How to play
Knockout Ring
Punch, block and duck your way through three rounds — or knock the other boxer down for good.
At a glance
- Players
- 1–4 at once
- Ages
- 7 and up
- Round
- Minutes — a sit-down game
- In the packs
- Party, Arena, Big Kids
Controls
The stick and button 1 are enough to play. The rest add moves for the older kids.
| What you press | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stick | move; pull down to duck |
| Button 1 — the big button | jab — and mash it to get up from a knockdown |
| Button 2 | hook |
| Button 3 | block (hold) |
| Button 4 | uppercut — needs a full power meter |
How a round goes
A bout is three rounds of forty seconds, with a walk to the corners between them and a full stamina bar at the start of each. The ring is small on purpose: two boxers who both run away are back inside hook range in a couple of seconds, so a bout cannot stall.
The jab is fast and light; the hook is slower and harder; the uppercut is the big one, and it is not a button so much as a meter — landing punches, taking them on the guard and even taking hits fills it, and only a full meter lets you throw it. Every punch winds up before it lands, and the windup is the whole game: the arm cocks back where the other player can see it, and it is the only moment a counter can land. Hit someone during their windup and your punch does nearly double and cancels theirs.
Every defence answers exactly one attack and loses to another: a raised guard eats a jab whole; the uppercut comes up underneath and breaks the guard; a hook sails clean over a ducking head; and a hook catches you on the way up out of a duck. There is no button a child can simply hold down and win with.
Stamina pays for everything. Punches cost it, being hit costs it, and holding the guard drains it — a guard held from full lasts about five seconds, far less under fire. At zero you are gassed: weak, slow punches and no blocking until you stop throwing for a moment. Out of breath means hands down.
Health at zero is a knockdown. The referee counts to ten; mash button 1 — eight presses beats the count — and you get up with two thirds of your health. A third knockdown is a TKO, whatever your thumb can do.
Scoring and winning
Knockout, TKO, or the final bell. A bout that goes the distance is decided on damage dealt; dead level is a draw. The scorebar counts your damage across the night, and alone it goes to the leaderboard.
One or two players is a single bout; alone you fight Robo. Three or four players is a knockout cup in one sitting, each bout cut to two rounds of thirty seconds. With three, station 1 fights 2 and station 3 gets a bye straight to the final. With four, 1 fights 2 and 3 fights 4, and the winners meet in the final.
Tips
- The answer to a hook is not to back off but to beat its long windup with the fast button. A jabber is always inside hook range.
- A whiffed hook or uppercut is the biggest opening in the game. Wait for one.
- Gassed is not a fail state, it is the rhythm: the child who learns to stop throwing for a second and a half wins more easily than the one who only mashes.
- Robo saves its uppercut for a guard it can break. That is exactly what you should do to it.