Like myself, you might mistakenly think that Boxing would easily be a huge improvement over the original. I mean, it has been almost eight years, so what could possibly go wrong? It turns out that the Wii Remote Plus controls are very finicky and difficult to get a hang of. You can do jabs, uppercuts and well timed face hits, but the game does not do a great job of keeping up. Face hits work most of the time, but the others demand a frustrating amount of precision from the player. The other Wii Sports Club games improved on their original formulas, but Boxing didn’t fare as well. Not to mention the awkwardness of holding two Wii Remote Plus controllers instead of the more comfortable Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

The online multiplayer connects opponents and doesn’t suffer from as much lag as some of the other games. Lag was an issue when connecting to players with slower connections, but it wasn’t a constant problem.

Like the other games in the series, Boxing features three Skill Shaper games. My favorite is Duck and Dodge, where you to avoid tennis balls that are thrown at you. Speed Bag shows the awful side of Boxing, as you will have to hit punching bags with both hands in quick succession. Last but not least, there is Pro Puncher where you break targets with your moves. Pro Puncher is a bit slower than the other two, but it’s still a hassle to complete the game.

Boxing is not a bad game per se, but an extremely finicky one. You can need to learn the movements to pinpoint precision, and that is simply not for everyone. It is potentially fine to have a go at it with a friend, locally or online, but the entertainment value won't last and you will find yourself returning to the other sports rather quickly. The Skill Shaper games confirm the problems I had with the controls, but that puts this last entry in a bad spot. What a shame.