Okay, he won’t be really fighting. But Mike Tyson will be coming back into a virtual boxing ring in 2009.

Fight Night Round 4 will be developed locally at Electronic Arts’ Burnaby facility. EA has mentioned that this version of Fight Night will have a new game-play engine and a new physics-based animation system. This will mean more realistic punches, misses, and knockouts.

When I heard this news I began to think back to when Mike Tyson’s punch was first released in the digital world in 1984. How I enjoyed knocking the eight-bit snot out of guys like Glass Jaw. There were plans for a game to be titled Mike Tyson’s Intergalactic Power Punch that had Mike boxing aliens in outer space. Sadly, it never got made, though it still sounds pretty awesome. Even with Punch-Out’s popularity, Iron Mike was tried and convicted for rape, and game designers decided to veer away from Mike’s image and change the sequel to include a similar character named “Tough Guy” Mark Tyler. For many years, Mike was out of video games until the release of Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing in 2002. The game flopped and Mike got pushed into the corner again, until now.

Fight Night Round 4 isn’t scheduled for release until 2009, but anyone who is a fan of boxing games will look forward to the ability of fighting with or against crazy ol’ Mike.

Please let there be an ear-biting feature.