Introduction
EA Sports has treated Nintendo GameCube owners to an exclusive title this year, and Knockout Kings 2003 does not disappoint. From the moment you step into the ring, to the moment you throw your controller out of frustration, Knockout Kings will have you itching to slug it out with some of the best all time boxers, along with some pretty spectacular current fighters. If you have a thirst to relive The Ali-Frazier Thrilla in Manilla fight, then look no further than Knockout Kings 2003 for the Nintendo Gamecube.

Gameplay
While the graphics of this game are impeccable, the sound can be said to be very average at best. Being a game made by EA, the soundtrack is high budget and well scripted. I can never seem to bring myself to disappointment of an EA game’s soundtrack because they don’t skimp on music. However, the game’s sound itself during game play won’t have the same effect on you. Yes, the thuds of the punches landing sound nice, and yes, the thud of your opponent hitting the canvas can really get your adrenaline flowing, but everything else just seems to be average at best concerning the sound. The ref’s counts are fine, because of the voice done by Mills Lane and Richard Steele, but they don’t have any emotions and all their lines come off as too much reading off of a card and not enough warning to the boxers. You’ll hear each of them say the same things, and it never really gets intense, when you throw that second or third blow below the belt of your foe. The ring announcer isn’t really disappointing, though nothing mind rendering, with the voice over done by Jimmy Lennon Jr. The crowd was really disappointing as well in KK2003, as they never really give you the feeling of being in a slugfest or marathon match. They’ll give you a cheer when you knock your opponent down, but they never seem to favour a particular fighter, and you’re just left with random cheers here and there with boxers mixing it up in the ring. Another disappointing feature missing is the actual boxers’ voices missing. When you taunt with Ali, or any boxer, you don’t get to here anything from him, just a motion. The very least EA could have done was get impersonators of the boxers to do the voicing. Unfortunately, the soundtrack of the game can’t hide the fact that the rest of the voice-overs were pushed aside in order to pay for the licensing of the boxers and music. I think the one saving grace other than game’s musical soundtrack is the commentary of Larry Michael and Max Kellerman, because they stay out of your way, but give enough input to get you going, especially if they ridicule you, which they will do from time to time. There isn’t much repletion surprisingly from the duo, albeit the game isn’t without it, they just did a good job with the commentary.

Story
The graphics in KK2003 won’t have you looking in away in disgust, this I can promise you. The opening of the game draws you in from the get go, with beautifully designed and rendered fighters that look very close to their counterparts in life. One glance at Ali will have you second-guessing if this is a video game or not, and the excellent touch of shading to the graphics really add an excellent effect. The motion capturing and contact detection of this game are absolutely spot on. You’ll rarely see a phantom punch, and when you connect solidly, you’ll see some spit splat out of your opponent’s mouth, sometimes followed by the mouth guard and a bit of blood. Unfortunately, the great detail and time that went into the boxers of KK detracts from the rest of the game’s design, like the crowd and the referees (which only appear during KO counts and not the rest of the fight). Thankfully, these aspects are not that important and have no affect on game play whatsoever. It just would have been awesome to see a better Mills Lane represented and a nicer looking crowd and forum. However, you can’t really ridicule fairly, because the sheer beauty of the boxers is too impressive to overlook, and the game has no slow down at all, so there’s no need to gripe about poor background details.

Graphics
There are modes in KK2003 and they are good enough to keep you at it for quite some time. The modes are as listed: Slugfest, Exhibition, Career Mode and even a tournament mode, which can along multi users to take the reigns of any boxer. Multi-play is always a key factor for sports games, and to be more specific, boxing games. You really can’t have a good title without the ability to have fun, enduring matches with a friend. Thankfully, KK2003 delivers a great single player game, along with an impressive multi-play option. In the slugfest mode, you have an arcade type match where you receive power ups and strength from landing all your punches and by putting the hurt on your opponent. With the slugfest option, you can really have a good time challenging your friends, and the difficulty of trying to make your way through all the boxers the Computer throws at you will give you some overtime. This offers a lot of faced paced fighting, and increases the games fun if you’re not a fan of simulation like boxing; it will give you a Ready To Rumble feel to the game.

Sound
In career mode, you can create your boxer from scratch and put him in which every weight class you desire (lightweight, middleweight, or heavyweight) and pit him against the other ranked boxers of the world. You’ll have a good amount of time to get your fighter prepared for the big showdowns with the good boxers, and then of course, the final showdown with Ali himself. Throughout your career you will be able to add on to your attributes by earning points from the way you box and win fights. This also accounts for how long your fighter must wait for his next bout, so if you don’t finish up your fights early and efficiently, you’ll have a tough time staying young and fresh by the time you get near the top of the ranks, because your fighter ages and begins to deteriorate after the age of 32 or so. If you plan to have 12 round decisions, your career will probably be shortened and you’ll have a tough time beating the big guys with your stats steadily decreases after fights instead of increasing. The only gripe about career is the lack of customization you can give your boxer. There are only a few sets of gloves, trunks and boots you can put on your character, as well as only five different looks (face and body) and a few tattoos. It’s not really all that bad, it’s just disappointing a little bit. Of course, if you don’t like the characters you can create, you can always just copy a current boxer, rename him and take him to the top of the ranks.

Conclusion
You won’t have any problems getting used to the set up in KK2003, because they’ve made it nice it simple to throw punches, land uppercuts and execute blocks. The only thing you’ll need time to get used to is the body shots, as you have to gently hold up on the control stick in order to attack the body. With your punches, you have your jabs, your crosses, your hooks and of course, your uppercuts. You also get a special punch, with is executed ever so easily by the pressing of the Z-button, and the option to hit your opponent with a nasty back elbow or a blow below the belt. Using the button configuration of the gamecube controller is very easy in this game. The shoulder buttons play a great role, with the L-Button’s ease of blocking and the combination of the R-Button and another punch button to swipe up an uppercut. As mentioned earlier, you’ll really have to map out your attacks, and strategize your way through your opponents. Other than in slugfest mode, you can’t rely on punching your opponent into the mat unless the opportunity is available. Having said that, don’t think you won’t get your opportunities, because you will, if you work your strategies and planning to good execution. The A.I. is done nicely, if you rely on the same punch, you’re going to see the computer adjust and counter it perfectly every time your try to go back to that punch. This can get rather frustrating, but its one’s own fault for this because of the reliance of a single punch at all times. Button Mashing will win you a few fights, but it won’t dig you out of the holes it will most often get you into, especially against the better AI boxers. Boxing expert Bert Sugar did his best to provide EA with volumes of boxing data and strategies, along with the fighting tendencies of such boxing greats Joe Frazier, Ali, Lennox Lewis, Rocky Marciano and many others. Believe me, because of this, some of these boxers can put up on heck of a fight, and you’ll find yourself digging deep into your bag of tricks to find a way to put them down for the count or hang on to win the decision. You may want to check out KK2003 if you have a knack for boxing, and even the casual of boxing fans (whether it be the gaming genre or sporting spectacle) will enjoy the slugfest mode and career mode. I suggest giving this game a serious look over, and a great treat for GameCube owners.