UFC 2009 Undisputed Review

The first UFC game out in 5 years has quite a bit of anticipation and hype behind it. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is the hottest rising sport in the country right now. The PPV’s are doing monster buy rates and networks like ESPN are finally starting to take notice. It was only a matter of a time before a good developer got the rights to making video games. THQ the developer behind the popular WWE Smackdown series had the foresight and know how to make a MMA game and UFC 2009 Undisputed is leaps and bounds above any of its predecessors.

UFC games typically have been button mashers with unrealistic knock outs and ground game. Fortunately THQ has focused most of its energy behind the mechanics of the game engine. The ground game is done beautifully with reversals and counters pretty easy to pull off. There is also a solid grapple system, and you can trade punches “Fight Night” style as well. This is no button masher as you will need strategy and a good hand on the controls if you don’t want to be choked out in the first round.

The right analog stick is used mostly for the ground game, counters, and initiating a clinch. The face buttons are your standard kicks and punches and the shoulder buttons work in unison with the face buttons for combo’s and specific moves. It will take a good hour to fully get a grasp of the gameplay but there is a helpful tutorial that should be done when first starting the game.

My biggest complaint with the game is its lack of depth for replayability. The career mode is a bit repetitive as it seems like most of your time is spent in the gym and sparring then to actually get out there and fight. It’s pretty realistic to how much work a fighter puts into each match, but for video game purposes it can be tedious and slow up the fun of the game. You start career mode by creating a fighter, choosing their appearance, hometown, style of fighting, and weight division. THQ is hoping that a lot of replay value will come from people creating multiple fighters over different weight classes. You can even customize a fighters trunks, as they get more sponsorships you can add logo’s.

Most of the game’s communication is done through a e-mail system with Dana White. This is pretty similar to THQ’s Smackdown series and veterans of that game will easily breeze through figuring out the career mode here. Your fighter will get invited to training camp’s led by some of the biggest names in the biz (BJ Penn, Matt Serra, George St. Pierre). You will even have the option to do autograph signings, interviews, and photo op’s. The fights are interspersed every 8 weeks or so, as you start out on Ultimate Fight Night and hope to one day headline a UFC PPV.

As you progress through the game your venue’s will increase in size and you will see a noticeable growth in your fighter’s skill, strength, and speed. Assuming you are training them properly. Pretty much every name in the sport is in this game. Lesnar, Cotoure, Lidell, GSP, Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, Shogun Rua are all here. Even lesser knowns like Amir Sadollah and The American Psycho Stephon Bonner have made the cut. The visuals are pretty dead on as each fighter has their specific look, taunts, and moves. Lesnar will climb on top the octagon to celebrate victories, while Lidell will do his famous dice roll.

Another major complaint is the lack of entrances. There is a brief tale of the tape and then Bruce Buffer does the intro’s, but it would have been nice to see the fighters come down the entrance way. More crowd reactions would have been nice to, maybe having your fighter get louder ovations depending on his record and how much he has progressed on his way to the title.

Overall, this game offers a pretty solid and realistic MMA experience. You really get a feel for the amount of strategy and skill that goes into the sport. Especially when it comes to the ground game and avoiding submissions. THQ has created a great engine to build off of for future games, although there is still some room for improvements. Entrances, deeper career mode, and more customizable exhibition scenarios may help in the future. The commentary is very good and the addition of Bruce Buffer and real referee voices adds to the game’s realism as well. UFC fans can finally rejoice, they now have a decent game worth playing and from the looks of it, this franchise will only get better.

7.5/10