Fight Night Round 3: Developer Interview

EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3 is hands down the most anticipated professional boxing game of the year. Yeah, okay, we know that it is also the only professional boxing game this year, but that doesn't stop EA SPORTS from striving to make it one of the best sports games of 2006. We caught the game's Executive Producer Kudo Tsunoda between rounds (pun intended) and hit him with some questions (okay, I'll stop now).

Xbox.com: Many folks claim that the Fight Night franchise has rekindled gamers' interest in boxing games. Why do you think gamers have so enjoyed the Fight Night games?

Kudo Tsunoda: People are interested in Fight Night not because it is a boxing game, but because it is so fun to play. Anybody who enjoys playing sports games, fighting games, or action games will love Fight Night.

I'm gonna feed you this glove, bubba.

Our analog control system gives you direct, total control over your character on screen. The multiplayer battles are epic and addictive. Even though I have been working on Fight Night for three years now, I still get a nervous feeling in my stomach going into a big fight here at the office.

Plus, as with every game we make at EA Chicago, every time we release a new Fight Night title it brings a high level of gameplay innovation and new features, making each version in the franchise just as fresh as the original game.

Fight Night Round 3, while staying true to the things that made Fight Night the best-rated sports game over the last two years, has standout new features like new punch controls, a create-your-own style, and jaw-dropping graphics. It is by far the best game in the Fight Night series.

Xbox.com: We like the rivalry concept. What prompted the team to add that feature, and how does it work?

Kudo: We looked at what got people the most excited about boxing and sports in general, and it is always big rivalries. The most exciting fights involve two boxers with a pre-existing relationship or hatred for each other. This is what really draws fans to big fights.

In the '50s there was LaMotta vs. Sugar Ray Robinson. In the '60s and '70s there was the classic Ali vs. Frazier rivalry. In the '80s you had Sugar Ray Leonard fighting Roberto Duran, Duran fighting Marvin Hagler, and Marvin Hagler fighting Sugar Ray Leonard. Each of these fights were so exciting because you knew the personalities of the boxers involved and there were out-of-the-ring reasons why these guys wanted to beat the crap out of each other.

Playing an offline career mode and training
your boxer now helps you online as well.

This is something we lacked in our career mode—a backstory and context for your opponents. Instead of facing a string of nameless drones, you are in the ring with guys who have been taunting you via in-game movies or somebody who took a cheap shot at you during the weigh-in and press conference. The rivalries in our career mode put a purpose behind every fight and a purpose behind every punch.

You are also able to relive the best rivalries in history in our ESPN Classics mode, fighting as Gatti or Ward in the Gatti vs. Ward trilogy. You can also relive the best rivalries in your own career that become ESPN Instant Classics!

Xbox.com: You guys have really taken your time developing different styles for the boxers. How do these affect how the game plays?

Kudo: While Fight Night boxers have always looked amazingly real, they never fought like their real-life counterparts. In boxing, each fighter's style is unique, but in previous Fight Night games we only had three fighting styles for all boxers.

In Fight Night Round 3, our boxers go through three tests: Do they look like their real-life counterparts? Do they move like their real-life counterparts? And do they fight like their real-life counterparts? Once again, Fight Night has the most realistic-looking characters of any game. We specially mocapped (motion captured) each real-life boxer's animation so they move, defend, and punch just like they do in real life.

We test all our animation on a generic wireframe model, and if we couldn't tell looking at a texture-less model who it was just by the way they moved, then we worked longer on the animation. So when you see Ali in the ring, he floats around like Ali, he punches like Ali, and even does the classic Ali Rope-a-Dope.

Then we take our generic wireframe model and some generic animations and put our boxer-specific A.I. tactics on the generic model. And if you could not see just from the tactics the model used that yes, that fighter is Ali, then we worked longer on their A.I. So each of the boxers look, move, and fight just like their real-life counterparts.

The way each boxer moves and fights is critical to beating them or winning fights when you play as that boxer. Each movement style and fighting tactic has plusses and minuses. This basic type fighting mechanic, where styles truly make fights, makes our gameplay a lot deeper and gives a wide variety of gameplay experiences based on which boxer you are fighting with and against.

Xbox.com: Is this incorporated into the "create-a-boxer" feature? How?

Kudo: Even just having the real-life boxers each have a unique style would be a huge upgrade in Fight Night Round 3. But again, each boxer's style is so unique and we wanted anybody playing the game to create a unique style of their own that matches exactly how they want to play the game. So in the Create a Champ feature of Fight Night Round 3, you are now able to not only make a boxer that looks just how you want, but you can customize their fighting and movement styles to create a unique fighting style all your own.

You are able to choose from a wide variety of base movement styles, punch styles, and defensive styles. Movement styles have a big impact on your ring generalship and how you get around the ring. Punch styles allow you to customize your punches with extra speed or extra power. Your defensive style allows you to do simple blocking with good protection or harder-to-use blocks with less protection but more opportunity to counter punch.

Kiss the glove!

Each of these options comes with their own strengths and weaknesses you have to use to your advantage in the ring. With more than 800 different customizable styles you can build a unique way of fighting that matches the way you play Fight Night Round 3!

Xbox.com: Have you added any new punches to the game? How do they work?

Kudo: There are three new Impact Punches: the Haymaker, the Flash KO Punch, and the Stun Punch. Each is thrown using the Total Punch Control system on the right stick.

The Haymaker adds extra power to each punch and, when landed, gives you a quick boost of energy to move in and pile on extra damage.

The Flash KO Punch instantly hurts and dazes your opponent leaving them desperately trying to stay upright with just a few more punches putting them down on the canvas.

The Stun Punch triggers a first-person in-the-ring mini-game where the defender can only block and the attacker can just unload on the other boxer with one big punch resulting in a knockdown.

Each of these punches are high risk and high reward—landing them can totally change the course of the fight. But throwing them leaves you open to getting punched, or your opponent landing an Impact counterpunch of their own!

Xbox.com: The Xbox 360™ version of the game includes incredible detail in the fighter's appearance … detail that is more than eye candy. It actually indicates the boxer's status. Can you talk about how that works?

Kudo: With the added power of Xbox 360, we wanted to make Fight Night Round 3 a much more immersive experience. The game takes you off the living room sofa and puts you inside the ring. A big part of that is developing completely HUD-less play, removing the health and energy meters you see on screen in the current-generation versions.

I have always hated the HUD, because when you want to see the status of your opponent or boxer, you have to pull yourself out of the TV to look at the 2-D graphics that sit on the screen. In real boxing, when a boxer wants to see how hurt their opponent is they look at their opponent's face—how active their eyes are, what expression is on their face, what their body language is. When a boxer wants to see how tired somebody is, they can look and see a boxer's hands dropping, or see him breathing harder, or his shoulders slumping.

These are the true indicators of how hurt or tired somebody is, and they are in the ring indicators we have implemented in Fight Night Round 3. Just like in real boxing, you look right at your opponent to decide what tactics you need to win the fight. This is only possible with the processing power and fidelity of Xbox 360.

I'm going to hit you so hard that silly tattoo will fly off.

Xbox.com: How's the online play coming?

Kudo: Fight Night Round 3 is the perfect game for online play. It is "mano-a-mano"—one on one in the ring fighting. Online you can join the rankings of any weight class and fight your way to a title just like in our offline career mode. You are also able to just get in a quick fight if you wish.

The thing I am most happy about with our online experience this year is that playing an offline career mode and training your boxer now helps you online as well. In previous years, you could only take created characters online, meaning everybody would just build a boxer with maximum ratings and take him online to fight.

Basically, there were no differences between any of the characters online. All the same maxed out ratings guy. In Fight Night Round 3 you can now unlock new styles and abilities during your career mode, save your career mode character, and take him online, giving you a leg up on other people if you have actually won a title belt in your offline career!

Xbox.com: What's your favorite new multiplayer feature?

Kudo: The ESPN Classics fights are awesome. Not only do you get to relive the best fights in boxing history, but the ESPN Classics movies gives you a history of the boxers, the fights, and, more importantly, how each boxer fights.

Xbox.com: Who are some of the prominent boxers in the game, and how do they differ from each other?

Kudo: The boxers this year were based around the biggest rivalries. So again, Lamotta vs. Robinson, Ali vs. Frasier, Leonard vs. Duran, Gatti vs. Ward, Morales vs. Barrera, etc. Plus, we added some of the biggest boxers we had been missing in our game, like Oscar De La Hoya and Marvin Hagler.

Xbox.com: Do you consider the game more of a simulation or a rock ‘em,sock ‘em action game?

Kudo: I think at its essence that boxing is a very rock ‘em, sock ‘em sport. And Fight Night Round 3 is definitely an action-packed game with big devastating punch impacts. But Fight Night has never been a mindless, button-mashing, just-throw-as-many-punches-as-you-can type of game. It is a skill-based game where using your defense and movement is just as important as throwing mass punches. You need to be able to control your fists and set up your punches—not just throw them wildly. The skill-based nature of Fight Night Round 3's play is what makes it so damn addictive!

Thanks so much for letting me do this interview! Xbox.com is one of my favorite places to get game info online and it is always fun to see a game I am working on show up on your site! Fight Night Round 3 comes out in February on Xbox 360 and Xbox®. Hope you have as much fun playing it as we did making it!

Xbox.com: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us, Mr. Tsunoda.

Article by Jad Recklaw