World of Mixed Martial Arts 2 (PC) Preview
Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 04.06.2009
Hands-On: Adam Ryland is back with another MMA booking simulator! Here are my impressions after spending a few hours with the demo.
Adam Ryland is better known for his wrestling booker/promoter simulator, Extreme Warfare, which evolved into the Total Extreme Wrestling series. A few years back Adam tried his hand in a different genre with the release of World of Mixed Martial Arts, or WMMA. Taking the basic concepts of booking and promotion of the TEW series and bringing them into the world of MMA was a natural fit, but the game had a few shortcomings, most notably, a small number of playable promotions and a very ambiguous scout system. With WMMA 2, Adam hopes to fix these issues. My hands-on time with the demo version shows a vastly improved product.
The first thing that comes to mind when you boot up the game is how sleek the presentation is. In a text-based simulator like this, sleek menus are a requirement since this is the only visual aid players have. Menus for WMMA 2 are vastly improved from the original and look more professional. The colors and backgrounds mesh really well together. The fighter menus also look a lot better with the fighter's full-body representation in the middle of the screen. Fighter models also look more realistic and less like plastic action figures.
WMMA takes place in Ryland's fictitious Cornellverse universe. Here you will see fake characters that have similar (or in some cases, identical) characteristics to real-life fighters. Free real-world mods are expected to be released in the future by the avid TEW/WMMA community, but for now we only have the Cornellverse to play with. It feels a daunting task to familiarize yourself with a world of new characters, but for those who take the investment, the universe comes to life. As an avid follower of Ryland's games, I can tell you that these characters become icons in the same way that real life versions do. Just hit the Grey Dog Software forums and see for yourself how devote fans are to everything Cornellverse related. Kudos to Adam for creating such an engaging world.
The first thing you notice in the promotion select screen is that we have a few new promotions to play with. Favorites like Alpha-1 and GAMMA are back, but we also have several newcomers like Extreme Cage Combat and SIGMA. Also there are dozens upon dozens of new fighters to play around with. The universe itself has evolved. WMMA 2 takes place in 1999, three years after the original.
One thing I love is the new scouting system. Instead of the ambiguous "bullet-point" system from the previous game, now we get a good look at a fighter's skill set and are able to better read how he can perform. Skills are rated in a "belt" system similar to karate, with white being the worst and black being the best. Fighters are rated in styles like Muay Thai and skills like striking. This makes judging fighters easier and makes matchmaking significantly better.
Other upgrades include a new "Play-by-Play" system for fights and an enhanced focus on the booking and matchmaking by streamlining the financial controls. If you love management games and "Booking" simulations, get your fists ready as WMMA 2 releases next week!
