UFC Review

Maximo Zambrano

March 2, 2010

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is one of the premier Mixed Martial Arts organizations and really one of the true proving grounds for fighters. It's an exciting sport that time and time again has tried to translate to video games but nothing really great happened until THQ and Yukes, the creators of the popular WWE: Smackdown Vs. Raw series, made a true MMA game that hardcore fans could enjoy and newcomers to the sport can enjoy as well. There are just a few minor nicks to this fighting game that really keep it from being awesome.

Graphics and sound: 3/5
The first few nicks in the game that really hurt it had to be the design of some of the fighters. Some fighters look like themselves and others look like they were made in CAF mode and just thrown in and they don't even look like their actual counterparts. Some facial scans of some fighters or extras just look hilarious, Herb Dean honestly looks like jar jar binks is reffing the fight. Also, another thing was the way the transitions of some moves are just so bad it's sometimes hilarious. Watching your fighter and your opponent move during a back transition reversal looks like two cats fighting. I wish they spent just a little more time working on the movements. Even with all those gripes some characters look perfect and they get everything down to every tattoo and every little detail of each fighter, which I thought was fantastic. Now the sound of the game, which I thought was one of the top notch features, the announcers are not annoying but the only gripe are some of the things they say. Sometimes, out of nowhere, like in the middle of a fight they'll say "And a great response from the crowd" then you hear a little roar from the crowd, then silence, and at times they do get repetitive but not too much. Bruce Buffer sounds amazing no matter what but I wish he would do the whole throw the card away and point at each fighter but sadly he doesn't.

Gameplay: 3/5
This was probably a somewhat huge disappointment to me. The fight line looks great but the thing that hurts is the fact that everyone has the same exact move set, and it really seems like there is no diversity between each one, it doesn't really feel like you're playing as your favorite fighter. It's still fun playing though, just the joy of watching the screen go black and white and knowing you're about to finish your opponent with ground and pound or a knockout is so gratifying. I just wish the grappling aspect was tweaked a little sometimes as it feels impossible just to get an opponent off of you or just defend the submission attempt. The only aspect that really shined were the fighting styles, you have: wrestling, judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu, boxing, kick boxing, and muy thai and each meld together well and have their own significant identity.

Modes: 4.5/5
The career mode is a fun little championship mode that anyone whole played SVR would enjoy. Classic fights mode is also a great challenge and fun and the rewards make it worth playing. The online play for this game is just amazing and its super competitive and highly addicting.

Overall: 3.5/
If you're a fan of UFC, fighting games, or a hardcore MMA fan you should definitely pick this up, and since this may be the Madden of MMA games you should definitely expect more polished and fine-tuned UFC games to come.