Bruisers 2D Boxing leaves Early Access today, and we had a chance to play and interview the developer about their love for boxing.
It’s known as “the sweet science,” “the squared jungle,” and “the hurt business.” It’s been practiced since the sixth millennium BC in ancient Ethiopia. Revered as one of the original sports in the first Olympiad in 688 BC and, with only a few exceptions, has remained ever since. It’s the most frequently portrayed sport in movies. Its global nature brings nations together in competition. It’s the sport of boxing.
Even non-sports fans most likely know a little something about boxing. They know that Muhammad Ali was “The Greatest” and that George Foreman was the oldest heavyweight champion before selling countertop grills. Many adults remember where they were in 1990 when the underdog James “Buster” Douglas knocked out the invincible “Iron” Mike Tyson, and they recall the bewilderment when that same Tyson bit the ear off Evander Holyfield in 1997. And many people who didn’t consider themselves fans of fisticuffs stopped what they were doing to see Manny Pacquiao take on Floyd Mayweather Jr.
We love Rocky Balboa and his protege, Adonis Creed. We nod our heads to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” But strangely, boxing is sparse in gaming. Beyond Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! and the Knockout Kings/Fight Night series, combat sports in gaming has been ruled by the fighting game genre and the occasional MMA and pro wrestling game.
The team at Halfbrick Studios would like to change that.
“It was actually one of the main motivators for starting Bruisers in the first place,” said head developer Jevon James of their upcoming game Bruisers 2D Boxing. “I remember sitting in my room, looking at some old PlayStation 2 and 3 games I had laying about and thinking, ‘Holy shit, it’s been like ten years since we’ve even had a new boxing game.’ And it actually made me annoyed enough to sit down and start this!”
Bruisers 2D Boxing looks like a pixelated sports game on the surface, but underneath lies a simulation game with so much detail I was convinced that someone on the team had to have some experience in the sport.
“I’m not going to lie and say I ever boxed seriously,” confessed team lead and co-developer Nick Bassett. “I never stepped into a real boxing gym. I never competed in any real boxing matches… Growing up, lots of the neighborhood kids would box in our front yards and definitely had our own little competitions and such — we definitely thought we were boxing, but for sure had zero real technique outside of trying to hurt each other and make the other kid quit or bleed and cry.”
James told a similar tale. “[I] have a lot of fond memories of growing up watching boxing with my grandad, especially Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem [Hamed] – which led to my father introducing me to Joe Calzaghe and Amir Khan, going from Olympic level to his pro debut. It feels like no matter what part of my life I look back on, I can make an association with some part of the UK boxing scene at the time.”
It’s the details that truly matter to Bassett and James. Other boxing games like Fight Night may be more cinematic, but to them, replicating Fight Night was never the goal. “The details are everything,” said Bassett. “The attention to detail is what sets this game apart and shows that it was made by actual boxing and boxing video game fans, who have legitimate knowledge of both the sport and the history of the boxing games prior.”
The game plays in a set cycle as your boxer climbs the ranks through the amateurs and eventually the pros. After learning the basics about your next opponent along with some stats, your goal through the time period is to prepare for the fight via minigames that focus on temporary stat buffs. Working the heavy bag increases the power in your punches, while skipping rope boosts agility. Speed bag rounds improve your hand speed, and running on the treadmill builds stamina.
But preparing for a fight isn’t the only thing in your boxer’s life. They need to eat, which means they’ll need money to buy food, meal plans to prep it, and they’ll need to watch their weight. Coming in too far under the target weight will make you weak and more prone to knockdowns. Coming in too heavy will make you sluggish and give your fighter a little gut. Either way, your purse is in jeopardy, meaning you might not have the money to make it through the next week. You may have to work a job, which will get you the money you need but at the cost of gym time and personal energy.
And that’s just part of it. Along the way you could deal with unscrupulous promoters using you as a mark, family railing against your sport of choice, and street thugs who think they can build cred by taking you in an alley. Then add referees who couldn’t count to ten if they had a cheat sheet. Performance enhancing drugs, tampering with boxing gloves, and even fixing fights are all possibilities in the sport of boxing and can tempt players in Bruisers 2D Boxing.
It takes a unique stance amongst other boxing games: this game is about the sport of boxing. This game is not about you.
Halfbrick Games aimed “to create more of a sandbox feeling with the game,” according to James, “where it could almost feel like the universe is existing and doing its thing, despite you. And you’re certainly not the main character, unless you truly put in the work and do something about it. I feel like with the Fight Night games, and maybe even the UFC games now, you’re always destined to be ‘the guy.’ But Bruisers doesn’t care. You can burn out by 29, ranked 35, broke as hell, on the verge of retirement. And that’s fine!”
The actual bouts are just a portion of the game, but detail hasn’t been spared there either. Bruisers is not a button-basher. Punches are assigned to face buttons, with stronger punches being controlled with the addition of the right stick. Players have special punches or moves depending on what their primary style is, such as an overhand hammer punch for Bully types. Not super kosher, but also not illegal – and not to be overly dependent on. Boxers need to work in the clinch, especially if they’re the shorter fighter. And when times get desperate, a player may want to channel their inner Andrew Golota and throw the low blow when the referee is looking elsewhere. Combos, precise body work, and thinking ahead rule the roost.
“The [EA] UFC games are a prime example of what I do not like about modern combat sports games’ gameplay,” said Bassett, who himself was at one point one of the Top 10 Fight Night: Champion players in the world in the Lightweight division. “It feels like you press a button or multiple buttons for a combo, and then you literally just watch an animation play. It doesn’t feel like real-time thinking and real-time adjusting.”
Bruisers 2D Boxing leans into the “Sweet Science” moniker. Shorter heavyweights need to stick in the pocket like David Tua. Lighter fighters with reach need to pepper the jab and create distance a la Sebastian Fundora. Your next opponent could demand a completely different approach, however. Unlike the Street Fighter series, where an Italian fortune teller can wipe the floor with a Russian wrestler, in Bruisers every detail is taken into consideration.
According to James, “If people were going to potentially look at the game and think, ‘Okay, whatever, it’s just a 2D retro game, who cares,’ we needed to make the effort to focus on the finer details under the hood.”
Fight Night has its fans, but to the team at Halfbrick, the game is for true lovers of the sport of boxing and not just the spectacle. “I’m sure some boxers somewhere will play the game when it comes out, and hopefully they enjoy it,” hopes Bassett. “Also, we kind of don’t really care because we made it for ourselves!”
James agrees… mostly. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing Daniel Dubois towering over a controller, struggling his way through a match. I think that would be a milestone for me.”
Bruisers 2D Boxing leaves Early Access when the 1.0 version releases on October 21, 2026, on the Steam storefront. The game offers both single-player and couch co-op two-player modes and is priced at $19.99.
