Nowadays, the world of sports video games is a pretty monopolized one. Each major sport has one or two major franchises that largely dominate the space. Licenses with major real-life leagues and annual releases make it very difficult for smaller franchises to poke through. For better or for worse, Madden NFL is pretty much the only football simulator on the market. The same is true of the wrestling genre as well. The WWE 2K series is essentially the only option on the market, despite the disastrous launch of WWE 2K20 causing a two-year hiatus for the franchise. One prominent sport that does seem to have dodged the trend, however, is boxing. There aren’t really any major modern boxing games these days. If you want your boxing fix, you’ll have to look to older games, like 1995’s Boxer’s Road.
Boxer’s Road Premise
This 1995 sports simulation was released exclusively for PlayStation, and exclusively in Japan. Boxer’s Road is therefore an extremely obscure game overseas and rarely comes up in discussion of classic sports games of the era. It is a straightforward boxing simulator which lets you play through the entire career of an aspiring competitor. It also features 3D polygonal graphics, which were a novelty of the era. It’s a generally more realistic title than its contemporaries, such as the more iconic Punch-Out. You need to put a lot of thought into your fighter’s training regimen, and even control his diet to make sure he’s getting the nutrients he needs. This is a considerable departure from other boxing games, which focus on quick, arcade-style matches.
Boxer’s Road Titles In The Series
Boxer’s Road has a somewhat complicated history of series releases. It does have a sequel, which was developed by a completely different company than the original game. While Boxer’s Road was developed by New Corporation, a company called Grand Prix handled the development of the second game. Grand Prix did feature work from many of the same employers as the first Boxer’s Road, meaning the two titles do share plenty of DNA. In between these two games, however, New Corporation kept making boxing games. These were based on the popular boxing manga Hajime no Ippo. Due to their shared development history, however, they have a lot of similarities to the Boxer’s Road games. Below is a full list of every title in the Boxer’s Road duology as well as the Hajime no Ippo games made by the same company.
- Boxer’s Road (1995)
- Victorious Boxers: Ippo’s Road to Glory (2000)
- Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! (2002)
- Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road (2004)
- Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit (2004)
- Boxer’s Road 2: The Real (2006)
- Victorious Boxers: Revolution (2007)
Boxer’s Road Cheat Codes
As a ’90s game, Boxer’s Road is, like so many contemporaries, susceptible to cheat code peripherals. While it has no built-in cheat codes, users with a tool like the Action Replay can still pull off a few special tricks. These codes come courtesy of The PlayStation Datacenter and can be used by anyone lucky enough to still have a working Action Replay system. In the absence of such an old piece of technology, you can try emulating the game. Most emulation software allows you to mimic these old cheating systems inside the system itself.
- Maximum Life: 80010274 FFFF or 80010276 FFFF
- Maximum Endurance: 80010280 FFFF or 8001028C FFFF
- Maximum Punch Speed: 80010178 FFFF, 80010184 FFFF, or 80010190 FFFF
Boxer’s Road Cheat Codes FAQ
Are there any boxing games for PlayStation 5? Of course, not everyone has the time or the inclination to track down a Japan-exclusive PS1 game like Boxer’s Road. As I mentioned at the top of this article, there aren’t a ton of modern boxing games on the market, and certainly not any dominant franchises like there are for football and basketball. That said, there are a few useful options on the market. One well-liked title is BoxVR, a VR title that lets you experience a fully immersive boxing journey using your own body as the controller. As titles like Beat Saber prove, active games that get you to move your body and work out on your own terms are an excellent fit for VR, and BoxVR is no different.
Of course, if you’re in the mood for a more conventional boxing experience, there are games like EA Sports UFC 4. This EA title was released in 2020 for the PS4 and Xbox One, but it’s available on modern consoles through backward compatibility as well. As an MMA game, it offers much more than just wrestling, but this indispensable sport is a well-represented corner of the MMA formula. The UFC franchise isn’t nearly as ever-present as something like Madden NFL, but this 2018 title is still a solid choice if you want something a bit more modern than Boxer’s Road.