UFC 2009 Undisputed [360]

08 Apr 2009 at 13:42:09 by Andy Alderson

We’re standing ringside in Paul Taylor’s Ultimate Fighting Centre in Birmingham as up and coming MMA fighter Nick Osipczak lands an explosive head kick on UFC middleweight star Michael Bisping, sending him crashing to the canvas. He’s not getting up. The slow-mo shows the kick land flush on his chin and the crowd emits a collective “ooof” as it all but takes his head off. “Nooooo,” cries Bisping in true Vader fashion, as Osipczak raises his arms in celebration. Both fighters are playing UFC 2009 Undisputed, THQ’s latest MMA effort and, judging by the excitement generated by the fight, Undisputed may just be to UFC what Fight Night is to boxing.

Undisputed is the first UFC game to be released since THQ acquired the license and what is immediately obvious is that authenticity is key. Undisputed will feel instantly familiar to anyone who has seen a UFC broadcast, with announcer Bruce Buffer, the UFC girls (with jiggly boobs aplenty) and the established commentary team of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg all providing an authentic backdrop to the action. From our hands on time with the game, we can confirm that not only is Undisputed’s presentation a step up from any other UFC title, so is the gameplay.

Like in the last UFC-branded MMA game, Opus’ Sudden Impact, each of the face buttons represents a limb, with X and Y for punches, and A and B for kicks. Unlike in Sudden Impact, however, grapples and take downs are no longer performed by combining face buttons. Now, these are handled by right stick movements which feel much more natural – move the right stick towards the opponent and you’ll perform a standing grab from which other right stick manoeuvres will execute a throw. The left trigger, when combined with the right stick, will target your opponent’s legs, allowing for some quick takedowns. The left trigger is essentially a body/leg modifier –combine it with punches and kicks to perform vicious leg kicks and body punches.

The right bumper and trigger look after head and body blocking respectively, whilst most interesting is the left bumper which is a power shot modifier. When held down with punch or kick buttons, a fighter-specific power shot is performed. These can be anything from brutal head kicks to concussive flying elbows and when they land, more often than not, they’ll send your opponent reeling backwards for a moment, providing a window for further attacks. The standing game in Undisputed is appropriately visceral;  punches and kicks feel and sound like they have some weight to them and you’ll find it hard not to cheer/wince when you land/take the big shots. Fighters can also be stunned by their opponent's, with the screen greying out and a rumble heartbeat kicking in. What is most fun about the standing game, however, is just how unpredictable it is. Although each fighter has an energy bar of sorts, you needn’t worry about depleting it in order to knock down (or knock out) your opponent. Like in real life UFC, power and timing are the key factors in striking and a well-timed shot by a strong fighter can end the fight instantly. But Undisputed doesn’t just cater for the striking fan – there’s also a deep ground game on offer which is equally reliant on timing.

When your opponent is on the floor you have a complex collection of guard, transition and ground and pound mechanics at your disposal.  The ground game operates on a pyramid system of guards - open guard (where the attacker has a marginal positional advantage over the opponent) is at the bottom and mount (where you sit on the opponent’s torso, allowing you to mercilessly pound their face) is at the top. You need to perform transitions (using mostly-logical right stick movements) in order to advance through the stages. Some special transitions will skip stages in the pyramid, allowing you to move to a dominant position more quickly, although these are risky and more open to reversal. Like in the standing game, timing is crucial and, although initially, we found ourselves mashing the right stick to bits in the ground game, it soon became evident that subtle well-timed movements are much more effective. Before you know it you’ll be sat atop your opponent, turning his face into something only a butcher would recognise. And that’s no exaggeration.

See, UFC Undisputed is also relentlessly bloody, with realistic fighter damage coming into play. You’ll see fighters swell up and cut in most fights, with the latter being especially graphic. Again, it’s hard not to wince as you pound your opponent’s fizogg, blood squirting everywhere.  The visual effects, while graphic, are undoubtedly impressive as are the fighter models themselves. All the fighters we saw in the game accurately resembled their real life counterparts in both appearance and fighting style. Although some of the animations could be a little more fluid, Undisputed is pretty pleasing on the eye and feels at home on the current-gen of machines.

With good presentation, a varied selection of fighters (although strangely there don’t appear to be any Southpaws) and a suitably deep combat system on offer, Undisputed is looking like it may be the game UFC fans have been waiting for. What remains to be seen is whether the casual fan will be able to come to terms with the complexity of the combat mechanics, especially the ground game, which require some patience and understanding of the sport to master.

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