I think the game is pretty good. Although I haven't touched it really since I bought it...baseball and Star Wars:RC have taken my time. I never played last years game, so I cannot compare.
The control scheme is good. Although, the game gets a bit repetitve.....just like any fighting game almost. I've only playeda few amateur fights, and dominated all of them. I played one Exhibition fight, Ali vs Sugar Ray (or something liek that) and the CPU was killing me, but I ended up winning the fight....go figure that one out.
I'm still unsure if I want to keep this or not. Got it at GameRush, so I know I could use it in the trade 2 deal.
If you like boxing, get this game......really no other competition (as Rocky sucked IMO)