When the 360 first launched in Australia, there was one title that stood head and shoulders above the rest as a shining example of what the next generation of gaming had to offer. With its bone crunching visuals and glistening sweat, Fight Night: Round 3 became the staple title to show off your next-gen pride to friends and family alike. Not just a pretty face (that is before entering the ring at least), it was Fight Night's steps in reduction, in both removing the on-screen HUD and simplifying controls to fluid analogue stick controlled punches, that really demonstrated the next generation of gaming. It may have won the praise of gamers, but in all the time since its release, there has not yet been a challenger to step into the ring and face off against Fight Night for the championship belt. That is until now with the release of the long awaited Don King Presents: Prizefighter.

Mr. King, I presume?

Now as brilliant as Fight Night: Round 3 was, if there was one area the game truly fell short, it was in its lacklustre career mode that utilised a simple ladder format and failed to capture the essence of the often unpredictable and shady sport. More than just a struggle as you take your fighter to the top, Prizefighter sets out to tell a story in the process. On creating your own custom character with the game's extensive customisation options, your story begins. Black or white, big or small, on the boxing circuit you'll be known by one name: The Kid. It's the clichéd story of a boxer starting out from the depths of the local gym and working their way through the ranks to become world champ, but in a genuinely brilliant idea, your story is told through live-action documentary footage, as everyone from Penthouse Pets to the King himself reflect on your fictional journey to the top. Your journey is by no means an easy one and throughout your career you'll faced with all manner of unforeseen and disadvantageous situations. Ranging from battling through injuries to fighting your way through your opponent's dirty tactics such as bribed judges and chemically laced gloves, these complications present new conditions to overcome if you are going to succeed. The most interesting of these fights comes when you face a fighter doped up so much that he can't feel pain. These special conditions give your opponents a real sense of personality that takes things back to the days of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, without becoming arcadey in the process. Adding a bit of extra character, you'll also be placed into legendary historical bouts, as your trainer reflects upon great moments of the past. You'll fight your way through a round of the historical fight, presented with a lovely sepia or black and white tone. It's not necessary to win, but serves as an interesting (and educational!) break from the competitive nature of the championship circuit.

Working your way to the top requires hard work and dedication. You'll need to train and improve your abilities if you want to reach the top. There are five different forms of training to hone your skills, each affecting different areas of your stats: Speed bag, Jump Rope, Heavybag, Focus Mitts and Shuttle Run. Each training mode is a simple mini game, resembling the likes of DDR, Track & Field and Gitaroo Man. In a nice touch, your scores in each of the training modes are instantly uploaded to an online leaderboard, providing that extra desire to better yourself and prove your skills to the world (#64 in the world at Focus Mitts myself thank you very much). Unfortunately the only way to build up your stats is through training, with your in-ring performance meaning nothing, but if constantly repeating the same mini games again and again isn't your thing, you can also choose to auto-train your fighter with a tap of the X button, but the benefit to your stats is far less than manual training. You'll also receive invitations on your PDA regarding herbal supplements and from specialist trainers to improve your stats, but accepting these come at the cost of your media profile.

As you work you way through the ranks, you'll begin to draw attention from advertisers and promoters. Winning matches earns you money and also boosts your media profile. Loosing a match will cause your profile to drop. Your media profile determines how much money you will take from a match and can be increased by attending publicity shoots and hanging out with your glamour model girlfriend (2007 Penthouse Pet of the year Heather Vandeven to get specific), but comes at the cost of your training time, so you must prioritise. As you start raking in the millions you'll start considering how many pools you're going to build in your mansion, but ultimately you'll have a rude awakening to discover there is no actual point to the money you earn. It can't be spent on anything and serves only to rank your imaginary bank balance against other fighters around the world. It really makes the media profile seem pointless in the end and disappointingly removes the entire conflict that should exist between training and being out in the public eye.

In addition to career mode, you can also jump straight into an exhibition match or try out the training modes from the title screen if commitment's not your thing. Online multiplayer is also on offer with comprehensive support that allows you to adjust every facet of the match.

Fight Night this is not, so out goes the minimalist approach to controls and in come Venom Games who ensure that no button goes unused. The face buttons correspond to your different types of punches. The right analogue stick controls your blocking. The left trigger is used to lean your body. The right trigger, left bumper and right bumper are used in conjunction with the face buttons to perform body punches, signature punches and to step and punch. On screen you have three meters to monitor closely if you want to come out on top. The most important of these is naturally your energy bar, which is what stands in between victory and the defeat. Stamina is the one you'll need to pay the closest attention to though. You can't just go into a fight madly swinging away, without any stamina your shots become slow and weak, making you a prime target for a one-way ticket to the canvas. The last meter, your adrenaline, is one that builds up progressively based on your performance, allowing you to execute a hard-hitting signature punch. They're few and far between, but a signature punch can turn a whole fight around in a second. It's an overly-complex control scheme that's worlds away from the streamlined analogue punches of Fight Night, but in its favour it presents you with a multitude of options with which to tackle a situation.

Unfortunately the best way to describe the actual boxing is clumsy. Your boxer moves as if they are fighting through molasses, dishing out punches at a sluggish rate even when you're at full stamina. Further adding frustration to the mix, the actual response time between button presses and your characters on screen punches feels as if it takes seconds at times, so annoyingly you'll go to execute a signature punch only to have it quickly counteracted by the AI. This brings us to the third main problem in the engine: hit detection. Now I can understand that not every punch connects in real boxing, but when your fist flies right through the opponent's face without contact, there's truly something wrong. It's a factor that really ruins the whole element of strategy. You can't always rely on hits connecting, so it quickly falls into button-mashing, the very thing the developers wanted to avoid.

Fight Night: Round 3 was a beautiful game. (Well - as beautiful as two sweaty shirtless men pummelling each other into submission can get!) You'd expect that now developers have had a chance to master programming for the 360 that Fight Night would have lost its shine by now. Prizefighter takes a lot on board from Fight Night, especially in the use of camera tilts and colour washes when a fighter goes down, but comparing the two side by side I'd still say that Fight Night still has the upper hand. Prizefighter lacks those extra little touches in the character models that really add impact to the punches. Animation on the other hand, particularly in cut scenes, looks great.

To compliment its fantastic visuals, Fight Night also sported terrific sound effects that made that knockout punch absolutely gut churning. By comparison, Prizefighter feels entirely underwhelming, lacking that extra oomph as punches connect. On the music side of things, the blaring rap song that plays on the title screen will have you jumping for the mute button, but stepping into the game it isn't all bad. There's some Blue Oyster Cult, RUN DMC and Boston to be found, but it's as soon as you hear the opening bars to Eye of the Tiger that will have you beaming. There's nothing like training for the big match with Eye of the Tiger blaring on the radio in the background to get you pushing that extra mile.

Right from the bell Prizefighter was going up against some stiff competition, going head to head with the champ. It got in a few good shots, but takes a knock out blow when it comes to the main factor of the game; the gameplay itself. Prizefighter's biggest strength, its unique story-driven career mode, really stands out and is the game's saving grace. It's intriguing, engrossing and brings a level of character to the sports genre, not just another career mode, it creates an interesting story based experience. Unfortunately as compelling as the story can be, it's not enough to mask the poor and unreliable boxing mechanics. Certainly worth a look if you're a boxing fan, but Fight Night is still the reigning champ. We can only wait to see what Round 4 will bring to the table.