*ding ding* Real Boxing punches it’s way onto the PlayStation Vita and it’s come out swinging. Vivid Games have created the first boxing simulation for the PS Vita and for their first game they’ve done a good job. Developed on the Unreal Engine 3, Vivid Games have created a very good looking boxing game.

When you first launch Real Boxing you have to create your boxer before you are ready to enter the ring. You can choose from  quick fight, career mode and multiplayer mode (which doesn’t seem to be working at the moment or no one has bought the game  because it has failed to find any opponents when I searched) or you can train your boxer which I will go into detail later.

You start out with 1,000 credits which you can spend on boxing gear or upgrading your skills. Once you’ve sorted out your boxer you can do the tutorial which will explain how to control the fisty-cuffs. You cannot edit your character once you’ve created him, you can just change his hair, shorts and gloves. After completing the tutorial you can either do a quick fight or do the career mode.  The career mode has 3 tournaments, bronze, silver and gold and as you might have guessed, it gets harder with each tournament.  There are 9 fights in each tournament and each fight gives you a challenge to do for bonus money and skill points.

After every fight you can use the skill points you get to upgrade your fighter and become the king of the ring. As well as upgrading your stats you can also unlock perks by practicing in the gym. There are four types of practices sessions that you can do, punching bag, jumping rope, speed bag and sparring. The controls are simple, you can use either the right analogue stick or you can use the face buttons and the d-pad to throw your dukes. You have to press the right shoulder button to dodge attacks and counter; holding the button to block punches. The left shoulder button modifies your punches so you can throw a body strike. There is also a touch screen option if you want to use that instead of the buttons. Although I haven’t tried the touch screen option I can say the controls are responsive if you use the analogue stick or buttons.

Real Boxing is a good looking game and takes advantage of the Vita’s beautiful OLED screen. The boxers look great and when you’ve been in the ring for a few minutes and taken some punches, you can see the swelling and the blood on your face, or theirs if you are a much stronger opponent. The ring and the crowd also look great, although you won’t notice them once you start fighting.  The animations are smooth, but there are few odd glitches when you counterattack. I didn’t notice any frame rate drops which really does help in any sports game, even if they were  any, they’re unnoticeable.

The sound of Real Boxing is what you expect from a boxing game. The sound of the crowds cheering and the fighters punching are all excellent and add to the game. There aren’t many music tracks, just the one that plays as your boxer enters the ring, which you can turn off in the menu.

The multiplayer mode is local and online and like I said earlier the online multiplayer fails to find any opponents, which could mean no one has bought the game or it’s not working. Vivid Games are hosting a competition to see who’s the best in Real Boxer. If you manage to find opponents and become the greatest boxer then you will win a Vita. The competition  will end September 11th.

So if you wanted a boxing simulator for your Vita then Vivid Games have answered your prayers. Real Boxing is everything you need in a boxing simulator and for £7.99 it’s a great price. You can download Real Boxing now from the European PlayStation Store. Sorry my North American friends, it seems that Real Boxing has seen a couple of delays and has not been released for your store.

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