Shortly after EA entered the ring with their own take on wrestling, they also made a game of a different event that takes place in a similar kind of ring: boxing (although, like the sport itself, boxing rings have more differences from wrestling rings than you might expect). That said, while WCW Mayhem went for an arcade-style game, this goes for a much more technical route.

One interesting thing I found is that Wikipedia – and some other sources – claim that this was called Box Champions 2000 in Europe, but only the German version had that name.

In Knockout Kings, you have multiple punches and signature punches at your disposal, choosing the right one at the right time is important, as is blocking and dodging. The game is great to control, and there’s even a super simple control scheme where you just mash A for punching and the game will pick the kind of punch. The matches are a good length and don’t last too long, and are a lot of fun to play, more than I was expecting.

The main let downs are the create-a-boxer with very limited options, and the few amount of modes in the game. The singleplayer mode is a good idea, though, as you fight other random boxers to work your way up a league table. It’s not just about winning, though, as your performance is graded (pulling off special punches, accuracy of punches, successful blocks, and so on), and the amount of points you earn is important for success.

It’s a good start for the series, but the next few skipped Nintendo platforms – although strangely the final one, Knockout Kings 2003, was a GameCube exclusive.

Fun

Admittedly, fighting doesn’t amount to hours of careful planning, but ducking and diving is a vital part of the game, as avoiding punches, especially head punches, can mean going the distance or going to ground before the bell’s even been rung. And, fortunately, it’s also incredibly simple to get into, with your basic moves on the A and B buttons, signature punching on the C’s, combo-lacing via R, and, best of all, ducking and strafing on Z. Ripper.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #35. Review Score: 82%

Remake or remaster?

I don’t really know much about boxing video games to comment – there don’t seem to be many serious ones recently, though.

Shortly after EA entered the ring with their own take on wrestling, they also made a game of a different event that takes place in a similar kind of ring: boxing

There is no official way to get Knockout Kings 2000