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Genre: Fighting Publisher: THQ Developer: Yuke's Media Creations Players: 1-2

By Keith B (25th May 2009)

The world of UFC appeals to most red blooded males, because of the simplicity of it all – two men enter, one man leaves sort of stuff, where only a few brief rules are in play and different styles of combat fall and rise against different opponents. There are those who prefer the stand up, striking combat and those who prefer the submission based warfare and domination while on the mat. Either way, it’s fair to say that UFC Undisputed 2009 will cater to either camp, because the transition between brawling and ground and pound is seamless, which is a feat considering how brutal one or the other is.

At its heart UFC 2009 Undisputed a career based brawler like so many others before it, but there are far more options available to tweak your character than in other sports fighting games. From selecting one of five weight classes to picking which two combat styles your character will use opens up a considerable avenue for customisation. Indeed, the piecing together of facial elements to make your fighter look the way you want is also evolved, and a damn sight quicker to get through with a reasonable end result than most EA titles.

The aim, of course, is to work your way to the top of the weight class you’re competing in, win the title, and then fend off a stream of challengers to your crown. You do this by training, fighting when you can, and micromanaging your professional life. Where Don King’s Prizefighter failed by having the player lose interest halfway through because of the incessant repetition, UFC 2009 Undisputed succeeds, for multiple reasons. First of all, the sparring option in the game is the only way to increase your skills, so rather than mindlessly walloping a punchbag to get strength, you can tweak where you develop your character, across 20 or so skills, including the likes of ground defence, clinch striking, and so on. On top of an engaging development cycle, there are plenty of invitations to special camps, where you spar with someone while trying to clear a number of objectives, and success here sees your base combat level rise.

Perhaps the biggest thing that will keep you coming back though is, of course, the combat. It is some of the best realised mechanics I’ve ever seen – nigh on perfect collision detection, sumptuous visuals, and an interesting, varied and accessible control system. The latter is the real gem though, because if you consider that a boxing game only requires you to use two hands, and your torso, arena combat is something different entirely. Punches, kicks, knees and elbows are all used, and then there’s the option for ground fighting, which again hosts plenty of possibilities. The intuitive control scheme delivers an experience which rewards the player continually, from the giddy feeling when a successful takedown comes off and you find yourself sitting atop your quarry, pounding his face into the mat, or the wince when you split someone’s eye open with a particularly well timed elbow, it draws a reaction from the gamer and that’s a real plus.



The various fighting styles also require individual mastering. While a kickboxer can easily wander around the ring whacking his foot off the side of his opponent’s head, other styles don’t include a kick higher than the waist. But they offer far superior ground skills. It’s relatively deep and does require some genuine skill to master.

But there is a problem with having such a tremendous control scheme, and that’s that it has a lot of potential options, and having lots of options means you can get rather technical with your play, and that’s something which fails miserably on Xbox Live. The online mode is actually quite well done, from the levelling and garnering of fans, but the actual play is nigh on impossible to get anywhere with. The slightest hint of lag makes any skills you have redundant, and many of the games I played forced me to do nothing more than either head kick the guy around the ring, or take him down and ground and pound. Anything more was beyond me. I went to great lengths to play someone local, about 5km from my house, and while it was certainly better there were still moments where frustration kept polluting my headspace.

The only other head pollutant that I came across was the loading and saving. Every time you do, well, anything, the game saves. Okay, but it saves twice – the game, and the character – and each save has three sections. So you have to sit through Checking Hard Drive, Saving Game, Game Saved Successfully – twice - every time you train, fight, and so on. Normally I’m bigger than this but the damn loading was getting in the way of pounding face, so I found it continually riling me.



Perhaps in recognition of this unfortunate issue, the matchmaking function does, praise be, allow you to select games based on connection quality, which does let you try and find someone local. I feel like taking the developers for a pint for including this feature – why in the hell it isn’t available on every game is beyond me. I’ve revisited Bad Company again and I’m tired of having to hit the melee button while my opponent is still 10 metres away.

The presentation, combat mechanics, visuals, physics, roster, character creation and development, and having a proper matchmaking function are all gold stars. The online lag and saving messages are the only real detractions. But, because the UFC is followed by a hardcore type of fan, the title needs to appeal to them, needs to have something more. And it does.

A Classic Fights menu option allows you to relive the moments that have made UFC great, the bouts that have gone down in UFC lore. Meet the criteria in a particular bout, and you unlock a montage of the actual event. Interviews with the characters behind the UFC bolster the appeal.



It may not have the speed and sense of urgency that the real sport has, but it comes close. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with UFC. It’s polished, gritty, and worth playing through again and again. And if you’ve got friends close by, it provides endless fun. Well worth a look, fan of the sport or not.

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