To put it bluntly...No. Black & Bruised has some great facial expressions and a very appealing look, but everything else is pretty disappointing.

This boxing game is little more than a button masher. Just try all of the punches and throw in a charge-up or two and you’re a master already. The computer AI is horrible right now, as are the loading times (I thought it had frozen!) The boxer’s life mode adds a little variety to the matches and is the most interesting feature in presentation, but with the crummy AI, such situations as weak ribs or exhaustion make little difference in the gameplay. Characters are animated decently, but this is in quality, not quantity. Characters will say and do the same things over and over again, never influenced by the story mode’s presented situation. What little animation and audio Digital Fiction put together was great—hopefully there will be more in the final version. There were some technical and logical errors present in the E3 2002 burn as well as programming shortcuts, all of which are so obvious they better not be in the final game.

But even if Mickey doesn’t say “Kiss me clobberin" twenty times or address an invisible crowd when Black & Bruised comes out, the 55% Digital Fiction has yet to complete better include making the game entertaining if Majesco is hoping for a passable review. Smacking an opponent around is a visual treat, but that is hardly enough. Get back to work, guys!