Mixed Martial Arts-based video games have not had a very good track record here in North America.  The UFC has released several games for various consoles, but none of them really came close to capturing the style of a real UFC fight.  Most of them played like slow moving 3D fighting games.  There’s a first time for everything though, and it’s nice to finally see an MMA game, whatever the franchise it’s associated with that gets so many things right.

UFC 2009 is developed by Yuke’s, the studio responsible for THQ’s WWE Wrestling games. They have earned a reputation for putting in a few too many features and gameplay mechanics.  The result has been that their wrestling games have become less and less fun to play over the years.  UFC 2009 doesn’t fall into that trap.  In fact, a few areas have been simplified slightly.

The game has several modes for both Single Player and Multiplayer.  The majority of your Single Player time will likely be spent in the game’s Career mode.  You start off by creating your own fighter using the game’s in-game creation system.  This is one of the game’s first shortcomings.  The Create A Fighter mode feels dated in comparison to the ones that other games have.  You have a handful of choices for customizing how your fighter looks.  That’s offset slightly by the Skills and Attributes section.  Your fighter will have a Striking Discipline and a grappling Discipline.  You can choose from Boxing, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai for striking techniques and Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Wrestling for grappling techniques.  Each of these techniques has their own strengths and weaknesses, and picking a combination that you feel comfortable with is crucial.

You then get to distribute points into your fighter’s Skills.  There are three main physical attributes to invest points into: Strength, Speed, and Cardio.  There are sixteen Skill categories to train in and develop.  Everything is here, from Standing Strikes and Kicks to Ground-based technique.  Because a lot of time is going to be spent training to improve these attributes, it would be nice if the training method was fun.  Sadly that’s not really the case.  Improving your physical attributes is done via a menu selection, while training your skills is done through a short sparring session.  There is a third training option which has your fighter performing specific tasks in order to gain points towards a Technique level.  Leveling up your fighting technique gives you slightly improved attributes as well as a few new moves.  It’s a good idea to do this, but this is the point where the game starts to feel more like a chore than a game.

Then there are the constant emails you have to deal with.  Important Messages get filed into special email folders, but you keep getting bulletins via email which you have to constantly keep sifting through.  Being able to Unsubscribe to these would certainly have made things much quieter.

Once you’re done dealing with emails and training, it’s time to step into the octagon and face off against your opponent.  It’s at this point that UFC 2009 starts to absolutely shine.  The game has a simple to learn striking system where each of the face buttons on the controller maps to one of your fighter’s limbs.  For those familiar with Tekken, it’s basically the same layout.  That’s where the similarity ends though, since UFC 2009 has many options that can be used with each button.  Also, unlike other games, it’s very possible to finish a fight with one well placed strike or well timed counter.

UFC 2009 also has an excellent ground game.  Fights can go to the ground, where it becomes a matter of negotiating an advantageous position for yourself.  There are a lot of things you can do from the ground, like attempting a Submission or simply pounding on your opponent’s face until they stop moving.  It’s not quite that simple though, since even the fighter on the bottom can win a fight with a well timed reversal.

Along with the Career Mode there is the standard one on one Exhibition Mode, a Practice Mode, and the UFC Classic Fights Mode.  This mode has you attempting to recreate the outcome of a specific UFC fight.  Some of these are easier to do than others, and it’s worth playing through to unlock the various fight montages, but it’s not a mode that will get repeat plays.  It would have also been nice if instead of simply unlocking clips from the fights, they unlocked the entire fight video.

Though the AI does a decent job at putting up a fight, on the harder difficulties it tends to always come up with the proper counter for whatever move you’re throwing.  There’s never any point where the AI does not have an answer for you, or chooses the wrong counter.  If it had done that, then the CPU AI would be a lot more realistic.  When you’re tired of playing against the CPU, you can play against a friend in Local Multiplayer, or go online and take on the world.

The online mode had a lot of potential, with leveling your fighter and earning fans being a part of it.  The trouble is that online matches more often than not are sluggish and nearly unplayable.  The number of smooth matches is vastly outnumbered by the number of laggy ones.  To make matters worse, a lot of people disconnect if they’re about to lose.  With any luck, Yuke’s will be working on a patch to smooth out these issues, but for now, it’s a bit of a mess.

Visually UFC 2009 is top notch.  The fighter models look excellent in all areas.  They move well on their feet and on the ground, and as the fight progresses you can see the physical toll on their bodies.  It’s not uncommon to end a round with both fighters covered with sweat and bruises.  Beyond that, the third man in the octagon also looks the part. For the most part he stays out of the way, occasionally depending on where the camera happens to be, he may block your view of the action.  It doesn’t happen often enough to be a problem though.

UFC 2009 has an excellent audio presentation.  Everything just seems to fit together properly.  The music, Bruce Buffer’s announcements pre and post fight, even the referee’s starting and stopping the action all sound as they should.  It sounds more like they recorded event audio, which is a hard trick to pull off.  The commentary provided by Mike Golberg and Joe Rogan is spot-on accurate most of the time.  Occasionally they’ll get a strike or position call wrong, and then quickly correct themselves.  That’s a little detail that really helps the game feel more authentic.  If there’s one weakness, it would have to be the corner men between rounds.  A few times we’ve heard them giving out instructions that didn’t seem to fit in with what was actually happening in the fight.  Overall though, the audio is excellent.

If you’re a UFC fan, this game is a no-brainer; it offers up almost everything that you could want, and this is a first effort, so we can only imagine the kind of improvements that will be made for UFC 2010.  If you like fighting games in general, then you should check this game out as well  It’ll be a nice change of pace from the faster and less realistic games you’re most likely used to.  We just wish that the Career Mode and online modes worked a little better.

Score – 8.9 | Suggestion: Buy It

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Related posts:

1. E3 2009: Modern Warfare 2 Preview (PS3, Xbox 360)
2. 2009: The Year in Screenshots
3. Max Payne 3 Coming Winter 2009
4. E3 2009: DJ Hero First Look (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2)
5. Preview: UFC Undisputed 2010 (PS3, Xbox 360)

About This Author: Filippo Dinolfo

Share This Post: