Okay, I am not going to lie: I don’t love fighting games. I like ‘em, but I certainly do not have love for them. Street Fighter 4? May come as a shock but I did not get into it. Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe? I would prefer Mortal Kombat 3 over any other game in the series. Truly, there is little appeal in selecting from a group of generic characters with barely intriguing powers and then pitting them against one another to see who could score better shots and take his/her opponent down. Instead, I spent my time on RPGs and FPS games, most of which had incredible depth in their stories rather than simply “arcade” matches or some cheap ineffective story that brings the characters together in a boring, this-is-the-only-thing-we-could-come-up-with fashion.
That being said: I love UFC Undisputed 2009. The game is a godsend. Undisputed is arguably (pay close attention that word!), the best fighting game out there right now. Not only did this game shatter my perception of all fighting games, but it tore through my sleep and work schedule as I spent countless hours fighting and getting my ass handed to me. Eventually though, with the proper training and work, I built fighters in the incredibly entertaining although repetitive “Career” mode and upped my game literally piece by piece. Having done so, I will analyze it in the same vain.
One thing is certain: the game’s tutorial is not a joke, it is information that all players, especially newcomers, need to understand in order to get the full effect of the game. Do not, under any circumstances, make the mistake of automatically signing on to Xbox Live without comprehending the game sufficiently first. I made the mistake, and I scored about 12 losses because of, as Joe Rogan always exclaims in the game, “vicious ground and pound!” before I finally decided “I hate this game” and set it aside. Not to worry though, I picked it back up in less than 5 minutes and ran through the tutorial; I finally understood that it is not only the standing strikes that matter but also the clinch, grappling, and ground system are an intricate part of this game and need to be mastered in order to achieve the desired results.
Now, on to Career mode. Ultimately, it is similar to any other game in which you create a character and build their stats from the ground up. You have a choice of investing a week’s training in either strength, speed, or cardio. Instead, you can also use that week’s time to spar with a CPU partner to gain valuable skill points that are distributed into the character’s different abilities, e.g. standing kicks, ground striking, takedown offense, submission defense, and so on. Growth serves an important part in the game as you are given a certain amount of time before you are forced to go head to head with, usually, a real UFC fighter from the division (heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight and lightweight) you have chosen. It is your choice as to whom you wish to fight with typically 3 fighters to choose from. Meanwhile, you are inclined to participate in activities such as autograph signings to increase your credibility as well as “camp invites” which are opportunities for you to learn new moves and up your striking and grappling techniques. The career mode, however, only lets your fighter go up to almost 8 years before you are forced to retire. Did I mention that throughout this entire thing you get e-mails? Oh yeah, you get tons of e-mails. Trash-talking, Dana’s thoughts on your fight, sometimes even messages from the fighters you’re going up against. With that being said, creating a fighter and finishing Career mode helps make this game incredibly fun.
In addition to Career mode, you have the Classic Fights, Exhibition, and XBOX Live modes which are all relatively self-explanatory. But hey, I’m such a nice guy I’ll give you some insight anyway! The Classic Fights mode lets you do just that: fight classic fights such as Griffin vs. Bonnar from season one of The Ultimate Fighter. Exhibition mode lets you duke it out with your favorite UFC fighters, even allowing you to use your CAF (create-a-fighter character, the same one used in Career mode).
The XBOX Live feature is excellent, also allowing you to use your CAFs (an aside: you can have 100 CAF fighters) in either a player match or a ranked match. However, the system is severely flawed. Though the update released several days ago fixed issues such as gamers leaving at the end of a fight to avoid having a loss in their ranked stats, lag is still a huge issue that could potentially decide the winner and loser of a fight and often times makes gameplay extremely frustrating. Another enormous complaint that I have is that the game does not let you search for fights with those who are in your level range, but instead can pit anyone against you. This means if you are at level 1, your first fight could be against someone that is at level 100, and although they don’t have too much to gain, when you get higher up the rank you have more at stake. But overall, the XBOX Live feature is a welcome addition to a game already full of addicting play.
For all of the game’s faults, THQ has done a relatively adept job at recreating the MMA experience and has given me a larger-than-life hope for UFC Undisputed 2010. Certainly it will be interesting in the future to see whether EA can rival THQ’s addicting, yet severely flawed, game. My prediction is that regardless of the UFC/EA feud, the releases from both parties will provide for endless hours of fun for the rest of us.
Gameplay: 5/5, hands down the funnest fighting game I have ever played. Hasn’t been out of my XBOX in weeks.
Graphics: 4/5, although the graphics are done well as it is THQ’s legacy, some improvements need to be made in order to get a more realistic feel.
Sound: 3/5, same repetitive music and announcements which are great at first but get annoying later on as you play the game over and over again.
Presentation: 3.5/5, the presentation isn’t bad by any means, but there are far too many load screens.
Overall: 4/5, what it really comes down to is that a game is as fun as its gameplay, and take it from me: Undisputed provides a ton!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
