00:00Let me give you guys a warning, when playing games like this, please be aware of your surroundings
00:19and I would suggest making sure you have enough space to play in. I was unfortunate enough
00:24to have a nasty accident in the middle of this game where I was going for a full on
00:29knockout right cross and ended up punching the corner of my wooden door frame, cutting
00:35open three of my fingers. So please be careful when playing boxing games or any other sports
00:41games.
00:42So this is Manny Boxing VR by Apnori and it was released 20th April 2023. Campaign story.
00:52Well the story is simple, climb the ranks and get from number 100 down to number 1 and
00:57then challenge Manny for that championship belt. Straight away I love this game because
01:03it has a climb system. You will create and use your own character to box with, then off
01:09you go. You start your career off in the gyms, then move up to what looks like a gym hall
01:14and then an arena type looking place. I like the touches such as having a guy introduce
01:20you then having a ref at the start and even a ring girl.
01:25Game menus. Menus are clear and easy to understand. They are not busy or confusing. They are laid
01:32out in front of you. Tutorial, training, championship, fight, online and customised mode. And then
01:39there are other settings to turn off or on your BGM, effects, the commentator and voice
01:46chat. Levels and size. The training is fun with Manny. You have a few modes you can
01:53choose from. Mip mode, dummy mode, heavy bag mode and speedball mode. And each mode has
02:00a world leaderboard in case you want to get competitive.
02:04They also state that in training you can improve your stamina for matches, but I don't see
02:10any evidence of this. There's just no explanations in the game or anything visual that suggests
02:17this is an actual thing.
02:19In championship mode, as you progress through the ranks, you start appearing in other places
02:25to box. I was fighting in the same place until I got down to rank 74 and then the 50s and
02:32then the 25s. With each step up, the halls were getting better and things like commentators
02:38behind a desk showed up and larger crowds. I really would have liked to have seen it
02:43step up again for the top 10 and then once more for the title fights.
02:49Controls. I mean it's boxing, so it's all the usual. There are no special techy combos to
02:56be unlocked here. You can, however, navigate your way around the ring by using the right
03:01analogue stick, so that's very useful if you don't have a big playspace to navigate in.
03:07Mechanics. There are lots of little improvements that could be made. Sometimes the punches
03:13don't feel like they are connecting. Then I also think the health bars could do with
03:18a makeover as they look like they have been taken straight out of an 80s Commodore game
03:23and I don't really understand the system for how you lose health. I punched the opponent,
03:29say 5-6 times, and then the opponent may have hit me once, but still take off as much health
03:35as I did with my 5-6 punches. It just didn't make sense to me.
03:41Customisation options. You can go in and customise your own player. Things like hair, beard and
03:48tattoos, muscle weight, fat weight, hair colour and gloves and shorts colour, but you can
03:54only change the colour for the pair, not individually. It would be great if you could name your player
04:01instead of it just using your meta name. Not that I have a problem with that, but it would
04:05just be nice to have that option available. I would also like to see options for selecting
04:11how many rounds per fight and how long each round should be, even if it's a choice between
04:173, 6, 8, 10 or 12 rounds and then 2 minute or 3 minute rounds.
04:23Opponents the boxers. Whilst there are many boxers in this game, I think they could do
04:28a better job on the way they look. Like Manny looks really good, but the rest look average.
04:36I hope to also see a real time record stats appear, because it would be great to have
04:42a visual record of wins, loses and title defences. Despite the devs saying there are different
04:48fight styles, the AI don't seem to have much differences from each other in fight style.
04:55They all feel pretty much the same and they are quite easy to beat. You do notice that
05:01they get slightly harder from about half way, but I think I only lost twice while climbing
05:07the ranks from 100 to the championship. So I hope they can make it slightly more difficult
05:12or at least add some difficulty options and give each boxer his own unique style that's
05:19clear and easy to see. You know, like in old boxing games they used to give the boxer a
05:24fight style such as slugger, dancer or boxer.
05:29Online playability. I didn't get a chance to test the online as there was never anybody
05:35on when I tried, but I can imagine this to be a lot of fun. You can compete against your
05:41friends or a random player from around the world.
05:45My thoughts. Overall I think this is a great boxing game. I'm just one over because of
05:52the climbing ranks system. I don't know why other boxing games don't do this. It's like
05:57with every sports game. If there's no league to be climbing then what's the point in the
06:02game? So I do hope they will improve the look of the league, make it look more exciting
06:08and not looking so dated. One huge thing that is missing here is when you are fighting there's
06:15no visible count clock down anywhere and there is no 10 second warning bell. These small
06:22details make a massive difference so I really hope to see them added in a future update.
06:27I'd like to have seen Button to skip having to wait for the ref to do his thing at the
06:33beginning. Maybe animate the ring girl more, have her walk around and then out of the ring.
06:38I hope they will invest a lot of time into improving the boxers in both visuals and their
06:45fight styles, even adding things like their stances being southpaw or orthodox. I'd also
06:51like to see the matches scored off more than just damage, like take into consideration
06:57how many punches were landed and also knockdowns. And last of all I'd like to see visual damage
07:04on the opponents, black eyes, bloody noses, cuts above the eyes if you hit them so many
07:09times. I did encounter a few bugs, like hitting my opponent and then he just disappeared.
07:17And then I lost a fight when I was clearly ahead on damage, but apart from that, nothing
07:22major. Of all the boxing games on the quest, I really
07:26enjoyed playing this one through. It's all the details in the game that really make it
07:31stand out above the competition and there is still so much potential with this game
07:36and it has a huge advantage over the other boxing games because of this climb in the
07:41rank system. I just hope they will continue to work hard on it and take it to the next
07:47level. So currently as it is, I am going to rank
07:51Manny Boxing VR an 8.8 stars. So please show me your support by hitting that like button
07:59and then come be part of this community and hit subscribe. Let's support one another in
08:03our gaming experiences. Thanks guys and happy gaming.
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