Back in 1987, Nintendo was using Mike Tyson to endorse Mike Tyson’s Punchout! on the NES.  In 1990 when James “Buster” Douglas pulled off the greatest upset in boxing history when he defeated Mike Tyson for the Heavyweight Title in 1990, Sega was quick to one up Nintendo by signing on Douglas to endorse a boxing game of their own.  They had to get a game quick, so they chose to port over 1988’s Final Blow, which was released in the arcades two years earlier in 1988.   I remember playing Final Blow in the arcades back then, and it was a lot of fun.  On home consoles however, we expect a little bit more.

James “Buster” Douglas will never be known as one of the best of all time, but he will live on forever as the first to defeat Mike Tyson.

In James “Buster” Douglas Boxing for the Sega Genesis, you choose from just five boxers who all pretty much look, and play the same.  Game play is extremely simple.  You can only move your boxers left or right.  One button throws a quick jab, and another button throw a slower, but more powerful punch.  You can aim your punches high or low with the d-pad.  Pressing the two punch buttons at the same time throw an even slower, and even more powerful punch.  Aiming the d-pad towards your opponent while pressing a punch button will throw an uppercut.  You can press the d-pad away from your opponent to dodge punches, and the remaining Genesis button makes your boxer duck.  The game play is pretty much a button masher.  There isn’t much in the way of game modes.  You can play the CPU, and go for the title, or you can play a friend.  Playing the CPU is also a bit on the easy side, even on the harder difficulty settings, and also too often requires luck.  After you win the title, you just keep boxing the same four boxers over and over.

The Genesis port looks pretty close to the arcade, and is not a bad looking game with large, and detailed characters.  Unfortunately all the boxers share the exact same body, regardless of the height given on the character selection screen.  The sound in this game is terrible.  All of the speech in the arcade game has been taken out, and the remaining sound effects are scratchy sounding.  The game isn’t bad though.  The fights are frantic, and fun, and ideal if you just want to play a quick game.  It also keeps track of your score, and that will add infinite replayability if you like going for a high score like I do.  If you’re a boxing fan, you can do much better than James “Buster” Douglas Boxing.  If you just want arcade action, then it’s not a bad game to get.