Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory

Victorious Boxers - Ippo's Road to Glory is a Playstation 2 video game that is based on the anime and manga series Fighting Spirit (Japanese Title - はじめの一歩, Hajime no Ippo). Its original Japanese title was "はじめの一歩 (Hajime no Ippo)". Though the series is very popular in Japan, it is not as widely known in the United States.

Characters
Feather Weights Lightweights Junior Lightweight Middleweight
 * Makunouchi Ippo
 * Miyata Ichiro
 * Ogawa Naoya
 * Oda Yusuke
 * Fujiwara Yoshio
 * Jason Ozuma
 * Kobashi Kenta
 * Hayami Ryuichi
 * Mashiba Ryo
 * Sendo Takeshi
 * Saeki Takuma
 * Vorg Zangief
 * Date Eiji
 * Ponchai Chuwatana
 * Sanada Kazuki
 * Hammer Nao
 * Shimabukuro Iwao
 * Sawamura Ryuhei
 * Aoki Masaru
 * Jackal Ito
 * Kimura Tatsuya
 * Takamura Mamoru
 * Weaker Takamura
 * This Takamura is a weaker version of the original and can be used to level the field a bit when fighting with different weight classes. He has less muscle mass and appears to be ill. He is based off a fight where Takamura overdid his weight management because he was scared to eat food after a prank Aoki played on him.
 * Bear

Modes
The game has two modes, a single player story mode, and a single or two player versus mode.

Story Mode
The story mode follows the boxing careers of the main characters from the manga/anime series. All of the playable characters are from the Kamogawa Boxing Gym. The game starts out with Makunouchi Ippo, the main protagonist from the series. After Ippo's story arcs are completed, it then proceeds to the other character story arcs: Aoki Masaru, Kimura Tatsuya, Takamura Mamoru, and Kamogawa Genji. Once a main character has been played, they are unlocked in the Versus mode. Once an opponent has been beaten, they too are unlocked in the Versus mode.

Versus Mode
The versus mode is a free fighting mode where a player(s) can box. The number of players can rang from 0 - 2. Both the fighters can either be controlled by the computer or by a player. Initially, the only playable characters are Makunouchi Ippo and Miyata Ichiro. The only way to unlock more characters is to play through the story mode. Every character, with the exception of Date, is unlocked in the order in that they are played in the story mode. Characters that have yet to be unlocked have an unknown icon placed over their face.

The players can also choose the location of the bout as well. Initially, the only available venue is the Kamogawa Boxing Gym. Other locations become available once a fight takes place there in the story mode.