Create your own fighter and reach the top of the boxing ranks in Boxing Champs by Raz Games. To note, a Switch review code was provided by Raz Games to review Boxing Champs.

Eye of the Tiger

So there isn’t actually a story in Boxing Champs (BC), instead you move through the career mode fighting 27 boxers as you slowly climb the ranks. Once you knock out those chumps, you’ll get to challenge the real champs and hopefully get a belt for your troubles.

Gameplay

The gameplay in BC feels quite arcade-like with no real story narration. Instead it focuses purely on boxing, with one-on-one fights where you try to knock out your competition!

In single player you have two options available at the beginning of the game– single match and career mode. In single match you get to pick any of the available fighters to box with or you can create your own custom character.

Make Me A Star!

You can create your own boxer in the character editor. Though it’s a cool idea, there’s sadly not that much you can customise. You pick one of the random names and change a few different parts of your boxer like: skin tone, hair style, hair colour, body type, gloves colours, waist colours and short colours.

There are a few variations of hairstyles and body types to choose from, but not as many as I’d expected when I saw the ability to customise your character. What’s great though is that you can save up to 10 boxers that can be used in career mode and single player, as well as two player bouts.

Even though I think the editor is light on customisable features, I still think it’s a nice inclusion. It was pretty epic seeing my own fighter beating up the enemy AI and my friend’s fighters.

The Rules!

Each boxer moves around the ring receiving blows from an arsenal of seven different attacks. Every hit will slowly lower your yellow health bar until one player looses all of their health and is knocked out. However, if you have nimble fingers you can get back up again by rapidly pressing the B button within the 10 second count down. Once you get back up you’ll regain some health and can continue boxing. Luckily, each fighter has their own stamina pool which depletes every time you move or punch. So players can’t spam you with attacks as soon as you’ve gotten up.

The best way to play BC is very similar to how the pros fight in the real world. Like real boxing, each match is broken up into rounds. Loosen your opponent up with a few jabs while circling around them. Then when their guard is down, go in with few hooks and upper-cuts to put them on the mat. Remember to keep an eye on your stamina meter though and be sure to give yourself a rest in between attacks.

How to throw a punch.

The controls in BC are pretty decent. You move around the ring with the left analog stick and attack with the face buttons or the right analog stick to do a variety of different punches. For example, if you decide go with using the face buttons the X and Y buttons are used to Hook, the A button will allow you to do a Cross punch and B is used to Jab. However, each hook will either be left or right depending on the way you’re facing.

Defending yourself in the game is as important as attacking. You can protect your face by using the block ability which can be trigged with the ZR trigger and ZL is used to taunt your opponent if you’re that kind of fighter.

Upper cuts can be achieved by pressing the bumper buttons, these attacks are slow but do a massive amount of damage! They’re a perfect way to knock a weary opponent out.

Climbing the ranks.

In the career mode you will be fighting up the ranks from 27 to 1, as well as challenging the top tier champions. Each fight becomes increasingly harder as you climb to the top. Every win will net you experience points that can be permanently attached to your boxer, enhancing one of six stats; power, speed, stamina, chin, footwork and toughness.

For example, increasing your power stat will make your punches more devastating, whilst increasing your stamina will net you more stamina to pull off more attacks in a match.

Time to box your friends.

Multiplayer is where BC shines. It’s the same mechanics as the single player but you can play with 2 players in a series of rounds. It’s so simple to just share the joy cons with a friend and start boxing. I especially liked playing in table top mode because it was so simple to do. But of course, you can play on the TV if you don’t like playing on the Switch’s smaller screen. Boxing the same opponents in single player can get repetitive but the multiplayer keeps the game fresh as you’re playing against a real player.

Presentation, performance and audio

The graphics in Boxing champs are pretty nice. You have a birds eye perspective on the fight so you’re looking down on your fighter’s heads when boxing. The game is full of little details like characters showing bruising on there faces as they slowly get beat up, which keeps the visuals interesting to look at. I also really like the use of the HD rumble while playing in handheld mode.

The audio is ok too, I liked the main theme music. It’s really catchy and overall the sound quality wasn’t bad either- an all round thumbs up from me. Plus, there’s also voice acting from the referee that counts from 1 to 10 when a boxer is knocked out. It’s only a little detail but I liked it.

Performance has been pretty solid too as I haven’t experienced any issues.

Summary

Boxing Champs has been really fun to play on the Nintendo Switch. It’s a perfect Switch game as fights only last a few minutes so you can play on your lunch break or whilst riding the bus. Furthermore, the campaign takes a few hours to beat and reminded me of climbing the ranks in games like Punch Out. Plus, you can easily share a joy con with a friend and play a few rounds in local co-op mode.

If you’re looking for beat em up then I think Boxing Champs is a pretty decent choice on the Nintendo Switch. My only negatives are that the game can become little repetitive after a while, but you can still have alot fun nevertheless.

The character creator is a nice inclusion to the game but I just wish there were a few more options to create a more diverse character.

The game is priced at £8.50 on the UK eshop, which I think is fair enough. You get two single player options, 2 player local mode, character creation, 4 rings and 27 boxers so there’s quite a lot of content for that price.

That’s why I’m giving Boxing Champs by Raz Games my rating of

Are you a boxing fan? Did you master Punch Out as a kid? Let us know what you’re favourite boxing game is and what you thought of Leigh’s Boxing Champs Switch Review. Hit us up on Twitter or come and join the SIF Discord.

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