Abandoned at the mall when I was 16 and raised by Aladdin’s Castle attendants, it’s no surprise I was pretty fluent with classic video games of the day; one of my favorite being Nintendo’s Punch Out! Since 1983 I’ve been waiting for somebody to recreate that experience, and Grab Games just did with their new smash hit, Knockout League, now on Steam for Vive and Rift. Sure, there have been other boxing games over the past 35 years; some ultra-realistic like EA’s Fight Nigh, and arcade games like Wii Boxing that even had real boxing gloves with pockets to insert the Wii remotes. But none of those come close to what you’ll experience when you put on your VR headset and head to the gym.
Knockout League starts you off at the front desk of a typical gym where you can sign in to one of three profiles; a nice touch allowing multiple family members to maintain their own career and workout schedule. You can enter your height and weight which calibrates the game and fuels the optional calorie burn calculator. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I seem to burn about 200 calories per fight, or roughly 800 calories per hour…assuming I could play this game for an hour. 15-20 minutes seems to be my physical limit; at least at this point into my virtual boxing career.
Now it’s time to step into the ring with your trainer who comes off as a non-threatening Mr. T. He’ll teach you how to punch, dodge, duck, and counter-punch in this surprisingly useful tutorial before sending you off to your first fight against the hulking Tri-Tip, the first of nine stylized and increasingly challenging opponents you will face off against in three fight circuits complete with boss fights and even grudge matches.
Arguably, Knockout League is perhaps more puzzle than arcade game in that almost all of you boxing is reactive. There are rare moments when you can go on the offensive, especially when you earn the damaging Golden Gloves, but for the most part you spend your time waiting for your opponent to telegraph their next move, make the appropriate counter move then follow-up with a flurry of your own attacks. This ultimately means a bit of trial and error as you learn their patterns and tells, so don’t expect to beat most of these fighters on your first match.
Playable on the Vive and the Rift, Knockout League is much more fun using the Oculus Touch, as the plastic wraps around your hand feeling much more like a boxing glove rather than hanging onto two Vive sticks. No matter which system you use make sure to wear the wrist straps, as you will be punching hard into the air with increasingly sweaty palms. While the lighter and more comfortable Oculus Touch felt better to use it did have the annoyance of my right thumb hitting the flat button to launch the Oculus system menu in mid-fight. I had to consciously remember to alter my grip slightly to avoid this.
The game supports standing and room-scale and you will certainly want to stand while playing and make sure you have clear space in front of you as far as you can reach. Prior to each fight you can calibrate your position within the play space, but aside from some bobbing and weaving you won’t be moving around the room much. I was totally impressed with just how accurate the motion tracking was as far moving my head side to side to avoid punches or holding my gloves in front of my face to block attacks.
Knockout League has some interesting fight mechanics that make it much more than a simple arcade game, but there are also missing elements that have it falling short of a sports sim. As mentioned, you don’t really move from your initial standing position, so there is no dancing around the ring. The game focuses primarily on punching someone in the head rather than softening them up with body blows. There are no rounds or timers, and most fights just have you trading punches until somebody goes down; usually three times before they stay down. There are some interesting and useful systems in place for stamina and fatigue, and the game actually tracks how hard you are punching in real life and translates that into game damage. It also tracks the quality of your punches and how effective your combos are, especially when going after a stunned opponent.
Between fights there are some fun (and exhausting) training exercises to sharpen your skills like mitt training, a traditional speed bag or head out behind the gym to have three dumpsters launch objects at you. Dodge the trash while punching blue and red items with left and right punches. All of these mini-games have multiple difficulty settings with individually tracked scores and leaderboards, and they are a great way to warm-up for a fight.
As is the case with most VR games, screens, videos and even reviews like this can’t convey a fraction of the excitement, challenge, and fun you’ll have with the actual game. I’ve been waiting for a game like Knockout League for over 30 years. Sadly, now I am almost too out-of-shape to play it, but that’s not going to stop me from becoming the next virtual boxing champ, even if I have to do it 15 minutes a day. This might be the first game where you need to strip down to shorts and keep a water bottle and towel handy. The foam cushion around the headset gets pretty gross about the time your VR lenses start to fog up. I can honestly say I have never sweated so much playing a video game ever, and there have been some fights with one or more rematches before I won where I actually collapsed from exhaustion.
The presentation for Knockout League is fantastic with gorgeous, albeit stylized graphics used to bring this eclectic cast of characters to life. There are great intro animations for the fighters and plenty of special effects. When you get punched the video in your VR lenses blurs, mimicking a stunned effect. The gym environment is perfectly recreated and immersive and the navigation around the screens and menus is perfect. The shine on your gloves, the emotive faces of the boxers, and even the integrated stamina meter built right into the boxing ring all combine to make this a AAA VR experience that truly showcases what this tech is all about.
Knockout League is not only a fantastic arcade boxing game; if the calorie counter is even remotely accurate it’s a great new way to workout. $30 gets you countless hours of challenging and exhausting boxing action; a bargain compared to a gym membership and a whole lot more fun. Now if I can only stop humming the theme from Rocky while punching the pot roast in my freezer.
