“Fight Night Round 4″
Genre: Sports
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ESRB rating: “T” for teen
Price: $59.99
Grade: A

“Fight Night Round 4″ is better than the average boxing game.

That’s not saying much, however.

After all, the notable competition thus far consists of a mini-game in Nintendo’s 3-year-old “Wii Sports” where battling avatars — some wearing big-rimmed eyeglasses — knock each other into a pile of disconnected limbs, and the previous “Fight Nights.”

So, in effect, “Fight Night Round 4″ is just trying to out-do itself. And by that measure, “Round 4″ fails to deliver a knock-out punch.

Here’s the other thing, though: It doesn’t need to. “Round 4″ contains a good mix of easy action and technical detail to make EA Sports’ next step up in the series worth plunking down the cash for an upgrade, whether you’re new to the boxing game or an old pro.

As always, novices can start out by simply swinging away, maybe connect on a punch or two and escape with a win. But to truly enjoy “Round 4,” understand that the quality of punches, not quantity, makes for a better experience, and better progress.

Besides, the more a boxer flails, the more likely he’ll fail. Despite “Round 4″ being a little lax on realism — occasionally, punches seem to either go through an opponent’s head or bounce off without noticeable effect — it encourages players to pace themselves and land good punches for points that translate into bigger energy gains in the corner between rounds.

And to land good punches, one must think carefully what to do and how to do it by analyzing an opponent’s weaknesses and looking for openings to exploit them. This approach pays off in the new Legacy mode, in which players take a fighter from the very bottom of his weight class to the top rung, fending off contenders and struggling up to the higher weight classes the whole way.

Because Legacy is so involved, one need not worry about racing through “Round 4″ too fast; picking through the field of fighters can take players months to accomplish.

To make Legacy more interesting, “Round 4″ has a robust fighter-creation mode that allows players to either choose from four dozen “real” fighters and develop others such as Zab Judah and Floyd Mayweather (and, of course, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, as depicted on the box cover), or create one of their own and even put their face on his body.

On the down side, the training-oriented mini-games in “Round 4,” while helpful to a degree for novices who want to improve their skills, are needlessly difficult and do not provide significant gains for fighters during later competition. Also, the online mode, despite deserving kudos for its responsiveness and lack of lag time, abounds with registrants who treat opponents like speed bags and just swing away at them as fast as they can.

But to really enjoy “Fight Night Round 4,” it helps to not behave like a sixth-grade playground bully. Pay attention to details, watch what you’re doing, and this game will be much more fun than you can imagine.