that makes me overlook it.

[@hypnoticskull6342]

Made one of the best boxing game series ever. While I'm an MMA boy at heart, boxing is so beautiful

[@nicksrandomreviews]

Isn't it? It's like a Van Gogh painting, but with cauliflower ear and a busted lip.

[@prod.eastcqastlsd]

i love your channel bro PLS PLS PLS make a video on the new boxing game undipisuted in a few months when they finally drop the beta for career mode, your funny asf and i love boxing so i need more videos from you🙏imma check out your ufc stuff too even tho i dont watch ufc like that cause you funny asf but i would love to hear you talk about other boxing games now😂🤝

[@larrycrowne8330]

I played all the FN games growing up and recently replayed most of them. I felt like in the PS2 era 2004 had the best gameplay and weight to the punches, but the mini-game for getting up from knockdowns was a game breaker for me. I thought Round 2 was a lot faster paced and the AI’s abuse of the parry system totally ruins career mode on higher difficulties once you start breaking into the top 15. Round 3’s career mode had a lot more to it, but the punches have absolutely no weight behind them, and the parry issue is still there though nowhere near as bad as Round 2. Some people say Round 4 is the best game, though this seems to be a purists opinion. I couldn’t say as I haven’t played it since release. I will add that I was disappointed when replaying Champion. The footwork is atrocious and fights often feel like you’re limited to fighting on the outside or a war or attrition on the inside. It feels like there’s very little middle-ground in terms of fighting style. UFC Undisputed 3 is still my go to combat sports game. The Pride FC game with the Grand Prix is also a pretty fun game, though it’s very bare bones and you can see everything it has to offer in half an hour.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

I found 2004 and Round 2's AI both abuse the hell out of parries, but Round 2 is way worse for it. I almost feel like that's a thing EA has never really gotten right, because even in the first two UFC games the AI abuses parries like the wife of a drunken factory worker. With Round 3, I've weirdly only played the PSP version, and it's really solid, but I doubt it's as robust as the main versions. I'm looking forward to reviewing 3, as I've heard good things about it. It'll also be the first one reviewed on original hardware, so there's that. I have never played Round 4, but Champion is good. It's chunky and slow, but I like it well enough. I do agree with the footwork not being that great. Even lower weight classes feel sluggish in it.

[@thasauceyceo]

To get up you have to match the ea logos one at a time

[@markarmas9618]

but you cant win another title belt in career mode 😢😢😢

[@PowerMetalRealm]

Champions still the best in my opinion

[@nicksrandomreviews]

It's a damn fine game. I can't say if it's the best, as I've yet to play Rounds 2 and 4. I've yet to play Round 3 outside of the PSP version. We'll get there eventually.

[@southsidetherealest2860]

hell naw thats a street fighter reskinned 😂

[@overwhelmingtactician3011]

Ngl alot of your bad points about the game is just because youre bad at the game bro lol. You didnt know how the heavy bag game worked at all and all you had to do watch match the EA patch on the refs shit shits easy as hell.... and the total punch control is a choice so i mean thats valid im not trying to hater bro i just noticed alot of misinformation in the video cut stoppages happen. and the reason why your punch dont come out right is because youre thowring feints not punches.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

The game should really do a much better job explaining those things. Later games did. Round 2 isn't that functionally different from 2004, it just explains things far more concisely.

[@overwhelmingtactician3011]

@@nicksrandomreviews I agree they should but tbf they had manuals back then to look at if they didn’t know stuff and I remember vividly this game having videos the punching mini games didn’t have those kinda a figure it out or get the manual. With the heavy bag game they reward you for swinging the bag so say you throw a right hook you should throw a left to swing it the other way you get combo and max swing bonuses for it basically you gotta be looking like captain America to get points. But I agree they should’ve explained better

[@AussieGamer.1990]

Nah, Round 2 is the best fight night game in my opinion, you can hold the punches with the stick instead of flicking it, there's none of this power modifier bullshit, you hold it back and power it up with the stick. It's great. Round 2 is even graphically better than this garbage of a boxing game, looks rushed and cartoony.

[@nicksrandomreviews]

@@AussieGamer.1990 I'd say Round 2 is probably the best of the games that I've reviewed so far. Its got a near perfect mix of being easy to play, while also being a really good boxing sim, which is what I feel Round 4 failed at. I find all of the Fight Nights look great for their hardware. Round 2 looks as good as a sports game could on the sixth generation of hardware.