Beast Boxing 3D

When Sylvester Stallone punched his way to glory in Rocky, he overcame almost impossible odds.

His path to fame and fortune seems like a cakewalk compared to what the protagonist of Beast Boxing 3D has to endure.

Born into a world where humans are treated as second-class citizens, his sights are set on triumph in the ring, but in order to participate he is forced to disguise his origin with a grotesque costume.

To cap it all off, his opponents are horrendous monstrosities with superhuman strength and bizarre talents.

Beast Boxing 3D clearly takes inspiration from Nintendo’s seminal NES title Punch Out. Starting off at the bottom of the ladder, you’re expected to fight your way through the ranks and eventually claim the belt from the reigning champion.

Along the way you face all manner of disgusting foes, each with different personalities, skills, and appearances.

You control the action with a combination of tilt and touch commands. Quick jabs are executed by tapping the screen -these are useful for opening up holes your opponent’s defences and starting destructive combos.

More powerful hooks are performed by swiping either left or right, but these need to be timed perfectly to ensure they connect: fluffing a swing can leave you exposed. Similarly, uppercuts require you to draw a line from bottom to top, resulting in a large amount being sapped from your enemy’s health bar.

While it’s tempting to mash your fingers on the screen in an attempt to pummel your rival, throwing a flurry of punches drains your stamina, and once it reaches zero your character becomes exhausted.

When this occurs you put up your guard by holding two fingers to the screen. This allows you to catch your breath and recharge your stamina. Complacency can be deadly, though - some attacks are capable of smashing through your guard, so don’t rely on it too much.

There are nine different opponents, and each presents a sterner challenge than the last. The game is surprisingly adaptive and constantly spamming the same combination of punches results in your foe learning the pattern and counter-attacking with deadly precision.

Thankfully, your coach is on hand to shout hints and reminds you to mix it up to keep your rival on his toes.

Winning fights earns you cash, and this can be spent on improving your skills in the gym. You can also purchase special items, which can be used one per round. These include stamina boosts, defence augmentations, and health top-ups.

The gameplay is intuitive and addictive, but the visuals arguably make an even greater impact. The boxers are incredibly detailed and boast beautifully fluid animation. Although it hasn’t been coded with high-resolution displays in mind, the graphics are sharp nonetheless.

It won’t take you long to get to the end of Beast Boxing 3D if you decide to play on the casual difficulty level, but the more difficult settings will test your mettle. The absence of multiplayer is disappointing, as this would have propelled the game into the realms of true legend.

Although longevity is an issue with Beast Boxing 3D, the amazing visuals and engaging gameplay help smooth over the cracks to a certain degree. If you crave an intense and graphically stunning brawler for your iPhone, then this is your new champion.