Review: Believe it or not, UFC commentary is a classier job than Joe Rogan’s last gig.
Ultimate Fighting makes for a great video game. Well, now it does. The past three UFC games on PS2 and the original Xbox were mediocre at best and, because they released over five years ago and sold little, you probably haven’t played them. Even if you have, don’t let them dissuade you from trying out UFC 2009 Undisputed for Xbox 360. The license to the world’s largest MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) organization landed in the competent hands of publisher THQ and renowned wrestling game developer Yukes Osaka. You know them from their WWE Smackdown series, but they amp up the realism in this game for a fighter that’s as authentic as it is complex.
It’s tempting to skip the training mode in UFC 2009, but learning all the intricate moves in this half-hour session is the only way to enter the caged ring with a fighting chance. Plus, it earns players 25 gamerscore points upon completion. The controls begin simply with the four face buttons acting as weak left and right punching and kicking attacks. Four buttons for four appendages makes the control scheme a natural fit so far. Applying the left thumbstick to any of these face buttons increases the intensity for stronger, but slower versions of those moves.
These controls conveniently adjust based on your distance from the opponent. So, a kick attack at the further striking distance fully extends your fighter’s leg, while the same move at close range ends up being a curt knee kick. Because distance proves different results, it adds variety to the moves that can be performed without piling on twice the amount of button combinations that need to be learned and pressed.
Right around the 20-minute mark of the training mode, counters and grapples cause the control scheme to seem like a real challenge and the lessons feel too short and without proper context. You begin to question what you just performed and how you’d use the move outside of this isolated tutorial. In addition to being easy to forget and harder to pull off, these moves can be avoided in the beginning in favor of straight punch and kick combinations. That’s a shame because a stronger emphasis on grapples and counters would have made things more exciting. Instead, only gamers who invest serious time into learning the controls inside and out will be able to properly pull off all of the more advanced moves. This could easily turn off casual fighting fans and friends who want to pick and play you in a fair match.
UFC 2009 boasts photo-realistic graphics that recreate a majority of the league’s fighters down to the beads of sweat that make this seem like a Pay-Per-View event in high definition. However, the game’s career mode puts you to the task of creating your own Ultimate Fighter to enter into tournaments and rise to the rank of champ. The customization process is detailed, right down to the color of your fighter’s mouthpiece, but that’s pretty standard when you consider that most sports games include such in-depth options nowadays. The one unique aspect here is that you can add sponsors to your fighter’s shorts in order to gain extra credibility. Apparently, it’s very effective to sell out with eight different logos on your shorts rather than just one. THQ takes the crown for overinflating its ego the most, as it’s the career mode’s only sponsor that earns players a lot of credibility points from the beginning, and it remains that way for a long time.
