''Prize Fighter'' is a

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

Digital Pictures Digital Pictures was an American video game developer founded in 1991 by Lode Coen, Mark Klein, Ken Melville, Anne Flaut-Reed, Kevin Welsh and Tom Zito. The company originated from an attempt to produce a game for the cancelled VHS-based NEMO ...

and released by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

for its

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

in 1993. Like other Digital Pictures titles, it is an

interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...

utilizing

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...

. All video footage during gameplay is in black and white. The game was directed by Ron Stein, who had previously worked as a fight coordinator for various films. Played entirely from a

first-person perspective A first-person narrative (also known as a first-person perspective, voice, point of view, etc.) is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from that storyteller's own personal point of view, using first-person grammar suc ...

, the game casts players as an upstart boxer known as "The Kid", who must fight a series of opponents (played by Jimmy Nickerson,

Manny Perry Manny Perry is an American stunt coordinator and stuntman. He has performed in dozens of films including ''Armageddon'', ''Con Air'', and '' The Mighty Ducks''. He played the role of Big Jim Slade in '' Kentucky Fried Movie''. He has also had ac ...

, Billy Lucas and Ben Bray) and win the championship. ''Prize Fighter'' was the

pack-in game Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

for the X'Eye, alongside two non-gaming software titles.

Gameplay

In the game, players take control of an up-and-coming boxer known as "The Kid." The entire game is played from a first-person perspective. As The Kid, players face four computer opponents: George "Honeyboy" Hernandez, "Mega" Joe Falco, T. Rex Hawkins and the champ, Nuke "the Duke" Johnson. During matches, players punch and block to defeat the opponent, each of whom has a different style. Between fights,

cutscenes A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

play in which The Kid is approached by various people from children with disabilities who look up to The Kid, to gangsters who want The Kid to intentionally lose the fight.

Development

The developers spent five weeks on choreographing and training with the fighters prior to the actual filming.

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

'' gave ''Prize Fighter'' a 6.2 out of 10, commenting that "For a

fighting game, ''Prize Fighter'' fares very well with the

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

footage being incredibly effective". ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' compared it favorably to the acclaimed boxing film ''

Raging Bull ''Raging Bull'' is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Theresa Saldana, Frank Vincent and Nicholas Colasanto (in his final film role). The film ...

'' and praised the responsive controls and realistic graphics. Reviewer Shawn Sackenheim gave the title a positive retrospective review in

Allgame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

. While admitting that playing the game was a matter of pattern memorization, he called it "a very challenging title requiring you to pick up on each of the boxers' styles and moves." and wrote "It's got enough challenge and appeal to last for months."

References

{{Digital Pictures 1993 video games Boxing video games Digital Pictures games Full motion video based games Monochrome video games Pack-in video games Sega CD games Sega CD-only games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States