UFC 2009 Undisputed Review
By Gaetano Prestia
The most popular MMA (mixed martial arts) federation in UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) finally gets its own game in UFC 2009 Undisputed, full with blood, grappling, kicking, punching and an oddly shaped fighting area. MMA has always seemed to take a back seat to boxing, but the sport is increasingly gaining more support as the UFC grows and continues to prosper with more talented athletes and major events. While the sport and league have grown over the years, neither have been truly represented in the gaming arena…that is until now, as developer Yuke give us an entertaining and deep fighter that successfully captures the unique fighting style of MMA.
The most impressive thing about UFC 2009 Undisputed is that it has incorporated a great control scheme for the highly complex hand-to-hand combat techniques of the sport. Furthermore, completion of the tutorial is an absolute necessity if you want to be successful in Undisputed. Each fighter has specific talents and abilities and you have to be able to understand and know how to perform particular moves. Yuke have done an amazing job of ensuring that the player practices and understands the basic fundamentals of the gameplay before tackling the single-player mode, as the computer can take advantage of your fighter if you choose to simply button-mash and use the same move over and over again.
The combat between the fighters as been recreated with intense realism, as every punch, kick, jab and grapple cause bruises and cuts on the fighters bodies. If you focus heavily on your opponents left side mid-range, you’ll notice that they continuously go to block that area whenever you go in for contact. Hit them constantly on the right side of their face and you’ll notice considerable damage in the form of bruising and gory cuts. Undisputed is undoubtedly a fighting sim because of this. In an arcade fighter your opponent wouldn’t be influenced by you focusing on a particular area, whereas in Undisputed you can really cause some damage on a particular area of the body, which in turn makes the opponent more vulnerable as they focus their guard on the damaged part of the body.
The single-player mode allows you to fight through a career mode with your own created fighter, having you juggle through fights, public appearances, training and sponsorship commitments. It’s a great career mode that really dictates a lot of your attention and really allows you to develop an emotional bond with your created fighter. This was something that was lacking in Fight Night Round 3, especially considering how lacking and easy that career mode was overall.
Your created fighter has to train in order to improve across the three main areas of skill - strength, speed, and cardio – and you can increase these areas by entering the training gym or sparing against an AI controlled opponent to gain points. There are sixteen total skill bars spread out across the three main categories and your allocation of the points really influence whether your fighter is aggressive and all-out or defensive and patient with his fighting techniques. We created two separate fighters focusing on different areas and the differences were quite noticeable. The first fighter was focused on cardio, then strength and then speed and he was able to last longer in matches and be more aggressive towards the end of the final round, no matter how beat up he was. The second fighter had a focus on strength, followed by speed and then cardio and he was an overly aggressive fighter that had to win in the first round, otherwise he would run out of steam and go down too easily. It’s great that the developer has created a system that is actually influenced so strongly by your decisions when allocating points from training.
Undisputed gets very challenging very quickly in the career mode. You’ll probably find yourself losing the first few matches until you finally get your fighter up to the minimum standard you want him at and even by that stage the computer AI has suddenly ramped up a notch in quality. You can’t simply go into a fight without training and allocating points to particular skills, because then your fighter will just be average and won’t have the ability to keep up with the heavy weights. You have to decide which kind of fighter you want him to be – be it hard and tough or quick and slow – because his style will heavily influence how you actually play the title. If you go with the former, you must go all-out from the moment the match starts; otherwise he’ll be tired by the end of the first round. If you choose the latter, you can play the match out and try out some unique combat moves, because you know your fighter will last the length of the match. You should make sure that the stamina meter is turned on from the get go as well, as it is a really good indicator of how your fighter is traveling. The game tells you how tired the fighters are through their facial expressions, but sometimes it’s hard to actually tell if they are tired or not, especially if their face is a bit banged up. This is why it’s wise to turn the meter on, so you know whether or not to hold back for the rest of the round.
There are quite a few oddities in the career mode though. Firstly, you’ll notice that your fighter never ages. He’ll be 25 when he starts and still 25 a few years later. That must be every fighter in the worlds dream – to never age. Secondly, there doesn’t seem to be any way to change weight class, which is a real shame. You can build up your fighter’s skills and strength, but you’re always stuck in the same weight class, no matter the skill or weight.
You can also head online with Undisputed, with literally dozens of well-known and talented fighters at your disposal. The servers run well with little to no lag, although we tried it out before the game hit shelves. There is also a great classic mode that has you recreating a famous fighting moment from UFC. If you successfully complete the goals of the match, you’ll get to see a video from the actual fight. It’s a great mode that has been executed perfectly and is well worth checking out.
The commentary between Joe Rogen and Mike Goldberg is fantastic, as the banter between the two is realistic and highly entertaining. Even if you’re not a UFC fan, you’ll feel right at home with their random commentary that fits in well with what’s happening on screen. The most important part of commentary in a sporting title is that it feels natural and that’s exactly what these two bring to the table. They’ve done a great job with the voice-overs to provide one of the best commentary tracks in a sporting game to date. However, the music soundtrack is near unbearable and a major disappointment.
The graphics look great within the octagon as each of the fighters seem to perfectly recreate the real-life movements of the fighters they’re based on. Everything from facial expressions to cuts and bruises to the actual movement of the fighters look great. Couple all of this with an impressive overall presentation with the menu’s and you have a very solid presentation.
The Final Verdict
UFC Undisputed is a fantastic first-round offer for the sport and MMA fans. The game itself is a real treat, with plenty of fighters, a great career mode, lag-free online and a nice presentation. The gameplay has been incorporated well to mimic the complex combat moves of the sport. Undisputed is a very solid fighting title that all UFC and sport game fans alike should love.
Gameplay
8.5/10
An impressive first-round for the sport. Hopefully it improves with the next addition.
Graphics
8.5/10
Great character design and movements, with a nice overall presentation.
Sound
7.0/10
Let down by a disappointing soundtrack. Joe Rogen and Mike Goldberg do a great job with the commentary.
Value
8.5/10
Career mode will last you a long time and classic mode is a lot of fun, especially if you’re a UFC fan. Online mode can be fun with mates, but isn’t all that deep.
Overall
8.5/10