Fight Night: Round 3 [PSP]

When EA dropped its Knockout Kings franchise and first unveiled its replacement, EA Sports Fight Night 2004, we knew videogame boxing would never be the same. Taking a cue from Victorious Boxers' analog stick-driven input and expanding it into what is now one of the most natural and realistic input schemes in videogames, the Fight Night series has managed to transform the sweet science of boxing into a highly interactive and intuitive form, keeping true to both the brutality and sweetness of its science.

Honestly, when we first heard that Fight Night was indeed making its way to the PSP, we were quite a bit skeptical. One of the main reasons the series works so well is its dual analog control scheme, with overall movement assigned to the left stick and punches and blocks assigned to the right. It's so much a part of what makes the series great that the PSP's lack of a second analog stick would seem to have made a proper translation nearly impossible.

From what we've seen so far however, we're quite pleasantly surprised at just how well the game's mechanics have been ported. Sure, punches and blocks are now assigned to the face buttons, so while it's not quite the same game as the console variants, its look, and most importantly, feel, appear to be as spot-on as can be given the system's abilities.

Fight Night Round 3 on the consoles introduces a number of new play mechanics, like new Impact Punches that allow to you intentionally try Flash KO's. As moving the franchise to the PSP was already something of a risky undertaking, some of the new in-ring additions to this year's release didn't make the cut into the PSP version. Part of the reason is that the control scheme would likely have gotten out of hand, so to speak.

As mentioned, the right analog stick's usual commands have been assigned to the four face buttons. It's set up in such a way that each of your boxer's arms are still independently controllable, allowing you to throw punches and place blocks anywhere you'd like, just as with the console versions. Square and Triangle function as left and right straights, respectively, while X and Circle are assigned to hooks. Pressing either Square and X or Triangle and Circle simultaneously will have you throw an uppercut, while holding either X or Circle will unleash a Haymaker.

The left trigger works just like the console versions in that it'll allow you to punch to the body or pivot your feet and move your torso to dodge. The right trigger will perform blocks, with the four face buttons allowing you to position your blocks in order to parry and counterpunch.

We put in a number of rounds with the game and though using buttons will never be as cool as using an analog stick to punch, the control layout worked extremely well. It was highly responsive, with punches like Haymakers taking no longer to throw than with an analog stick, even though you need to hold the appropriate button for a second. The layout is also natural enough that pinpointing punches was very simple to do; by the end of our first round we were throwing one-two punches to the body with a follow-up Haymaker to the head with ease.

Really, from what we were able to take from it, we can't think of a better way for the Fight Night control layout to have been translated to the PSP. Sure, the button assignments might sound somewhat obvious, but it's the little things, like assigning uppercuts to dual-button presses rather than Haymakers, that make it work as naturally as it does. Just as with the console variants, the PSP version of Fight Night makes use of the button layout in the way that is most intuitive with the greatest amount of control, and it works very well.