James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing
System: SMS
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Sanritsu
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Fighting
Step into the ring to win the World Heavyweight Title in James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing! The Master System version is a different game than the Genesis version. If we’re being perfectly honest, the strategy to win is exactly the same, though. Take Buster through five fights and walk away with the belt held high.
You start by choosing to fight in slow speed or fast speed. The manual suggests slow speed for beginners. I do not concur. Then you see your stats in Power, Recovery, and Footwork. You can’t do anything to them, yet, so take it to the ring. Once the bell sounds, you find yourself on a horizontal plane. Your fighter immediately starts moving toward your opponent without any input from you. You can throw a left jab with Button 1 and a right cross with Button 2. These can be modified to body punches by pressing down and forward, but don’t expect it to work when you want.
At the end of the round, you are shown the judge’s scorecard and recover some health based on your recovery stat. Then it’s back to battling. If you’re able to win, you are awarded training points based on your performance. I mainly received two points, but my longest fight gave me three, so I’m wondering if you get more points for going more rounds. I suggest maximizing your power first, then recovery, and finish off with footwork if you really need it.
I tried playing like I would if I was actually boxing, throwing jabs to set up crosses and uppercuts, but this didn’t work. You can block punches by pressing up or down on their own, but it happens for such a small period of time, a defensive plan was also not going to work. So I tried my strategy from the Genesis and just started jabbing. Jab, jab, jab. Sure, I might take a shot here or there, but if I kept jabbing, sooner or later, they’d go down. And if for some reason the fight were to go all 12 rounds, I was way ahead on points, so I’d win that way.
If you can get them up against the ropes, it’s even better and you can take them out easily. Back them up by smashing them with a power punch by holding both Buttons 1 and 2 until the meter is full. I won the title with a power punch and we are treated with a digitized picture of Buster being held up high.
Graphics: 2.5
Everything looks pretty good, but there is some flickering on the enemy boxer that is annoying.
Sound: 2.0
Each boxer gets their own theme and they sound decent enough.
Gameplay: 1.0
You have the ability to do some different techniques, but they’re all worthless against the jab.
Difficulty: 1.5
The computer has no problem wailing away on you without having to worry about button timing.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I had an alright time, but honestly, it’s just tapping Button 1 over and over again.
Overall Rating: 1.6
James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing earns a C-. It’s playable, I guess, but it’s not a good boxing game, so you don’t have to bother.