Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing
I’ve seen plenty of boxing games throughout the years ranging from simple arcade style one to pretty nifty almost simulation like ones. Barry McGuigang world championship boxing (aka star rank boxing) is somewhere in the middle I’d say. You can create your own boxer with various stats and enter the championship ladder at rock bottom or as a contender at tenth place. Train and fight your way through all the contenders till you face and defeat Barry McGuigan himself for the world championship.
With a new fighter there are some things you can specify like boxing style (slugger, bulldog, dancer etc.) which will change statistics but also quite unimportant ones like what type of image you have ranging from a nice guy to a grumpy man. Anyway your statistics are pretty weak at the start and consist of four types: stamina, agility, strength and endurance. Stamina effects how fast you get up if you get knocked down and how fast you regain endurance, agility is how fast you can punch, strength is obvious and endurance effects how long you can fight and keep punching. To start a match you can select an opponent one rank below and two ranks above you. Altough you can often beat opponents two ranks above you you will get less training before the better fighters get into play so it’s adviseable to fight all of them. You can then specify training in different ways with light or heavy bag, sparring, jogging and lifting weights each of which will effect your four basic stats.
Once training is over the fight begins. It isn’t a simple case of pressing the button quickly because your opponent can guard himself low or high blocking attacks but you also have to throw close blows (with the button pressed) or long blows. If the opponent isn’t standing at the right distance you will miss him completely. The most important thing to watch is your endurance which is displayed for both fighters in the upper corners. You lose endurance when you get hit but also when you miss a blow so be carefull not to overdo it. When endurance is below ten and you get hit you will most likely fall over, depending on your stamina you will get up again and gain some endurance as well if at all. Obviously you have to watch your training carefully to not one area but increase everything so you can be a better fighter overall. One you knock your opponent out for a tencount or he gets knocked over three times in one round (technical knockout) the match ends and you can look forward to the next challenge.
I played this game loads when I had a C64 and though I have to admit it doesn’t really look like much it’s quite entertaining. The idea of training your fighter all the way from bottom to top is fun and the matches gradually get harder to win as your opponents grow stronger as well. There have been more intricate boxing games but this one always stuck by me and if you’re looking for a simple yet lasting game then this is the one to go for. Not bad for a (at this time) almost 23 year old game!
Overal rating: 8/10
This game was released for two different systems here are some notes:
| C64 | Released in 1985. Excellent, what more can I say :) |
| ZX Spectrum | Released in 1985. The fighter can be a bit hard to see because there is a big crowd in the back and they’re the same color. |
| Date added | Dec-14-2007 09:40 |
| Name | Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing |
| Developer | Gamestar |
| Publisher | Activision |
| First released | 1985 |
| Genre | Sport |
