I'm not much of a boxing fan, but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't intrigued by EA Sport's all-analog control scheme in Fight Night 2004. Unfortunately, I was out of luck, as the game wasn't offered on the GameCube. One year and a Super Punch Out port later, I'm able to give the series a try with Round 2, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm satisfied.

Fight Night's Career Mode puts you in the role of an underground boxer trying to make his way up the ranks from an amateur clobbering someone in a bar to the main attraction in a Vegas rumble n' tumble.

Just as in other EA Sports games, you'll be able to create your own athlete, which is a great plus, as the options are extremely varied and different feature types are plentiful. Personally, I've always wanted to see a heavy-set man with a uni-brow and a 70's style afro hop around in satin shorts, so my body choices resulted in Vlad "The Dude" Higgins. Laugh all you like, but Mr. Higgins will always be an ace in my book.

You'll start out, as you may expect, as a first-time fighter trying to make a living by duking it out with other hopefuls. Once you feel you've gotten adequate training through the various tutorials and pre-professional rounds, you can choose to go pro, where the fights become harder and the rewards become more lucrative.

Fights are fairly simple. In order to knock out an opponent, you'll first need to wear him down. Your progress in doing this will be shown by a red meter towards the bottom of the screen. Once you get that meter down to zero, the game goes into slow motion and all punches take on additional potency. By landing a dynamic combo of attacks, your adversary will eventually lose ground and hit the canvas. Depending on how furious your offense was, the amount of times you'll have to do this varies.

By far the easiest way to get an opponent down is by using your special punch, a trump card that will either do massive damage or (if you miss) open you up for a devastating attack, and EA's new addition to the gameplay, the Haymaker. Capable of doing astronomical damage and also opening up your challenger to a slew of follow-up combos, this is without a doubt the easiest way to win.

All of this may sound like a great notch in the Champion of the World belt, but while the concept shows a lot of potential, Fight Night loses a lot of points in its greatest draw: all-analog control. First of all, it isn't all-analog. While the majority of your moves are carried out through C-Stick combos, you still use the face buttons to perform your special move, illegal moves, taunts, and clinches (an action in which you bear-hug your opponent to prevent him from knocking you out).

Although it's sad to learn that the promise of complete analog control isn't carried out, it wasn't the final crushing blow to the control scheme. Without a doubt, Round 2 is just not meant to be played with the GameCube's controller. Due to the octagonal placeholder, which does not allow for smooth movement, moving the C-Stick back and forth feels extremely clumsy. This is most evident in the Haymaker (which is enacted by a 120 degree rotation upwards, followed by the reverse action), which is nearly impossible to execute correctly. Even simple attacks, such as jabs and hooks, can often be fired without intention. I often found myself attempting a left hook, but throwing an uppercut. You can only imagine the kind of beating Mr. Higgins took for that kind of slip-up. It's really a shame that such a promising feature left me so disappointed.

Where the control scheme may leave you with doubts, the atmosphere quickly wins back your attention. With blow-by-blow commentary and Corner-Man pep talks, you really get the sense that you're Joe Gloves, punching your way to the top. Unfortunately, as the game goes on, the very same pep talks and commentary are repeated, lessening their presence from a novelty to an annoyance.

All in all, the Career Mode is somewhat entertaining, but is severely drawn down by the lack of variety. Even the special events are nothing more an average round with a slight tweak in the rules. Thankfully, with multiplayer and a fabulous port of the SNES classic, Super Punch Out, there's still enough bang for your buck.

As I said before, though, this game is all about atmosphere, and as far as presentation goes, Fight Night is an impressive iteration of the series. The visuals fit the game perfectly, allowing the photo-realism to illustrate everything from the tiniest twitch in the clavicle to the most devastating crater inflicted by a round-finishing punch.

Sound-wise, you can expect the usual treatment from EA, Hip Hop all the way. While some of you may scoff at the publisher being too genre-biased, I found that the musical taste was perfect for this type of game. It really gets the blood pumping. Or it would, if the game's tracks were played during bouts.

No, you didn't read that wrong, there is no musical accompaniment to the actual gameplay. It really hurts the experience, and I'm still not sure why this decision was made. In the end, though, the other aesthetics clear away this minor, albeit mind-numbingly odd, blemish.

Fight Night: Round 2 is a good game, but there are too many needless faults that pull the otherwise entertaining game down. If EA Sports develops a Round 3, they can easily create an outstanding boxing game. All that's needed is a more intuitive control scheme, some variety in training and dialogue, and some MUSIC DURING GAMEPLAY. Then I can name this franchise as the true Knockout King. Until then, though, we'll still have to depend on Glassy Joe and the gang.