Best Bout Boxing (Arcade)

 Combat sports are often an interesting subject for videogames, especially in the arcade, and even moreso in the mid-nineties post-street Fighter II fighting game boom, when every developer was trying to put out the next big hit about people doing super-powered martial arts at each other. Battle K-Road, which I reviewed a while back, took a more grounded approach, and was a more interesting game because of it. But Jaleco really seemed to have made a tough job for themselves when they decided to release a boxing game into that market. Boxing, the fighting style made up entirely of just punches, in a world where all the other games have not only kicks and throws, but swords and energy blasts and all that stuff too?

 

I don't know how much of a commercial success Best Bout Boxing was (though, with its complete lack of console ports, I assume it wasn't massive), in terms of making a game that could have ended up looking drab and bland into something that stood a chance of standing out in a busy arcade, they were definitely successful! The presentation in this game is amazing, everything is big and loud and colourful, and it definitely takes a contemporary fighting game-style approach to its characters. They're all very distinct from each other, full of personality, and with amazing names like Jose Humdinger and Carolde First. Also, one of them is blatantly just Abdullah the Butcher. There's even an unplayable final boss character, who appears on the continue screen to mock you, looming large like a Fist of the North Star villain.

 

As for how it actually plays, it's easiest to describe it in terms of how it's different from a typical fighting game of the era. Movement is obviously a lot more limited, as you canbasically just move towards or away from your opponent. There's no room to run, of course, nor do jumping and crouching have a place in the boxing ring. Furthermore, all your attacks are punches, with your left and right fists each having a dedicated button, along with a third for doing a special attack that's powerful but leaves you very vulnerable if you miss or get blocked. Adding to the differences is the lack of special moves, as you might think of them in a fighting game: there's no moves activated with joystick motions, for example. Instead, each boxer has a few combinations, activated by using the necessary sequence of specific punches in the right order, and with the right rhythm.

 

Best Bout Boxing is a game that came as a pleasant surprise to me. It took what could have been a tepid, uninspiring basis for a videogame, and made it fun and exciting, not only mechanically, but aesthetically, too. I recommend you give it a chance, too, and I hope to one day hear of it being announced as an Arcade Archives release. One last interesting point I want to mention before ending the review, though: the dip switches give the option to alter the strength of each individual character. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other game! It's especially odd considering that your opponents in single player come in random order. I can only assume it's for arcade operators with unusually patriotic clientele, who want to ensure that their homeland's representative always has an advantage?