Overall, EA did a good job of not letting Fight Night Round 3 turn in to a button masher.  There is a lot of strategy involved in the matches, and if you come out swinging all of the time, you will find yourself losing a lot more matches than you will win.  Each fighter has their own style as well.  When you pick Muhammad Ali, it will feel like you are fighting as Ali.  Since each fighter has their own style, you will find the fighter that fits you best in order to be successful.  Fight Night Round 3 is also balanced enough where any one style will not have a significant advantage over another.  Each style has their strengths and weaknesses, and it is up to you to take advantage of them. 

 

 

Many of the game modes from past Fight Night games are here in Round 3.  But Round 3 also sports 2 new features to the series – Rivals and ESPN Classics.  The Rivals can be found in the Career mode while the ESPN Classics are their own mode of play.  However, your rivals can be become instant classics and then become part of the ESPN Classics.  With Rivals, you will come across fighter occasionally will be a rival of yours.  These fighters are not any different than the rest of the fighters except that they have the distinction of being your rival.  During the rival matches, the commentators will usually make some type of remark to let you everyone know that it is a rivalry.  To mix things up with the rivals, you will occasionally see a fight at the weigh-in before a big fight.  These fights aren’t much of anything, but they do add something different to the experience.  The ESPN Classic fights feature some of the greatest fights of all-time.  Here you will find fights such as Ali vs. Frazier, and some of the older bouts will even be in black and white.  It is a pretty cool addition to the game to be able to go back and recreate these legendary fights.

 

Here is a quick list of some of the boxers in the game:  Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, Oscar de la Hoya, Roberto Duran, Micky Ward, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Arturo Gatti, Erik Morales, Marco Barrera, Roy Jones Jr., James Toney, Floyd Patterson, Bernard Hopkins, Marvelous Marvin Hagler (this is his legal name), and Jermain Taylor.  That’s not the entire list either.  You’ll have to play the game to find them all.