Played by: Reinc Greatest Heavyweights is a boxing video game that was published by Sega in 1994. It was released for the Sega Genesis console. It is a follow-up to Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing, and is virtually identical in many ways, apart from a number of significant improvements. The game features eight of the most famous and successful heavyweight boxers in history: Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Floyd Patterson. There are also a total of thirty other imaginary fighters present in the game. The cartridge supports the 6 button control pad (an improvement over the controller options of its predecessor). In terms of presentation, one noticeable area of improvement over the previous game is the animation. The top-down map featured in the first game has been replaced by a small 2.5D view of the ring. Another improvement is that ring announcements are now made by Michael Buffer. His famous phrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" is present. The game also introduces a replay feature, allowing players to pause and replay a segment of the in-ring action at any time. Finally, there are also much more detailed punch statistics at the end of each round and the fight itself. The "taunting" feature is also improved; the phrases used are now more varied, because each of the boxers based on real-life fighters have their own set of taunts. Some of them reflect utterances actually spoken by them during their careers. Boxers will now also sometimes taunt their opponents before fights as well as during them. Technical knockout by severe damage to head or torso is now impossible. Instead, a boxer will receive an increasing amount of damage to health and stamina as their head or body condition becomes worse thus making it easier to knock them out. The game uses an identical 'attributes' system for each boxer to Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing, apart from one change: the attribute "defense" is no longer present. As with Evander Holyfield in the previously-mentioned game, the eight real-life fighters have maximum values on all of the attributes. Career mode is slightly altered, in that the player fights their way through the thirty imaginary boxers in the game, with the last of these fights being for the World Heavyweight Title. At any point during your way to the title you may be challenged by a lower-ranking boxer. After the player has won the title, they then fight all eight of the pugilists based on real-life boxers, in 'challenge' matches. Also, when creating a fighter, it is no longer possible to alter whether the boxer is left or right-handed. Instead, it is now possible to choose the physical size of your boxer from three pre-sets. There is one new mode: tournament. In this mode, a player takes control of one of the eight real-life boxers in the game, and competes against the other seven in an eight-man tournament. In any of the three modes, the player can choose to have their fighter on either the left or right side of the screen. THE BEAST returns as I play through Career mode. As with the previous game, I had to reduce my tactic to an exploit because the AI both cheats and reads players input. I edited in Tournament endings for each of the real-life boxers after the credits. - Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!
