Pounding an opponent’s face into the ground can be one of life's simple pleasures. Despite what “Fight Club” might say, you cannot fight strangers in back alleys or bar basements without serious consequences. That’s where “UFC 2009: Undisputed” comes into play. “UFC 2009: Undisputed,” from developer Yuke’s Media Creation and publisher THQ, delivers the mixed-martial arts experience fans have waited for.
On the surface, “UFC 2009” seems like a glorified button masher. High, low, and midsection punches and kicks along with their corresponding blocks will be the primary way for novice players to fight most initial matches. However, the grapple and submission mechanics make “UFC 2009” become complicated and inaccessible. Each mechanic utilizes the right analog stick to perform a series of specific rotations to gain the upper-hand.
Unless you memorize the lengthy tutorial, the ground game breaks down to wildly rotating the analogue stick like a “Mario Party” mini-game. To be fair, executing a submission is satisfying and very possible, but it seems like more luck is involved than skill.
Flash knock outs are the one-shot kills of the mixed-martial arts world and happen too often at random moments. Flash knock outs can occur on the first punch thrown or in five rounds. There are no indicators to what cause flash knock outs to happen – they just do.
Standard modes like exhibition, career, classic fights and online matches are present. Online matches work well, but “UFC 2009’s” career mode will consume most players’ time and is the focal point of “UFC 2009.”
Career mode starts off by creating your fighter, which unfortunately is limited. Fighters must then work their way up through the UFC world to eventually become the champion of their weight class. Unlike the options when creating your fighter, career mode offers quite a bit to do. Between matches, fighters can train to improve different aspects of their game, sign to sponsors, go to promotional events and purchase better training equipment in addition to a few other activities.
Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg provide commentary for the matches and do an admirable job. The only drawback to fighting with a created character is that they have no history, so you will only hear a detailed history of the opponent.
“UFC 2009” has beautiful graphics. Each fighter, announcer, referee and ring girl is accurately modeled after their real-life counterpart, but it seems like an entire team at Yuke’s Media Creation was dedicated to creating each ring girls’ body movements.
Although the collision detection has a few issues, the fighting is done well. Fighters bleed on each other and the mat, bruises develop and corner men have as many details as the fighters they work on. Unfortunately, everything is bland outside the octagon. Fans are modeled the same with different color clothing. It’s not a huge gripe, but it’s still noticeable.
“UFC 2009: Undisputed” is a solid game that fans of wrestling games should enjoy it. “UFC 2009” has its issues, but they are not enough to deter hardcore mixed-martial arts fans and fighting game fans. The “2009” suggests that UFC have yearly installments, so hopefully the minor problems will be addressed and turn “UFC 2010” into a serious contender. With the start Yuke’s Media Creation has been given, a championship is not far away.
Rating: B
System: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Price: $59.99
ESRB: T
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