As it is, the game looks and plays just like Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Boxing from the previous year—which came out around the same time he lost to Bowe. Way to be timely!

The boxers in this game look a bit more roided-up and cartoonish than the Holyfield boxers; they all have this crazy look on their faces. And Riddick Bowe was never that ripped, at least not in the pros!

One thing I don’t like about the game is that when you throw body punches, it moves you back when they land. Seriously, what is it with body punches in these boxing games? They either take energy away from you or they move you back when you land on them. It’s fucking dumb.

One thing I notice is the audience; it’s just like real boxing. You start out with only a few people attending the fight, but as you progress more people come to the show. In other boxing games, you seem to start out with a full audience. Unless you’re an Olympic gold medalist, that sort of thing could never happen.

A really tedious point about this game is that the uppercut is the fight ending punch. It doesn’t really make for exciting gameplay when all you know you have to do is throw the uppercut until you knock the other guy out. It doesn’t completely ruin the gameplay, and it gets harder to simply do that as the game progresses, but it still doesn’t make for strategic gameplay which is the kind I prefer.

So, onto the gameplay…you fight your way up the rankings—you start out as number 30. You have to train before every fight—training methods include weights, jumping rope, punching bags, and soda. Really, you can train on soda. Uh, yeah. Anyway, it’s best that you fight every contender so that you can gain as many strength points as possible. Unlike the Holyfield game, you don’t age as rapidly, so you don’t lose a lot of strength as you advance.

Once you win the championship, you have to defend it against the mandatory or get stripped of your championship. Just like real boxing. And just like real boxing, you often have to fight the same mandatory challenger even if you’ve already beaten him. Well, at least they don’t screw with you in the scoring of the fight!

After you get 40 fights and/or $50 million in earnings, your career is done and you become a Legend. Like I said, aside from a few differences it plays exactly like the Holyfield game.

Riddick Bowe Boxing is available on Super Nintendo and Nintendo Game Boy.

Now, for something (that actually isn’t) different…

Chavez Boxing intro screen

Around the end of 1993, they published this game for the Mexican market. And guess who it featured? That’s right, the legend himself, Julio Cesar Chavez!

Chavez was released for Super Nintendo in Mexico right before Chavez, who had won an amazing 89 of 90 fights, lost to Frankie Randall in a huge upset (one of many to occur around that time). Once again, way to be timely!

Chavez plays exactly like the Riddick Bowe game. Well, that’s because it is the Riddick Bowe game! The only differences are the colors of the ropes (red, white and green as opposed to red, white and blue), the names of the contenders, the language (Spanish in place of English), and Julio Cesar Chavez in place of Riddick Bowe.

Now, you saw how ripped Bowe was in that game. Look how ripped Chavez is! I mean, it’s more realistic in this case because he’s a 140 pound fighter, but this is a bit much! Especially since they use the same animations, he resembles a heavyweight! It’s just weird. Also, Chavez is listed as having 89 fights. They don’t count draws in this game, I guess.

So, there isn’t much to review about this game, since it’s the same as the Riddick Bowe game. You don’t even really need to know Spanish to play it; if you’re familiar with boxing terminology, you should be able to pick it up quickly enough.

Fight screenshot with energy meters

Chavez is available only on Super Nintendo.

Final Grades

• Graphics: A-
• Gameplay: A-
• Sound: B+
• Controls: B
• Realism: B-
• A.I.: A-

Strong Recommendation on both games.