Another day, another boxing game on the Nintendo DS, but unlike Hajime no Ippo, Animal Boxing is altogether a different beast (pun intended).

Attention Seeker

First up, I’ll need to warn you that playing this game in public will definately illicit stares from the people around you, simply because the game requires you to play with the Nintendo DS UPSIDE DOWN for reasons explained later. However, if you are used to playing Brain Age in public, you should be able to handle all the attention :).

In any case, the game will have you boxing humanoid animals (what else would you think you’d be doing…read the title) and it’s presented in stylish cell-shaded 3D graphics. And while your opponents are animals, the character you’d be playing is human. You get to customize him/her to a considerable degree, with options on gender, clothing, hair style, ethnicity, shoes, etc.

Throwing Punches

Now, about holding your Nintendo DS upside down while playing the game. The rationale is pretty simple. All the action and interaction is shown and done on the same touch screen portion of the Nintendo DS. Tap your stylus on your opponent’s face, and a punch is thrown, and you can hope that it connects. Sliding the stylus horizontally towards your opponent and hooks are launch. Uppercuts on the otherhand are done by sliding the stylus vertically, upwards.

Depending on your hand orientation, the control buttons (or the d-pad) provide your character with the means of blocking and dodging your opponent’s punches.

Game Modes

The game features several modes, which includes the defacto Championship mode whereby your character will progress against opponents in increasing weight classes. Thinking to spare with characters that you have defeated? The VS Animal mode takes care of that, and once you get bored of beating up animals (SPCA, please don’t come after me), you can create local WiFi matches to take on a friend in the VS Human mode.

The Bottom Line

Animal Boxing for the Nintendo DS is a pretty fun distraction, and with the lack of English boxing titles for the NDS (Hajime no Ippo is an import), is one of the brighter titles around in a sea of shovelware.

Animal Boxing is available at an attractive price of just USD 24.90. Click here for purchase information.