Fight Night Round 4 improves greatly on its predecessor in almost every aspect. The biggest change is the inclusion of total punch control—using the right analog stick to punch. This is bad news for fans of the previous game, which allowed you to customize the button configuration so that you didn't have to use this feature. The total punch control in Round 3 was quite inaccurate, and its introduction was awkward to boxing game fans. While Round 4 has increased the sensitivity of the analog stick, making it easier to perform the punches you want to, it is still not as responsive and accurate as simply pushing a button. So instead of mashing buttons, you may end up mashing the analog stick instead, which tends to take a toll on your hand after a few hours.

The gameplay in general has improved—collision detection on the punches is much much better, and fighter's reactions are much more realistic. You can also get close to the opponent and punch from a shorter distance, which wasn't possible in Round 3, again making the experience a lot more realistic. Speed, power, and toughness of the boxers can be changed in the settings during a match. These settings affect both fighters—lowering them down means your punches don't do as much damage, or the fight becomes slower. This is a great feature for new players, allowing them to slow down a match so that they can perform combos correctly with the total punch control.

Punches like the hay-maker are now less important, and relatively slow. It is much more important to jab and hook your opponent, blocking at the right time. There is also a heavy emphasis on counter-punching, dodging, and performing a punch at the right time to do more damage. Spamming the punches will not work anymore, unless you want to get stunned and knocked down very quickly. Your boxer will get tired if you keep punching without rest, which will slow your punches and actions down, making you susceptible to being knocked to the mat. When you do get knocked down, you'll have to play a mini-game in order to get back up (you have to push the left stick to the right or left in order to balance yourself, and push the right stick up to stand up).

The career mode has also been improved and renamed to Legacy Mode. The idea behind this name change is that your boxer doesn't want to only build a career, but also a legacy, which means you’ll have to complete challenges throughout the campaign, such as staying undefeated for a long period of time. You can start the legacy mode by creating a fighter, who can be greatly customized through photo importing, or simply choosing an existing fighter in the game. There are 48 fighters to choose from, including Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Ray Leonard and many more. The campaign mode will automatically level out your characters stats, and then you can begin. It takes a while to get up and running—you'll have to go through several menu screens—but when the action finally starts, you'll immediately be fighting in an amateur tournament.