izigame.me

VR is expensive to opt into, requires plenty of space to play in, and is above all else niche. Every VR game that I play needs to justify its cost of entry to some degree, after all, games that are dependent on one piece of new technology are often relegated to being a gimmick after the hype wears off. So why would anyone think to make something that was seen on the Wii in 2006 with a lot more buy to even play. Well, it's probably because Thrill of the Fight is probably the best actual boxing game on the market, and it needs the VR technology to achieve this.
So best boxing game on the market, is this game is somehow better than Punch-Out? Not quite. What I mean by best actual boxing game is that as someone with a background in combat sports, and martial-arts, The Thrill of the Fight is the most accurate simulation in a video game that I have played which replicates being in the ring. The use of VR is crucial to achieving this level of realism, stopping short of having the headset drive a piston into your head and giving you CTE if you play long enough.
The gameplay loop is honestly pretty basic, a series of boxing matches with a line up of generic fighters from across the world, with you as the main contender. The other fighters you clash against aren't as racially exaggerated as Punch-Out, and all of them have less personality than a store mannequin, but if you are looking for a memorable cast in what amounts to a boxing simulation then you are probably looking at the wrong game. What this game lacks in spectacle; however, is more than made up for in mechanical depth.
The Thrill of the Fight, is much more mechanically deep than I realised going into the game. With each section of the body having its own damage multiplier, for your oncoming punches, with areas that typically lead to knock outs, such as the jaw, liver, and temple dealing more "damage" and having a greater chance to knock out then shots to the chest, or forehead. Much like actual boxing, smart placement of your shots, manipulating your opponents guard, and setting up your power shots is crucial to succeeding in the ring, both in game, and in reality. It's nice to see a game that understands that boxing isn't about hitting hard, and mindless pummelling. Punch-Out also understood this concept and is still remembered for it.
Thrill of the Fights mechanical depth also extends to its cast as well. While each fighters characterisation begins and ends with "name, nickname, and nationality". How they fight is subtle enough that it affects how you will approach fighting them. The first few fights in the game are more like tutorials to familiarise yourself with the mechanics, and also how exhausting fighting can be. But around the mid-game, other fighters with more distinct styles begin to appear, and there is enough variety in their fighting styles that there will be one fighter whose style will clash against yours and be hard to overcome, strictly because of how they fight. Are you a shorter fighter who can't deal with reach? Spider will out range you and wear you down. Bad at dodging, and have poor cardio? The Duke will blow holes through you and put you on the canvas in round 1. Hate southpaws? The Artist is one. The fact that these differences are meaningful shows that someone on the dev team knew what they were doing and has a background in boxing or some type of combat sport, and adapted it well to their game, something that I'd say is very rare.
If you noticed in the last paragraph, I mentioned how tiring the fighting in this game can be, and that your cardio might make a difference in a fight. Thrill of the Fight can also be considered to be a "fitness" game along side a boxing sim. You have to throw your punches and actually move to dodge on coming punches, and block. People tend to under estimate just how exhausting a fight can be so if you think you'll breeze through this game without a decent level of personal fitness, you might be in for a shock. Having a players personal fitness be a mechanic is something I'd consider to be a double edged sword, as having a players personal level of cardio is an immersive way to implement or limit a players strategy in a fight. Sure you can throw powerful shot after powerful shot, but if you get winded in the first 30 seconds of the round, you might rethink your level of aggression. On the flip side, if you make your players feel like dog-shit because they are too winded to play a video-game, they might just quit all together.
Thrill of the Fight does execute the goals of a fitness game, improving the health and fitness of the player though gradual play, but it doesn't come across as condescending as most, letting the health improvements come as a result of playing the game, rather than being the explicit goal of the game. Which again, might turn of players who aren't expecting the level of physical engagement that Thrill of the Fight requires.
So Thrill of the Fight lives up to its boast of requiring skill to succeed and can help the player get into shape, with smart mechanical depth but was VR crucial for this? I'd say so. The controllers provide both the precise motion controls needed to hit the exact hit-boxes the game requires, and the controllers vibrate when you connect a punch, giving a sensation of resistance. The head set allows for head-movement to dodge independently of your bod,y something that most other contemporary boxing games have a hard time doing, as well as providing general immersion in the ring. However, the VR does come with some downsides. If you are playing on a Valve Index like me, the cable can get in the way while you are moving around the ring, requiring you to either pause the game, or work around the cable while playing. Aside from Index related issues, the headset itself can get sweaty if playing for prolonged periods of time which might gross some players out, and the controllers can clack off of each-other depending on how you guard. These issues aside, I'd argue that the depth provided from the game is because of VR, and this game would be much weaker if it used more generic motion controls.
Despite The Thrill of the Fight being mechanically deep, there is one issue that cannot be overlooked, which is the calibration this game has to go through. You will need exact calibration in the in-game menu to get a good and accurate feel for you punches to make them true to life, and a 1.0x multiplier on all of your punches might not be the exactly true to life. Not to sound like an internet tough guy, but I actually over extended my right arm throwing lead hooks on a 1.0x multiplier because the power in game did not feel proportionate to how hard I was throwing in real life. My misconstrued sense of power isn't the issue, the disconnected feeling between real life and in game is. When the game says to make sure the multiplier levels are comfortable, make sure they are. Adjusting multipliers can also have some people cheese the game so to speak, giving them gigaton bombs for a jab, but this is mostly a non-issue.
There are many more things I can negatively comment on, how inconsistent the games hit detection can be, how it keeps reading my jabs as crosses, inflating my power-punch count, the fact the game doesn't detect your forearms and shoulders, greatly limiting your defensive options, and a completely under cooked clinch mechanic. But these are minor things that the average player won't really notice. The Thrill of the Fight ultimately achieves what it sets out to do being a remarkably realistic boxing game, which emphasises the skill in boxing, and this game would be weaker on a non-VR platform. If you want to get an inkling of what lacing up the gloves feels like, a novel VR experience, or want to work on some applied shadow boxing drills. I would whole heartily recommend The Thrill of the Fight if you have VR headset, but if you want to learn boxing, join a gym.