Pros: decent graphics, fun for a little bit
Cons: fighting mechanics, storyline
The bottom line: If you still don't take my word, rent it first. When you're at the store, the game looked better because you never played longer than 20 minutes.
Before I owned a dreamcast I thought that this game was so cool. Every time I would see the demo unit for a dreamcast I would wait in line to teach nine year olds a lesson. Back then it seemed like this was one of the best boxing/fighting games that would be released on a home system. Don’t get me wrong, I love fireballs and all, but being able to knock combos on another character with your fists brings excitement to the genre.

After I played this game for over 20 hours I have realized one thing; this game is a fancy version of “rock ‘em and sock ‘em bots”. That is not an overstatement either because the AI in this game is weak and unbalanced. You can actually beat your opponent just by doing nothing but left jabs. Then there are also times when the computer can actually block 90% of the blows you throw.

Besides the AI in the game, the fighting system is also unfair. The game goes at about 60 frames per a second, but the controls don’t go at a similar rate of speed. If you’ve played Street Fighter 3 or Virtua Fighter 3, you will understand. If you’ve haven’t and still need more proof. Play this game for a long period of time and use a routine on your opponent. After that you should realize that your opponent could beat you with a matter of luck.

Besides the horrible fighting system, the game also flaws in storyline. You might be wondering how can a boxing game have a storyline? The characters in this game are fiction, therefore there should be some story to their background shouldn’t there? In a normal boxing game you know what happens to the boxers after the championship (money.money.money). After beating championship mode with your boxer, you’d expect something, but instead your character just dances around. If you beat championship mode with every character, you will get a credits show.

I feel so robbed because I spent almost 20 hours of my life playing this game and all I got was the game credits. The only good thing about the game is the graphics. The characters are modeled well, but they could be better. There is proof of that when the characters do their winning poses. In the version I played the shoulders and armpits get too jagged. From far away the graphics look great, but when you’re bored with the game, the winner animation really makes you think about how this game is not what’s hyped up to be.