UFC 2009: Undisputed

Given that the last half-decent title based on the brutal Ultimate Fighting Championship was the eponymous Dreamcast and Playstation release back in 2000 by Crave. Since then, three or four titles have been developed by various companies, and none of them have managed to do a particularly good job of capturing anything other than the striking portions of MMA. With a new licence to make UFC titles that extends to 2011, THQ have handed the development chalice to Yuke’s – the guys behind most of THQ’s WWE-based titles.

And I think it’s fair to say that they’ve not rested on their laurels as they’ve been doing with the WWE titles since the days of the PSOne. UFC 2009: Undisputed is an incredibly slick-looking product that features more than eighty real UFC fighters and of course, all of the personalities that surround the sport, such as the “Voice of The Octagon” Bruce Buffer. Create-a-fighter is also implemented well, and the ability to start at the bottom and build your way to the top of the UFC tree is nicely done in the game’s career mode, although it isn’t what you’d call the most engaging of attempts. It isn’t that there’s anything necessarily wrong with what’s been done persay, rather that there could have been an awful lot more to it. As it stands, your training consists of selecting a focus point and an intensity level, or heading in for a bit of directly-controlled sparring. Occasionally, new trainers from the MMA schools that you have chosen as your specialities will make an appearance and teach you new moves, but that’s about all there is to break up the train, fight, train, fight, train routine.

However, that feeling of repetition is broken up somewhat by the in-Octagon action itself – which truly is impressive. A lot of players will dismiss UFC 2009: Undisputed as being a title where they can mash as many buttons as possible and win the match without breaking a sweat and, to be fair, this can be an effective tactic against certain opponents. Against stronger ones though – otherwise known as the majority – you’ll need to learn the moves on offer to even stand a chance of getting out of there in one piece. Old-school Street Fighter-style half and quarter circles are used in combination with the face and shoulder buttons when it comes to clinching and mat work and – given the sheer number of possible situations that your fighter can find himself in – it can be hard to keep up. Your patience and persistence will be rewarded however, as when you find yourself against a skilled human or CPU opponent and begin to get into a flow of clinches, strikes, submission attempts and blocks as it all begins to “click”, there aren’t many titles that get as close to fighting nirvana as this one. With six different schools of fighting available – wrestling, boxing, brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and muay thai – and hundreds of different moves and combinations available for each, it’s probably advisable to focus the main portion of your time on one or two of them. Each has its strengths and equally, each has its weaknesses – so the last thing you want to do is head into the cage without your full complement of moves, just because you were trying to master them all.

One clever feature designed to stop the button-mashers is the way in which Yuke’s have decided to link your stamina and energy. If you begin a fight by wildly swinging punches left and right without proper thought and consideration of your opponent’s stance, you’ll find that you become “gassed.” This means that your fighter becomes somewhat slower, less able to cause damage and – the worst consequence – more likely to be overcome by your opponent. When a fighter lands a powerful blow that sends his adversary reeling, a sequence reminiscent of Fight Night Round 3 comes into play, where the visuals lose their colour and the suffering fighter enters a “rocked” state – meaning that he either has to defend for his life or risk getting his teeth knocked out.

Other areas of presentation are very strong too, with the commentary being a highlight especially. The way in which the play-by-play matches is the action is of rare quality, and for once can really add to the atmosphere. The effect as you land a brutal punch and the commentary team both shout over each other in amazement is just too tasty to be real.

UFC itself has seen a massive rise in popularity of late and despite impressive initial sales, I feel that the player base for UFC 2009: Undisputed will wane rather quickly. The reason for this is that a lot of players won’t put the time required in to finding out how to play the game properly, and will subsequently give up when they meet their match for the first time – well before they’ve gotten anywhere near the mighty Brock Lesnar or my personal favourite Frank Mir. There is a definite tipping point during career mode, where strikes begin to become less effective as the opponent blocks and catches your violent swings – and it’s at that point that a good percentage of the “sports entertainment” gamers will begin to drop away, stating that the game is too difficult. This has already undoubtedly affected the online component of the title, but there are still plenty of players available to go toe-to-toe with. Maybe some sort of in-fight “help” system with move suggestions popping up would have helped to break in the newbie MMA gamer, somewhat?

The fact of the matter here is that UFC 2009: Undisputed is the best simulation of the sport yet, and by no small way. I didn’t think I would say it, but this even beats Crave’s initial attempt – which was one of the Dreamcast’s finest titles. The presentation is simply top-notch and despite presenting a learning curve that looks like a map of Mount Everest, I can only hope that players will at least try to reach the summit since once you make it over the top, the view is pretty damned sweet.