Boxing Champs – Nintendo Switch | Review

The Nintendo Switch has been a revelation. It’s an amazing mix of portability and home console goodness that I have wanted since I was a lad. Moving from portable mode to being able to play on the TV is something special. Having two built-in controllers for multiplayer is another stroke of genius and has kept my boys entertained on many long journeys. I have done quite a few Switch reviews ranging from great to the not so good, I was asked to review Boxing Champs and had never even heard of it before. I will give anything a go, let’s get ready to rumble!

Boxing Champs is about Boxing, who would have thought? You can play single matches, multiplayer matches and it has a career mode to play through. You can also create your own boxer but don’t get too excited, it’s a very light tool that just changes a few details and swaps a few clothing colours. Feature wise it’s very thin on the ground but let’s hope the gameplay is good and worth your time and money.

The career mode is also very basic, you climb a ladder fighting various fighters who nearly all look identical. You can only challenge the fighters in your immediate vicinity, rank wise. Your stats improve as you progress and enable you to take on tougher opponents. That’s about it for the career mode, it’s very vanilla, bland and has very little in the way of excitement or unique qualities at all.

Control wise the boxing is very simple, left stick to move and then either the button or the right stick to throw punches. The whole combat system feels bland and unrewarding. After a few bouts, I was frankly, quite bored. It feels like a mobile game or a game you would play in flash on your PC. I mean my boy likes it but he’s six and I expect a bit more out of my games to be honest. It’s just bashing some buttons until the other pugilist goes down. I need more from my games, something to keep me playing and something keep me entertained.

The multiplayer can be fun, for about a minute, but in the end it’s the same old mechanics. Bash your buttons and try to avoid or block your opponent’s punches. The whole package definitely needs more modes or things to do. Maybe some training or a more fleshed out career mode, in its current state it’s hard to keep interested past a handful of matches. It’s a shame really, I do like a good boxing game.

Graphically the game looks like a flash game on your PC, the animations are poor, rigid and very uninspiring. The whole presentation and art style screams mobile phone game or something you should be given for free. It’s the same with the sound, while there is nothing wrong with it, it’s very simplistic and nothing about it is unique or impressive in any way.

Well, I do have some positive things to say about Boxing Champs. It performed flawlessly. It was very smooth and bug-free for the entirety of mine and my lad’s playtime. No crashing, no framerate issues or bugs at all. At least I could find something nice to say, the game is made well enough and won’t cause you any issues, performance wise anyway.

Final Impressions

While there is nothing inherently wrong with Boxing Champs, it’s just very plain and dull. The modes are basic, the gameplay is simple and the mechanics are virtually non-existent. I find it hard to recommend this to anyone really, you will be better saving your cash for something else. Unless you are craving a boxing game and there are no other options whatsoever, then give this one a miss. Unfortunately, there is not enough meat on these bones to feed your gaming needs.

*Code kindly provided by the publisher for review*

Developer: Raz Games / Publisher: Raz Games
Release date: 20/06/2019
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Platform Reviewed: Nintendo Switch