Best Boxing Video Games

Fear might be more well-reserved for the likes of Resident Evil and Dead Space, but when there's a bullet-fast fist coming toward your virtual person by the infamously blood-crazed Mike Tyson, you're sure to be sent to terrified shivers in your seat. Do you like punching things repeatedly? Because, if you do, then you'll love these of the best boxing video games, for they'll take your teeth out (and make you lose endless hours of awesome boxing gameplay).

You don't have to be a sole boxing fan to love these punching greats, even though nothing will quite beat the 1981 Boxing video game. From UFC to Wii Sports, the following titles among the best boxing video games make Muhammad Ali look like a test subject. Punch your way to victory, and crush your most ruthless opponents in the best boxing video games to date.

Though McGregor also may have been on the cover of the second installment in this rather huge video game franchise, he still got the rights for the third—which is one of the best boxing video games ironically, despite being a UFC title.

It may not have been among the most anticipated PS4 games of 2018, but it has been gaining traction. Dropped just last month, the heavy hitter ultimate fighter video game takes players on an untimely boxing adventure, which is to say you'll be able to fight with realism and versatility in the octagon, rather than the ring. Plus, since it's endorsed by most of the heavy hitters within the UFC, you'll be able to play as practically any of your favorite fighters.

Featuring Roy Jones Jr. on the cover, Fight Night 2004 led to immense success upon release and spawned a number of sequels, including a massive franchise that makes some of the best boxing video games and refuses to let up still today.

It first came out in 2004, obviously, but was an updated (or more accurately a successor) for EA's Knockout Kings. The game's fighting controls and punching components were eventually coined Total Punch Control, which became one of the franchise's major calling cards and a revolutionizing aspect for all future fighting games.

Though it couldn't keep up in the new era of gaming, the fifth entry in the Fight Night franchise still made headway, despite containing heavy violence and darker tones than previous iterations. It became a smashing success for introducing a story mode to the entire series, which gave it both the gritty feel and Hollywood element needed in becoming one of the best boxing video games.

Following Andre Bishop, players must rise the ranks of boxing, from promotion to training. It's an interesting story to begin with, and is probably the best Fight Night game around. There's now an iOS version, which makes the franchise even more of a gaming legend.

Among the more niche of titles in the Fight Night series of games, FaceBreaker makes itself known as one of the best boxing video games around for changing the way we all experience violence in video games. It involves similar gaming and playing styles as that of Punch-Out! and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing and utilized the same face-capture technology from Tiger Woods PGA Tour.

The game was released in 2008 and received somewhat good reviews, despite IGN's 5 out of 10 overall score. Most of the complaints stemmed from poor computer and AI functionality, plus others were concerned with how it relied on a kind of "button-smashing" perspective, but all of this doesn't take away from the game's trueness to boxing gameplay.

This ancient classic sporting the late Muhammad Ali on its cover was actually more well-known as a PlayStation classic, that is among the best boxing video games for the original PlayStation console. Reiterated into the likes of mobile games, like this Game Boy Color rendition, Knockout Kings, soon presented all other sporting games with a haymaker to the face.

While the 1998 and 1999 releases were average even for their time, the next couple installments to the Knockout Kings forum certainly revamped the series entirely, for instance Knockout Kings 2002. In this sequel, players were actually made to progress through bouts in order to unlock bigger and better fighters, from Rocky Marciano to Joe Louis.

One of the main reasons for this addition is its integration of injuries and bruisings when progressing through the fight. At the time, graphics such as these were a form of revolution in their own right, even if it was first implemented into the 1992 game Art of Fighting.

For this, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing instantly made the list among the best boxing video games. Reviews soared upon the game's 1999 release for the Dreamcast platform. It was such a success, it was soon integrated for a variety of other consoles, like the 64, Game Boy Color, and PlayStation. In addition, calling to the video game's very name, Michael Buffer actually announces in-game bouts as he does in real life.

Sporting Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, both of whom even fight in a simulated ten-round exhibition match for the 2009-released demo, it's no wonder that Fight Night Round 4 is among the best boxing video games, and comes highly regarded as the very best Fight Night game of them all.

The game invites a plethora of added content never before seen in boxing and UFC games, from a wide variety of playable characters (48 to be exact), plus an all-new Legacy mode, among many others. It's one of the few games on this list that actually is the closest to real life boxing.

Bringing a Japanese variation to the sport itself, Victorious Boxers 2 is almost like a Tekken or Street Fighter game, and is actually the third game in the series (but only in Japan). Among the best boxing video games, Fighting Spirit is one of the only to be based on an anime and manga series, called Hajime no Ippo.

The start of the game follows Ippo Makunouchi as he faces the various ranks of the Japanese Featherweight division, but the overall storyline undergoes a look at his friends and parallel stories to Ippo's main segment. Interestingly, which is another reason for its addition here, Fighting Spirit also sports three different gameplays, Story Mode, Tournament Mode and Exhibition Mode, which was somewhat of a new concept to early boxing games.

While Wii Sports isn't strictly a boxing title, for it does allow the player a host of other activities to choose from, the boxing segment is probably one of the game's best implementations and is still among the best boxing video games for this very reason.

Everyone remembers playing their friend in one on one combat like never before, utilizing the Wii's impressive new control system that made virtual gameplay feel almost like real life boxing. The Wii Sports game also had tennis, golf, baseball, and a number of other sports to choose from, so you weren't stuck playing just boxing.

First released solely for the Xbox 360 system, Prizefighter came into the limelight with average ratings that made most people love the controls, but hate the graphics. Still, while it may have been met with mixed reviews upon release in 2008, it's still among the best boxing video games for introducing a "true 3D plane," as executive producer Matt Seymour had stressed in a number of interviews.

Prizefighter also featured some interesting bout displays, like the meters for health, stamina and what's called "adrenaline," for which a player can use to release a move considered both signature and powerful in nature to the playable character. Other meter features also raised the bar in terms of playability, such as the elimination of button smashing with the stamina meter, which makes the player wisely choose the position of their punches so as to reduce the amount of stamina used per round.

More commonly known by fans as Fight Night 2005 (for which is the year of the game's release), Fight Night: Round 2 is no stranger to award-winning boxing titles. It largely upgraded the Total Punch Control system, which was first introduced in the original title, and made maneuverability and performances much more attuned and real. They also added a new move called EA SPORTS Haymaker, which could inflict some heavy damage and even staggered opponents, which made knockouts ten times easier and much more fun to perform in perfect tune.

Though it may be old and outdated, Fight Night: Round 2 remains one of the best boxing video games ever released and will continue to be one of best received in the series. There's also a multitude of added features that make the game that much more playable and enjoyable for not only the many boxing fans alike, but for those who also adore sports games themselves.