UFC Undisputed 2009 (PS3) Review

Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 06.08.2009

A great but flawed way to begin a new series. Find out what there is to like and what there is to hate about this MMA fighter!



I cannot consider myself a hardcore MMA fan simply because I started following the sport little over two years ago. During that span, however, I became an avid fan, tracking down videos and fights every time I could. That’s why UFC Undisputed 2009 was in my buy list long before it ever came out. After all the videos I had seen I was sure that it captured the sport to perfection and would become an instant classic. Perhaps that’s why I have developed a love/hate relationship with the game. For as many things as I love about UFC Undisputed 2009 there is an equal number of things I hate. To me, UFC Undisputed 2009 is not an instant classic, but instead a great, flawed beginning to a brand new series that has the potential to be even better in the next installment.



Gameplay:

UFC features four primary modes of play: Exhibition, Online, Classic Fights and Career, as well as a Tutorial Mode. First of all, I want to give props to the development team for the excellent Tutorial Mode. It guides you to everything you need to dominate in this game, explaining the ins and outs of stuff like transitions, reversals, counters, blocks and everything else. If you are one of those players who hate tutorials and skips right into the action you will be in a significant disadvantage.

Once you hit the Octagon the fights are very strategic. If you are primarily a striker, you should keep the fight standing up and maul your opponent with punches and kicks. BJJ experts are better at taking things to the ground and looking for submissions. In other words, Mirko Cro Cop has devastating kicks that you should put to good use, while someone like Fabricio Werdum stands a better chance on the ground. The idea of the fight is to utilize your strengths to win, but no fighter is strong on every area, they all have a weak point. When both fighters are standing up, it plays like a kickboxing game: Punches and kicks, blocks and evasions, until someone tries a clinch or takedown. The controls are very simple, with the face buttons controlling your extremities, while the triggers are used for blocking, countering, clinching and takedowns (in combination with the right stick) as well as modifiers for your strikes. Once things hit the ground is where the ballet begins. Here you use various stick motions to try and perform transitions (movements from one position to the next) while also dealing with blocking your opponents transitions and strikes, looking for submissions (or countering submissions) or figuring a way out of the predicament and back to a standing position. Practically every position you have seen in real MMA is in the game. However, this is also one of the flawed aspects of the game, especially once you engage in a submission. By general rule, I hate all types of random button mashing in games and this is what is used to represent the “struggle” between fighters as one tries to lock a submission and the other tries to escape. If you are a strong, brute character, you can try a brute force escape by mashing the face buttons, while technicians can get technical escape by rotating the right stick clockwise as fast as they can. Any type of fighter can succeed at any type of escape, but you have a higher chance of success if you stick to the one that fits your style. Not only do I hate the button mashing mechanic, but even on the beginner difficulty it is almost impossible to make the CPU tap out. In order to get the CPU to tap you need to pound their body and legs to reduce their stamina to a minimum and then engage in the submission attempt, mash like a maniac and pray for the best. Although this strategy offers the highest percentage of success, it is not a sure thing. On the flip side, good stamina or not, you can get submitted by the CPU pretty easily. This is very frustrating and has caused me lots of hair pulling moments. When two players go at it the effect is less notable and the game provides a more enjoyable experience this way.



Flash Knockouts are another thing that needs to be fixed. What is a flash knockout? A knockout that comes out of nowhere, usually from a very solidly landed shot. These knockouts happen in real life, but not as frequent as they are in the game. How frequent? Like 5 out of every 10 fights. Not only they happen often, but also from blows that should not have caused them. I have seen replays of my fighter nailing a weak looking elbow that barely grazed my opponent, but somehow that knocked him out cold in one shot. With the combination of frequent flash knockouts and difficult to pull off submissions, it upsets the balance of the game. Strikers are clearly favored against the CPU, especially kickboxers with their “Crop Cop” style high kicks. Against another human player it is not as notable, but it still gives the edge to strikers. A player trying to submit you will need to work hard by attacking your body, taking you to the ground and looking for the right position to make you tap, while a striker can undo all that hard work with a well placed kick to the face. Does this happen in real life? Of course it does! But once again, it is a case of happening too often in this game.

The Career Mode is also pretty flawed. For starters, the create-a-fighter option pales in comparison to the ones showcased in other games. I understand that UFC fighters don’t have the flashiest clothes in the world, but the mode itself is not as good as say, Fight Night 3, a game that is several years old. Most of the trunks look the same, there are very few accessories (like knee-protectors), very few hairstyles, very few tattoos…there is very few of a lot of things! This is especially notable when you get to pick your nickname. The announcers are incapable of pronouncing full names, so they call you by your nickname, but there is very few of them as well. So you end up with quite a few “Hands of Stone” in your list of created fighters. If a game like MLB 09 The Show can have full names, why not here? This is a criticism not only for this game, but for all games with create-a- fighter/superstar/player modes: We need full names people! It breaks the illusion of the game when the announcers say a stupid nickname all the time! For example: “Coming up next, a fight in the heavyweight division between the UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and Hands of Stone!”.



Once you are done creating a fighter you move into the Career Mode itself, which starts with a cool intro by Dana White, followed by what I guess is a tryout fight. Once you are done with that you get to the first of many menus, as you meet Joe Silva, agree to a match and proceed to train. First of all, let me state that Career Mode is pretty fun. However, there are way too many menus! Everything is done through email, from signing fights, getting sponsorships and even congratulatory messages from Dana White. What is worse is that you get emails detailing every single result from every single event and that you cannot delete them from your inbox until you open them first. This should have been optional, instead of forcing players into seeing something they don’t want to see.

The progression of the career mode feels well done, since you feel like you have improved as a fighter as it goes on. However, Sparring Sessions (that net you skill points) are incredibly boring. It usually involves your sparring partner mimicking your next opponent’s fighting style and you are asked to defend against it. However, I still can’t figure out the best ways to get points, since you are asked to defend/prevent his attacks, but you get a lot more points if you just simply maul the guy until he is done. Points earned in sparring go toward your skills, like Standing Kicks, Takedown Defense and Submission Defense. To improve attributes you simply “train” it by selecting it on a menu and trading stamina for attribute gain. There are no training mini-games, which is a shame and something I would like to see in the sequel. Every time you select something, be it training, sparring or a personal appearance, it consumes an entire week’s worth of time. This makes Personal Appearances worthless. You see, as you gain reputation you are given an opportunity to make a personal appearance to increase said reputation, be it a photo shoot with THQ or appearing live during an Ultimate Fight Night broadcast to hype your next fight. The amount of reputation gained for this is minimal, it is shown on a menu (no cut-scene or anything special) and it cuts back on your training time. Since you gain bigger amounts of reputation by winning fights, you are better off skipping on this and focusing on your training. For the sequel they need to do something to make this feel important and worth your time. You also get invitations to other camps and this is something you need to do. Once you get an invite you get the opportunity to spar against a fighter from that camp and are given a set of goals to complete, such as nail 3 High Kicks, nail 5 punches from Full Mount, Block a ground transition, etc. By completing these goals to earn what is essentially experience points, which in turn allow you to level your fighting style and learn new moves. You goals in the career mode are simple: Earn reputation by winning fights, getting a title shot, winning the title, defending it and getting into the Hall of Fame. After that you can retire your fighter and take it online. Career Mode is pretty fun like I said, but the extensive navigation of menus and boring sparring fights hurt it quite a bit. Also you cannot switch weight classes mid-career, which is something that needs to be added to the future sequel.



Online the performance leaves a lot to be desired. I have around 50 fights under my belt and lag was a problem in about half of them. In a game that demands timing, this is unforgivable. Performance has been better lately, so maybe they are doing something to improve upon that.

Classic Fights mode allows you to relieve some of the UFC’s biggest fights with the goal of winning the fight the same way it was won. For example, you might need to get a 1st Round KO, a Unanimous Decision victory etc. This mode works well and features an amazing video package that hypes the fight and gives you a bit of insight into why the fight is so important. Achieving the goals nets you unlockable stuff, such as the aforementioned videos.


Graphics:


The graphics are a mixed bag. The Octagon looks fantastic and so does the setup and lightning effects. The character models for popular names like Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell and B.J. Penn look really good, but some of the lesser known fighters (Like Fabricio Werdum) look dismal and have much more in common with the fake “can” fighters you fight early in your career than with the UFC superstars. Animations are great for the most part, but we get the occasional collision detection hiccup every once in a while, as well as some unrealistic “Rubber” animations on some knock outs. The effects for sweat and blood are pretty well done and blood drips into your chest from your nose/mouth, which is a nice touch. However, the crowd is horrible and looks like cardboard cut outs.



Sound:

The announcers are great and they don’t tend to repeat themselves as often as in other games. The music is also pretty heavy and fits the game well. The effects for crunching punches and kicks are fantastic, if a bit repetitive. Overall, the sound is really great and one of the few things that don’t need much improvement for a sequel.

Lasting Appeal:

If you plan on getting all the trophies, this game will last you a long time. Among the trophies you are required to beat the Career Mode five times (one for each weight class), play an exhibition match with every UFC fighter, complete all the Classic Fights and win a certain amount of matches online, so there is plenty of incentive to come back for more.

Fun Factor:

UFC Undisputed 2009 is really fun, but also really frustrating and your experience with the game will vary depending on your ability to ignore the latter. The broken submission AI, menu heavy Career Mode and button-mashing “struggle” mechanics are real turnoffs, but when the game works like it is intended to it is incredibly fun. Too bad it can’t work like that all the time.

The 411:

UFC Undisputed 2009 is a great beginning for a new series, but lots of things need improvement if they want to become “King of the Ring” (or octagon). I can say that this is the game that has come the closest to capturing all the excitement of the UFC in video game form, but they need to work on improving the AI (especially when it comes to submissions), gives us more Create-a-Fighter options and reducing the amount of menu navigation and flash knockouts. Mild thumbs up for UFC Undisputed 2009.

Graphics	8.0	Good looking character models, the Octagon looks great. Some jerky animations and collision detection issues, cardboard looking fans hurt the experience.
Gameplay	7.5	Issues with submissions and flash knockouts, extensive menu navigation in Career Mode and frequent lag online hurt what is otherwise an enjoyable fighter.
Sound	8.5	The music fits the game well, sound effects are well done and the announcers are spot on and not as repetitive as in other similar games.
Lasting Appeal	8.2	If you plan on getting all the trophies, it will take a long time. Career Mode is highly replayable, Classic Fights Mode and Online add longevity.
Fun Factor	7.7	When the game works, it is incredibly fun. However, the issues with submissions and the AI are a big turn off and the extensive menu navigation will turn people away. A good start, but the sequel needs improvements.
Overall	7.9   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 11 UFC 2009 Undisputed Screenshots