Welcome to Modojo, 
Super KO Boxing! Review
Written by Justin Davis on Monday, July 31, 2006
Looks fantastic, and plays as good as it looks.
Nothing, really. Just buy it.
Modojo has ranted before about how fantastic Super KO Boxing is, but that in no way guaranteed a positive review. Maybe the game would turn out to be too short, or too easy, or contain some other fatal flaw that wouldn't show itself until we'd spent ample time with the final, reviewable copy.
I'm happy to report that that isn't the case - not by a longshot. In fact, the final version of Super KO actually includes more modes, goodies, and gameplay depth than what I had been lead to believe in my previous experiences with the game.
For the unfamiliar, Super KO Boxing is a blatant rip-off (excuse me, "homage") to Nintendo's Super Punch-Out. This means the game is filled with other-the-top characters, who mostly adhere to ridiculous (and humorous), cartoon-style stereotypes. All characters have a tell which indicates when they're about to unleash a flurry of punches, and that's your cue to dodge and counterattack. This complete disregard for basically any form of realism is what made Punch-Out fun back in the day, and it makes Super KO super-enjoyable today.
If Nintendo was still making Punch-Out titles I might be more inclined to look down on Glu's fantastically fun boxer, but I've been waiting 12 years for a Super Punch-Out sequel. At this point I feel like anyone who wants to take a stab at the "cartoon boxer" genre has every right. Especially if the finished result turns out as good as Glu's.
Glu has simplified the Punch-Out formula somewhat, but it actually turns out to be far less of an issue than I anticipated. Gamers dodge left and right with... left and right. Down ducks, the center button deals a body blow, and up unleashes a high punch. Additionally, 1 taunts and * unleashes super punches (when available). I thought that I would miss separate buttons for left and right punch, but I didn't at all. What made Punch-Out so fun was dismantling an opponent's patterns and then laying the smackdown with your counterattack, not alternating between left and right. Within seconds I'd adjusted to the intuitive control scheme and now wouldn't want it any other way.
Super KO is one of those rare titles were graphics actually do impact fun factor, and I'm happy to say that the game looks absolutely fantastic. It makes me question why some developers are fighting to push blocky polygons running at (maybe) 15FPS, when they could be focusing on great 2D art like Super KO contains. The large, detailed sprites allow a lot of character detail to show despite the small screen, and give the game an endearing sense of personality and style.
The last major thing Super KO has going for it is a surprising amount of extra content. After you've cleared the main game's three circuits (containing 15 boxers in all), there's still much more to do. A versus mode allows you to tackle any of the enemies in a one-off bout. An endurance mode for experts pits you against one boxer after another, with only one health bar - get knocked down and its all over. My personal favorite is challenge mode, however. This tasks gamers with completing a number (I counted 23) of challenging scenarios, like winning a match without blocking, winning in the first round, or having no access to super punches. All the individual events in all these modes have a separate high score as well, significantly increasing replay value.
Super KO Boxing is, to put it simply, the best mobile game I've played in 2006. It's perfect to pick up and play for just a couple minutes, but it's also a ton of fun during longer sessions, thanks to the variation in the characters and the modes. If there were ever a mobile game that could make believers out of those that firmly maintain that mobile gaming "sucks," this is it.
posted September 1, 2006