Gameplay

While it may seem counter intuitive, the art of pummelling your fellow man is filled with nuances and subtleties. MMA fighters are highly trained athletes in multiple martial arts techniques so making a straight–up button mashing fighter would be disingenuous at best. Luckily, UFC 2009 Undisputed plays more like a simulation than a glorified version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.


Most people will take to the striking game first and the mechanics for the fisticuffs works very well. Excellent hit detection coupled with fairly simple controls allows for instant gratification as you try to make your opponents face into a red smear. Each limp is easily executed and changing the levels of your strikes is a snap. Combine that with dashing, back-dashing, and close quarter strikes, you get a nice buffet of attacks. Some of the attacks are a little confusing to do at times but are generally very easy to do. There are a few dial-a-combo but most attacks can be strung together for a sort of pseudo-combo nonetheless. It’s great that you don’t have to be completely locked down to a set pattern of attacks. There are also clinch and muay thai plum attacks, which add a nice bit of variety but seemed a bit underutilized as you’re only offered a few different attacks from those positions. A nice touch was that much like a real fight, you can have flash knockouts or sudden momentum shifts from a well timed attack. There is nothing more thrilling than having your opponent on the ropes (or rather, against the cage) and you’re eagerly rushing in trying to finish him off.

Aside from the striking game, the other major focus revolves around the grappling/ground game. Ground fighting is all about position and subtleties -- THQ really managed to capture the essence of these two qualities. The offensive and defensive benefits of side control, mount, guard, half guard, etc. are all beautifully reflected in the game; you go from position to position. It’s a pretty intuitive system that, while easy to learn, is also deep and satisfying as you decide between attacking, and improving your position. The cerebral cat and mouse game that exists in actual ground fighting is wonderfully represented here; however, things are a little tougher to handle on the defence end, as the counters and sweeps are sometimes difficult to do. You have to read the body positioning of the attacker and input your counter command at the right time – the indicators can be a bit subtle so be prepared to be frustrated at the higher difficulties. Also, sinking in or reversing a submission maneuver can get a little tiresome after extended play. A bit more variety with the submission moves would have been nice as well but despite these minor shortcomings, the game accurately captures the tense, chess-like tactics of ground fighting.


Despite a huge roster, everyone tends to play the same after awhile. Sure, there are statistical differences and some fighting styles give you different moves, but ultimately you’re going to be picking a character based on who your favourite fighter is, not because they are uniquely different.

The game also features a career mode where you can create your own UFC fighter and bring him up through the ranks, from the undercards of Ultimate Fight Nights, to the main event of a UFC Pay-Per-View. You can tweak an abundance of attributes in order to create the fighter you want. Maybe you’d rather have a striking monster? Or perhaps a grappling guru is more to your liking? It’s entirely up to you to customize. The game allows you to build stats through a calendar system, where you must balance points earned through training, sparring and actual fights. Everything else is done off screen and the idea here is to train during the weeks leading up to a fight. You can even learn new skills and train more effectively thanks to training camp invites, sponsorship, and new gym equipment. While the mode itself is a bit thin, it does add a bit of variety to the game as well as giving you some interesting insight into how a real fighter would prepare for a fight.


Once you have maxed out your stats and have completed the career mode, you can retire them, and take them online or into exhibition mode. Another fun mode is the Classic Fight mode. Here, you try to recreate the results of several popular fights in the short history of the UFC. Doing so unlocks a highlight of the actual fight. Leading up to the match, you’re treated to an introduction from the beautiful Rachelle Leah and the actual prefight video. It’s a great way to give a new generation as well as newer fans of the UFC some a look into some key fights.

Graphics and Sound

UFC 2009 Undisputed is as beautiful as it is brutal. The fighters in the game look true to form and resemble their real life counterparts. Everything from scars to tattoos is beautifully recreated here. The characters move and are animated very well – major props to THQ for the great motion capture. The punches, kicks, and grappling all look convincing and animate very smoothly. For a game with lots of contact, there is very little clipping and only a few hit detection misfires, especially on the replay of a major KO punch. Still, once you land that KO, the characters fall convincingly and brutally. Cuts and bruises develop slowly and realistically on the fighter’s body and can look downright nasty. Most importantly, the actual fights have a realistic ebb and flow to them. The animations are pretty seamless from one transition to the next so the fights look very convincing. The presentation is also great as everything is lifted straight out of the UFC telecasts and Pay-Per-Views, giving you a really engrossing experience.


The audio really shines in the game as well. The voiceovers from announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are simply fantastic. Some of it was lifted from actual UFC events; it comes out very organically, and has a great flow. A nice touch is that a lot of the comments don’t reference the fight itself but just details about the fighters, references to past events or popular discussion points about a particular fighter. I truly missed this when playing my own fighter. Here the comments are relegated to the play by play action, since your character is fictional.

Value

The Create-A-Fighter Mode and Career mode give you ample opportunity to create the scrapper of your choosing; however, you have to complete the Career Mode before taking your fighter online. Because of this, multiple run-throughs will be necessary. For those who lack patience, you can take a fighter immediately from the drawing board to online/exhibition with only 75% of the total points earned had you played through Career mode, a fair trade. The online mode is simple yet fun, with rankings but an absolute title holder in each division would have been the icing on the cake. Everyone wants to gun for a championship of some sort. Online play can get pretty dramatic and high level fights look very smooth and cerebral like an actual MMA contest.

Conclusion

If you’re an MMA fan, UFC 2009 Undisputed is a great game that wonderfully captures the nuances and multi-faceted aspects of MMA combat. Those who aren’t familiar with the UFC will still enjoy the game as well; the game engine is well-crafted and offers a great simulation of hand to hand combat. It would have been easy to create a simple button masher and slap the UFC label on it. Instead THQ has created a detailed fighting engine that not only is a blast to play but gives you wonderful insight into MMA combat. It looks like UFC 2009 Undisputed will be the reigning champ off MMA games for a long time to come.