Black & Bruised review

[Ruined]

Well, this title was on sale for $7.99 for PS2, looked really stylish and unique, and looked to be another Ready 2 Rumble arcade boxing game. I picked it up, thinking "How could I go wrong?!" Below I will detail how.

Graphics - B
Okay, so you are probably wondering how such a stylish title gets a B in graphics. Well the fact is, though the animations look pretty nice when the boxers are dancing around, along with the cel shading, the actual boxing animations are subpar. When you punch, it goes so fast you barely see your fist move. In other words, the actual 'boxing' action looks very odd in motion. Also, despite the unique style, a lot of characters come off as generic-looking for some reason

Sound - F
The music stinks, the voices are lame, and there are audio glitches sometimes before a match loads. And when you punch someone, it sounds like you are hitting them with a wiffle-ball bat instead of actually punching them. Crappy sound effects in general.

Gameplay - D
I really tried to like this game, but I found it devoid of fun. There is little boxing involved, mainly just button mashing. But even when you button mash the animations seem disjointed. Blocking is a joke, and ducking, weaving, etc is virtually nonexistant... I'd even say this game seems more like a fighting game than a boxing game, and it does both genres poorly. It has the "special move" combos and pace of a fighting game, but lacks the responsiveness and strategy, yet it is set in the realm of boxing, but lacks the fundamental elements of the sport. This is game is not only unrealistic, but its unrealistic and isn't fun. I'm not sure I'd classify it as arcade style, as arcade implies that people would pay a quarter to play this game, and know I wouldn't (again).

Overall - D
Ambitious, but crap. eBay. That is, unless you like slamming the controller so you can watch poorly-animated cel shaded boxers sound like they are hitting each other with wiffle-ball bats.