It's funny how games can evoke a certain time and place with vivid, powerful nostalgia. 4D Sports Boxing, for all of its oddity, is one of those games for me. When I see the quirky polyhedral competitors and the no-frills game interface, I'm immediately summoned back to 1995, when we played this on my roommate's computer in our dingy Woodsides apartment at UNH. There was something therapeutic after a long day of classes and meetings and romantic vicissitudes to sit down amidst unwashed laundry and unread books to customize your gloved avatar and beat the shit out of somebody.
The game was ahead of its time when it came to the three-dimensionality of the ring; the boxers may have been stylized caricatures, but the movements were uncannily fluid. I can still remember trying to climb the difficulty ladder, graduating from tomato cans to journeyman pros to legitimate purveyors of the sweet science. I never got all that far up the rankings. There was always laundry, or homework, or other obligations. But I wouldn't mind getting taped up for a few more bouts.
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