''Knockout Kings'' is a series of

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 games produced by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

for various platforms yearly between 1998 and 2003, and was replaced by the Fight Night series in 2004. Before releasing the first ''Knockout Kings'',

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

released its first 3D boxing game, '' Foes of Ali'', for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. While there are a few similarities between the two games, ''Foes of Ali'' was developed by a different team,

Gray Matter Grey matter, or gray matter in American English, is a major component of the central nervous system, consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil (dendrites and unmyelinated axons), glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes), synapses, and ...

, and as such, is not regarded as a precursor.

''Gameplay''

The duration of a round can be adjusted to either 90 seconds or 3 minutes. In the game's "slugfest" mode, fighters can knock each other out at any given moment of the fight, or suffer 6 or 7 knockdowns and still last for the whole fight. There are several differences between Knockout Kings, Knockout Kings 2000, and Knockout Kings 2001 in particular, the most notable being the graphics. In ''Knockout Kings'', the boxer sprites, although distinctive, are not facially representative of their real-life counterparts. Championship bouts can last only up to 10 rounds and not for 12 as in real life or 15 as in the past. In between rounds, all that is seen is a ring-card girl. In Career Mode, user created fighters fight all the way up the ladder, defeating the top contenders and eventually defeating the champion. After beating the title holder, the new champion defends the championship multiple times until retirement. A created boxer can fight in Career Mode and Slugfest Mode, but not in Exhibition mode. Although there is a training mode within Career Mode, it is extremely basic. However, 2 aspects that Knockout Kings has which the sequels lack is that the referee does a mandatory eight-count when a fighter is knocked down whereas in the sequels the referee stops the count immediately after a fighter gets up from a knockdown, and, in Career Mode, the result of a fight is afterwards seen on the screen as front-page newspaper headlines. The Knockout Kings game series gives users a chance to compete against numerous real fighters, such as

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...

Eric Esch Eric David Scott Esch (born August 3, 1966), is an American television personality and retired professional boxer, kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler better known by his nickname "Butterbean". A competitor in the heavy ...

Marvin Hagler Marvelous Marvin Hagler (born Marvin Nathaniel Hagler; May 23, 1954 – March 13, 2021) was an American professional boxer. He competed in boxing from 1973 to 1987 and reigned as the undisputed champion of the middleweight division from 1980 t ...

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning quintuple c ...

Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born February 4, 1973) is an American Promoter (entertainment), boxing promoter and former professional boxing, professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 list of boxing sextuple ch ...

Larry Holmes Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002 and was world heavyweight champion from 1978 until 1985. He is often considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. ...

, Jake LaMotta,

Roberto Durán Roberto Carlos Durán Samaniego (born June 16, 1951) is a Panamanian former professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 2001. He held quadruple champion, world championships in four weight classes: Lightweight, welterweight, light middleweigh ...

, Alexis Argüello, and

Ray Mancini Ray Mancini (born Raymond Michael Mancino; March 4, 1961), better known as "Boom Boom" Mancini, is an American former professional boxer who competed professionally from 1979 to 1992 and who has since worked as an actor and sports commentato ...

. Fake amateur boxing legends, such as Daryl ‘Hotcakes’ McGee, The Great Smokey Maggard, Boto Bondingo, and Flute Top Terry, could also be unlocked by gaining certain achievements.

''Knockout Kings 2000''

In ''Knockout Kings 2000'' for the PS, the boxer sprites are for the first time facially representative of their real-life counterparts. Championship bouts can last up to 15 rounds. Sound and Music volume can also be adjusted in Option Mode. In between rounds, users may see either a ring-card girl, a replay of a part of the previous round, or the boxer the user is representing sitting at his corner together with the statistics so far of the bout. Injury to the face of boxers can also be recognized, as well as his mouth-piece flying out if he is hit by a hard punch. A created boxer in Career Mode can now fight in all modes. The training mode within Career Mode is more specific. Users can now control their boxer while he is training and, in the PS version, users can also choose the location of a gym. Each boxer in the PS version can also be seen entering into the ring just before the bout takes place. There is also a new Mode where the player can see the statistics and biography of all the real-life boxers in the game, and another mode in which the player can re-live famous classic bouts. The user-interface and intro-theme of the PS version is different from the N64 version and there are also more boxers, while the graphics on each version are similar.

''Knockout Kings 2001''

'' Knockout Kings 2001'' features many well known boxers such as

Joe Frazier Joseph William Frazier (January 12, 1944November 7, 2011) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1965 to 1981. Nicknamed "Smokin' Joe", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He was known for ...

Rocky Marciano Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1952 to 1956, and re ...

, Michael Grant,

Lennox Lewis Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a British-Canadian boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division from 1989 to 2003. He was a three-time world champion, a two-time lineal champion, ...

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...

, and

Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. One of the most iconic athl ...

. It also features arenas such as

Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesar ...

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena () (originally the Empire Pool, currently known as OVO Energy, OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater Lond ...

, and the Roman Coliseum, among others. ''Knockout Kings 2001'' is largely considered the best boxing game on the original

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave the PS2 version a score of 30 out of 40. ''Knockout Kings 2001'' contains the same improvements as Knockout Kings 2000 and adds more. Whereas fighters in KO Kings and KO Kings 2000 are either "boxer" or "slugger" style fighters, the styles of fighters in KO Kings 2001 are either "boxer", "slugger", "freestyle", or "crab", and these differences of style are very noticeable during bouts. Commentary in KO Kings 2001 is also far more vocal than its predecessors. During Career Mode, a boxing trainer trainer will occasionally talk and give users advice in between rounds as the bout progresses. A fighter in Career Mode is made to retire after winning the title and defending it for several times. KO Kings 2001 is also the first game of the series to introduce CPU vs CPU bouts and "fantasy match-ups" between famous boxers of different eras, and the first to introduce women's boxing, which is accessible in Exhibition Mode. The PS and PS2 versions of ''Knockout Kings 2001'' are virtually identical.

Knockout Kings 2002

''Knockout Kings 2002'' changes many concepts of its predecessors, e.g. users have to progress through a number of bouts in order to unlock new fighters.

''Knockout Kings 2003''

The final game of ''Knockout Kings'', is ''Knockout Kings 2003'' developed by GameFlow Entertainment and EA Redwood Studios. It was released exclusively on

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

in 2002. After ''Knockout Kings 2003'', the name of the series was replaced by '' Fight Night (EA video game series)''.

References

External links

EA Sports: Knockout Kings 2002 for PlayStation 2

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Knockout Kings Game Boy Color Review
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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, ...

Knockout Kings 2000 PlayStation Review
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Knockout Kings 2000 Nintendo 64 Review
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Knockout Kings 2002 PlayStation 2 Review
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Knockout Kings 2002 Xbox Review
at AllGame {{Electronic Arts Video game franchises introduced in 1998 Boxing video games EA Sports games Electronic Arts franchises Video game franchises Video games developed in Canada *