I got in close, chucked off a few body blows, swerved a jab and with a quick flick of the right stick and a tap of the A button unleashed Iron Mike Tyson's signature jumping haymaker to send the great Muhammad Ali to the canvass.

The massively satisfying sequence was instantly replayed in slow-mo, hi def EA polished glory and my fate was sealed, 'I'm playing this for the next two days solid'.

Better yet I did not fall out of love with Fight Night Round 4 when Ali got up, dusted himself down and absolutely pummelled me for the next three rounds before knocking me out completely with a masterclass befitting the legendary man.

The game, which proudly parades the fact it is the first boxing simulation to feature the ever-controversial Tyson, is, as you would expect from EA, beautifully presented, full of depth and graphically excellent.

The roster of boxers stands at an impressive 50. There are past legends like Ali, Foreman, Sugar Ray, more recent stars including the likes of Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe and current greats like Manny Pacquaio.

You can create your own boxer so really the roster is limitless and with Xbox Live, there may well be more fighters added to the list.

You start off with a basic training tutorial which shows off the control mechanism of using the right analogue stick to punch, push it left and upwards for left-handed jab, right and downwards for right-handed body blow and so on.

It all feels a bit fiddly and uncoordinated at first and the weak-willed out there may well find it instantly off-putting. But stick with it and the rewards are plentiful. There are a number of different game modes, the most popular of which will be legacy and online.

Legacy takes you through from an amateur to hopefully the top of the world circuit if you can get there and is a huge and engrossing experience, you train, look at upcoming opponents profiles and plan your training and fights accordingly.

You should walk the first few fights, even if you just slug away but after that a more considered, tactical and thoughtful approach will be required to get by. Soaking up some punches, blocking, countering, pushing and gripping your opponent all become huge aspects of a successful bout. And the great thing about this game, and indeed the hallmark of any quality computer game, is that as soon as you think you've cracked it and got it all worked out, it comes back and lands an uppercut to your jaw to bring you back to reality.

Each fighter has their own signature punch which is rather cool when using the likes of Ali, Pacquaio and Tyson who have particularly good ones. Connect with a well-timed one of those and you're on to a good thing.

Versus mode is excellent as were the few fights I experienced playing online before writing this review and it is online and in the creation mode where the long-term appeal will truly lie for FNR4. All the fighters feel very realistic and you really feel you have to tailor your fighting style to suit your fighter. For example with Tyson, his reach is one of the smallest on the game, and so you have to get in close, hug, unleash a few punches and wear your opponent down gradually before using a more powerful head shot or haymaker.

With Lennox Lewis though you can sit back weigh things up and send out your long reach and rack up plenty of points. But let a little bull like Tyson get in close, negating the strength of your reach, and they can destroy you quickly.

Whichever way you play the game, it's an intense, heart-rattling experience that gets more rewarding the more time you invest in learning the small and perhaps sometimes more frustrating things. With incredible attention to detail, technical achievements are more than mere eye candy and a deeper, more rewarding fighting system than ever before, it's an essential purchase for boxing fans and one of the undoubted successes of 2009.

bucksherald.co.uk rating: 8.5

Version reviewed: Xbox360

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