''Knockout Kings 2002'' is a

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

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 tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

, released in March 2002 for

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

. It features

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

on the front cover. It also features many well-known boxers like

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

Félix Trinidad Félix Juan Trinidad García (born January 10, 1973), popularly known as "Tito" Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and is said to b ...

Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born on February 4, 1973) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championshi ...

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and is the on ...

, Butterbean,

Vitali Vitali, Vitalii, Vitaly, Vitaliy and may refer to: People Given name * Vitaly Borker (born 1975 or 1976), Ukrainian American Internet fraudster and cyberbully * Vitaly Churkin (1952–2017), Russian politician * Vitaly Ginzburg (1916–2009), Russ ...

and

Wladimir Klitschko Wladimir Klitschko; an equivalent English spelling is Vladimir Klichko . His full name in uk, label=Ukrainian is, Володимир Володимирович Кличко, Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko, . ( uk, Володимир Вол� ...

, and

Bernard Hopkins Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight class ...

. It is the fourth installment in the ''

Knockout Kings ''Knockout Kings'' is a series of boxing video games produced by EA Sports for various platforms yearly between 1998 and 2003. Before releasing the first ''Knockout Kings'', Electronic Arts released its first 3D boxing game, '' Foes of Ali'', fo ...

'' series, and was succeeded by ''Knockout Kings 2003'' later that same year, for the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

Gameplay

''Knockout Kings 2002'' features a different engine than its predecessors, as it now features smoother graphics and a new control scheme, which allows boxers to move around the ring more fluidly, as well as a new analog evasion system, where tilting the left analog stick slightly allows a boxer to bob and weave in the direction of the stick's movement. Like its predecessors, ''Knockout Kings 2002'' features a career mode, where a player can create a boxer and partake in a series of fights to become champion. For the first time, players can use a real boxer in the mode. The game also features a tournament mode. Unlike '' Knockout Kings 2001'' before it, the game forgoes female boxers, instead featuring some fictional boxers including, but not limited to, Henri Tibualt, Joe Giere, Kazahiro Arikawa, Tyler Brooks, Pete Donohue, and Lawrence O'Toole. These boxers would later be featured in ''Knockout Kings 2003''.

Reviews

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the game a score of 76/100 on PS2 and 78/100 on Xbox.

References

{{Authority control PlayStation 2 games Xbox games 2002 video games Video games set in 2002 EA Sports games Boxing video games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Burke Trieschmann Black Ops Entertainment games Multiplayer and single-player video games