You need to use every move at your disposal to succeed in Fight Night Champion, and that's especially true in Champion mode, where story events often force you to adapt your fighting style to different rules or situations. You might have no intention of playing Fight Night Champion as a counterpuncher, but after being on the receiving end of a few counters (AI opponents are quick to punish you if you leave yourself exposed), you'll be compelled to add them to your own arsenal. The defensive controls used for blocking, leaning, and clinching are similarly uncomplicated, though it's only through practice that you can get a feel for the timing that's needed to open your opponent up for powerful counterpunching opportunities. It's an intuitive system, and when used in conjunction with shoulder button modifiers for body punches and more powerful shots, it affords you easy access to a formidable repertoire. Previous Fight Night games have required you to rotate the stick with some precision to throw different types of punches, but here those same straights, overhands, hooks, and uppercuts are simply mapped to different directions, so you're far less likely to throw the wrong punch. Fortunately there's nothing complicated about the controls, and even if you've been reluctant to throw your punches using the right analog stick in previous games you might want to give it a try this year. You might enjoy some success spamming punches on the easiest of the four difficulty levels or against inexperienced opponents online, but you need to master both the offensive and defensive controls to make it through Champion mode or to make a name for yourself elsewhere. That's not only because it's easy to throw an unrealistically high number of punches simply by flicking the right analog stick (or pressing the face buttons, if you prefer), but also because you might not yet realize the importance of defending, countering, and conserving your stamina.

Upon entering the ring for the first time, you could be forgiven for thinking that Fight Night Champion is a mindless slugfest.

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Fight night champion review