If you like knees to the face, body slams to the mat, and beating one another nearly to a bloody pulp, then you are probably a fan of the UFC and the Mixed Martial Arts fighting styles. It is no real surprise that developers are picking up on this new trend of rougher, bloodier fighting by bringing it into the gaming world. UFC 2009 Undisputed is not the first MMA/UFC based video game, between the years of 2000 & 2004 there were five different UFC games released by various developers and publishers all performing very poorly. This left half a decade without any new MMA games while the sport grew immensely in popularity. THQ, the publisher behind the well known WWE wrestling series are ready to bring gamers into the UFC octagon, but will you be willing to jump in and take on the challenge?

Graphics:

I came into UFC 2009 Undisputed not really expecting top of the line in graphics due to the game being the first in the new series. This much is true, UFC is not a great looking game due to the bland environments; the training room seen during career mode looks like it belongs on the PS2. The same can be said for the sparring rooms and training camps during your training sessions, each have blocky models and just a bland and boring environment.

Once players start a fight you will notice a complete lack of any character entrances, no music to get you pumped up, no crazy animations by your character to show you are ready to fight, not a thing. This makes UFC a disappointing game to start out with graphically. The only upside to the graphics are luckily the most important part, the fighters themselves. If you like blood, sweat, and bruised bodies then you are in luck because you are going to see all of that in great detail on the fighters. Players can also select to create a fighter of their own with many different possibilities for customization so it won’t be too tough to try to create a character mimicking yourself or someone you know, a big plus side to the game. While not everything in Undisputed looks great, it is a good starting point for future editions of the game to build upon.



Story:

Are you ready to show your dominance in the UFC octagon by taking on real life fighters like Chuck Liddell or Georges St-Pierre? Then you want the long and drawn out career mode. Career mode allows you to create your own fighter. (Actually the game forces you to create your own fighter) So don’t think you can go in as Tito Ortiz or any other real life fighter to take on THQ’s career mode because you unfortunately cannot. After you have molded and created every aspect of your new unknown UFC champion wannabe, you must work your way up from the bottom of the ranks in a long and sometimes boring career mode. Not only will you be fighting in the octagon but you will have to train your fighter in three different ways that have no automatic training function what so ever. Be sure to train your fighter as well as possible or your character will never make it to the championship, eventually your contract with the UFC will run out, and your character will be forced into retirement. The career mode is full of disappointment but it is what you will spend most of your time playing.

Along with the long career mode you have your classic exhibition mode putting any two fighters you want together; even your own fighter can go head to head. The mode is very simple making it easy to get a quick fight in. Thirdly you have the classic fights mode where you must recreate selected real life fights ending them in the same real life result. I found this mode to be a very nice addition, something that I am sure the fans of the sport and UFC will enjoy the most. Unfortunately not a whole lot of classic fights are included, UFC 1 through 40 as some fans will say had many legendary fights to remember but none of those are included in the classic fights mode. However there is a nice variety of the type of wins needed keeping things fresh in the classic fights mode.



Gameplay:

Being true to the sport, UFC 2009 Undisputed has all of the MMA fighting styles and you will need to learn how to master them swiftly or you will be down and out very quickly. Boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, kickboxing, muay thai and wrestling are all used throughout the game and your character must select two of these fighting styles when you create a fighter, one standup fighting style and one grappling style. Each style is very different and has a few special moves that cannot be done by any other but will take some time and training to unlock and master. As your character progresses in his training, he will be able to improve his defensive and offensive skills and his physical fitness which ties in to your characters stamina.

When it comes to the actual fighting I relied heavily on my boxing skills because in my real life I know more about boxing techniques then I do any of the other fighting styles in the game. If the fight ever went to the mat I was pretty much screwed because I over relied on my standup fighting skills and neglected my offensive and defensive grappling skills in my training. There is a lot of fun to be had with UFC 2009 Undisputed which makes it a fun to play game, if you know what you are doing of course. Therefore going through every tutorial no matter how boring and slow they may be is highly recommended.

Controls:

Swivel this stick while tapping this button while holding this trigger! These are the kind of controls you are going to need to be doing while playing UFC 2009 Undisputed. Anytime the fight makes it to the mat you are going to need to pull off some odd button combinations to try to get out of the hold or put your opponent into one. Many of these controls I still had trouble attempting to master even after countless training sessions in the career mode and the game’s main tutorial.



There are a lot of different moves to master in MMA so there is no surprise that the controls can be a little confusing and overwhelming but that is the sort of thing you are going to have to get used to as you make your way to the UFC championship. Meanwhile I will keep throwing hooks and jabs and hope I can knock my opponent out before they can take me to the mat.

Audio:

As expected, UFC 2009 Undisputed is filled full of heavy metal and rock music. Although the soundtrack is too short, it’s enjoyable with artists like Saliva, Papa Roach, Hollywood Undead, Puddle of Mud and a couple of others rocking out their hardest. For some reason the developers choose to remove the rock filled soundtrack during the entire career mode, and with a good portion of the career mode being spent in the menus or training areas the soundtrack would have been very helpful and enjoyable to make it not feel so boring, but instead you hear a constant loop of random beats which cannot compare to the soundtrack.



Real life UFC announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan have made their way into UFC 2009 Undisputed giving you a punch by punch by slam account for everything happening before you in the octagon. Brining in real announcers from the UFC made the game feel all the more authentic and true to the organization that the game is attempting to mimic in the digital world. To much surprise none of the fighters have any dialogue; not even when the match is won will you hear anything. This makes for an even bigger disappointment when your fighter is screaming in victory without any sound. This is not the only odd moment of silence, once the game exits the loading screens and the arena is shown there is a moment of silence; no shouts of the crowd, no background music, nothing, just odd silence. This makes it very hard to get hyped for the oncoming match.

Multiplayer:

If you are dominating in the singleplayer modes don’t think you will be doing the same when you take your fighting skills online. This mode might as well be renamed Rage Quit Online because that is all that goes on really. If you are about to win a fight there is a good chance your online opponent will just turn off their system, there is no penalty at all for players quitting to avoid the loss on their stats making it hard to advance your online persona in the leader boards and statistics.



If not for the constant rage quit by players online then UFC Undisputed 2009’s online would be a lot of fun, but it was impossible to experience it to its true potential. So you are better off doing some two player battles with someone next to you as opposed to going online, at least until some sort of solution is found to resolve this issue with online competitions.

Summary:

All in all UFC 2009 Undisputed is a great game for MMA fans who have been neglected over the years by poor renditions of MMA based video games. This is THQ and Yuke’s first jump into the MMA and UFC realm so we can only expect and hope for improvements in the areas that need some more work. UFC 2009 Undisputed has a lot of small problems that cannot be overlooked like the audio issues and bland environments, the highly detailed character models look great but cannot make up for all of the small problems. With THQ’s Undisputed due to sell well, they can expect hard competition in the coming years from other publishers. Unless these faults are fixed and greatly improved upon, THQ’s Undisputed series will be left on the mat of the octagon with a bloody face with little chance for redemption.