Don King Presents: Prizefighter

Reviewed by:
Gerasimos Manolatos

The Skinny: Create your own fighter, win a few fights, and you might be lucky enough to get exploited by Don King.

The Good: The game has a pretty extensive player customization mode. (For the record, we attempted to make a Kimbo Slice character, but wound up with a guy resembling Suge Knight.) The addition of classic fights—Braddock vs. Baer and Marciano vs. Louis, for example—is a nice touch.

The Bad: Game play is as coherent as the title's namesake. The controls are unresponsive and often yield unintended flurries of punches, and boredom ensues after just the first few levels of fighters. Punctuate all of that with wholly uninteresting video montages of shady boxing personalities and random celebrities—we're pretty sure this is Mario Van Peebles' first and last video game appearance—and you've got something as attractive as Mike Tyson's face tattoo.

Feel the Non-Spectaculocity! Remember when Don King was stirring shit up at news conferences and giving matches cool names like "Thrilla in Manila"? Well, you won't find any of that in his Masterpiece Theatre–esque moments of video game glory.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel? Pass. Then wait for Fight Night Round 4.

Share