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World Championship Boxing Manager |
Copyright/Publisher: Goliath Games, Release Year: 1990, Genre: Boxing, Number Of Players: 1
You don't need bulging biceps to earn a living out of boxing: as a manager you
can rake in the cash while others take the punches. With a stable of up to five
boxers you compete against 17 computer-controlled managers.
The main meny comprises a corridor with three doors leading to the physio (for
fitness reports), the gymnasium (where fighters can train in five different ways),
and your office.
The latter includes a filinf cabinet containing your boxers' contract, records,
and rankings (area, national, and world for both the FWB and WCIB boxing boards).
There's also a calendar for advancing the date, and a filofax with useful information
such as a fight dates, all 100 boxers' fight records, and detailed ability
reports for each of your boxers.
The most important piece of office equipment is the telephone, used to contact
other managers to arrange fights. A manager may turn down a fight offer if he thinks
it's a mismatch, or if you greedily ask for too high a percentage of the purse.
Also contached by phone are two scouts (Limpy and Wimpy!) who can watch fights
on your behalf or even spy on other fighters - however, once found out they may
enjoy a long stay in hospital! If a fighter is unhappy with his present manager
you may be able to poach him.
On fight night (every Sunday) you can watch a blow-by-blow text commentary
of any fight. If one of yourt boxers is involved you get to work in the corner.
Between rounds you have thirty seconds to work on your fighter's injuries using
such items as the water bottle, sponge, adrenalin, and cold iron.
Tactical instructions (ranging from 'take it easy' to 'fight dirty') can
also be given for the next round. Fights may be decided either by knockout, the
referee stopping the contest (if a fighter has a bad cut), or on points.
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Robin |
Goliath's Tracksuit Manager was one of the most realistic footy management games
made, so I was hoping for a similar treatment of boxing. Unfortunately Boxing
Manager simply doesn't give you enough to do, and you never seem to have much
influence over the success of your fighters.
Also, the fights aren't exactly thrilling: the text commentary gives a good
blow-by-blow account, but even simple graphic display would have helped improve
the big fight atmosphere. As it is, I'm afraid Boxing Manager won't make the count.
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Phil |
Being a boxing manager seems like a cushy number to me; after all it's the poor
fighter who has to take the punches. And the boxers aren't the only ones to get
beaten up on your behalf - I felt guilty sending out scouts only for them to end
up in hospital, time and time again.
Anyway, for a strategy game there isn't that much to do - just picking fights
and working in the corner. This is mildly amusing for a while, but with its severe
lack of depth the game resembles a budget release.
The Amiga version has a few graphical extras such as the curvaceous secretary,
but disappointingly no graphical representation of the fight itself. So overall,
the C64 version is better value for money, although still far too lightweight for
the serious sports strategy fan.
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