UFC Undisputed 2010 Review

Review Score:

When UFC 2009 boomed onto the market in May of 2009 and received positive reviews all across the board, many guessed it probably set the stone for yearly sequels. Well eight months later UFC 2010 was revealed in a teaser trailer and five months later UFC Undisputed 2010 launched, and we’re here to give you our low down on the title!

Prior to, and even post UFC 2009 fighting games were/are a very niche market. There’s not many franchises in the genre, and it’s not like the sports genre where an updated roster and a few features makes the yearly rehash of games like Madden NFL, NBA and many others. The bulk of fighting game sales are mainly attributed to Tekken and Street Fighter, the very fathers of the genre and the games that ship the most units upon launch and long into their lives.

Developed by Yuke’s, a long running developer of quality fighting titles and the second game of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) contract with THQ, UFC Undisputed 2010 is back on the market and is here to stay. Aiming to add to the series, as well as to introduce new features and fighters, this series has definitely made itself a force to be reckoned with both in game play and sales.

I will be perfectly honest. My experience with UFC has been very minimal. In my eyes it was a sudden boom of popularity and then everyone was talking about it, and by that I mean the Pay Per Views. I rarely used to even hear about MMA or UFC and now both seem to be big names in social media and over the internet. When UFC 2009 came out on Xbox 360 and PS3 I never even played it. So when I heard that UFC Undisputed 2010 (UFC 2010 from now on) was coming out I made a conscious effort to get my hands on the game.

I had played Street Fighter, Marvel v Capcom and the Tekken series so much so I expected UFC 2010 to be very similar in style. I was greatly wrong. Mixed Martial Arts fighting is a very high endurance and physically draining sport, both in real life and as portrayed in the video game. It’s difficult to play and enjoyable at the same time. The game has your generic “Career” mode in which you move through the life and career of a custom made UFC fighter as well as online modes and offline exhibition and tutorial modes.

Upon booting the game up you’re met with a very simplistic menu that reminded me a lot of the menu in Smackdown v Raw 2010. I actually commented on the menu design in that review. You can literally start this game up and be playing a match around 30 seconds later as Exhibition Match is right up the top of the menus. You then have access to your other modes, but the main one is Career. In this setting you can create a fighter and then go through the trials and tribulations of the modern day mixed martial arts fighter.

I had a gripe with this right from the start: I wasn’t able to find a country slot for Australia. There was ones for everywhere else but none here. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a patch though. After using the extensive creator and making your fighter you then start the actual fighting. This is managed through a calendar based menu on which you book fights then spend time training your fighter and building your skills. You go through a brief tutorial in the cage then you’re launched into the game. I had a problem with this too. Once you’ve done your first fight you’re pretty much left on your own to do whatever you want. There is 3 training modes; Cardio, Speed and Strength however you’re not told or taught by anyone what they do. I still have trouble working it out now after 20 hours game play. My general understanding is that each skill degrades unless it’s on one of the preset “Safe” numbers. When you choose to train you choose either Light, Medium or Intense and each awards 1,2 and 3 points respectively. Each one takes a week to complete, and then you go into your fight.

In the sequel there has been the introduction of numerous new features. Your career starts in the World Fighting Alliance once you choose to go from amateur to professional fighter. The amateur division is quite easy and really gives you a chance to feel the waters and learn the game. It’s also a perfect place to introduce the three new fighting styles Yuke’s has implemented in the sequel; Karate, Greco-Roman Wrestling and Sambo. Each has its specific strengths and weaknesses and it’s up to the player to learn them.

Once you go professional you start going through constant fights and training as you move your way up through the ranks. A lot of the Career mode is menu based and it gets quite tedious after a while, but it’s to be expected as this is a simulation game and no doubt a lot of a fighters work is done behind the scenes by managers and assistants. Something that would have been nice though is a Speed up, or Automatic mode so the computer does all your training for you and you just worry about the fighting. A mini-game system as seen in “EA Sports Fight Night Round 3″ would have been more interesting than just pushing prompts.

That being said, I did enjoy the career mode thoroughly and nothing is more enjoyable then watching your fighter progress and change over the duration of his career on the road to the top. A few other parts of the game have been redone, including the addition of TKO (Total Knock Out) victories as well as changes to how the cage wall worked. During development a Yuke’s design member stated they were changing how the game worked out balancing and advantages. Assuming each player is standing flat on the mat at the start of the fight they’re both 50-50, but then if one player is against the cage it would be more like 90-10. Similar to a Tug of War match this back and forward system really is apparent in fights, as sometimes a few lucky strikes can swing the game for one player. A few other cosmetic additions include new fight arenas and new clothing from the MMA brand.

Another new feature is the addition of “Fight Camps” which are virtual meetings of players where you can learn new moves, spar with partners and just play with other people. This is usable both Online and in Single Player but the online component is better. By entering a fight camp you’re able to track players stats online, look at detailed reports and even check who has the best fight camp in the world. I think more games need to implement extra experience features like this to always keep you wanting to play and further yourself in the game.

Game play is through movements of the joysticks for grappling and throws, as well as use of the face buttons (X,B,A,Y) for striking and kicking. Movement is carried out through the left stick and in UFC 2010 movement plays a large role as it’s important not to back yourself into a corner or get pinned in one spot.
A problem I had with the tutorial I mentioned earlier was that you have to watch a visual representation of every point that is made to you. It’s unescapable and annoying to watch when some sections of the tutorial feature five or more sections. At the end too, it tells you you’re done, yet you can’t press A on the prompt and move onwards, instead you wait pointlessly for five to ten seconds.

The graphical presentation of UFC 2010 is very clean and fresh. The fighters look almost identical to their real life counter parts and the animations are perfect. Something I noticed in the demo of UFC 2010 on Xbox 360 was that at times it would appear I was hitting them but no damage was being done. Now whether it was because I was gassed (Tired ingame) or because of the hit boxes on fighters, but the issue seems to have been sorted out as punches and kicks strike beautifully.

There is no HUD in fights in UFC 2010 which seems to be a growing trend in most games these days. All damage is shown on your fighter visually and also more apparent at the end of each round where you see your fighter up close as well as receive advice from your trainers and assistants. I also noticed how nice the crowd looked in the background during fights, which is a big step up from most games where they just look like clones. I did however make a note of the fact sometimes there was some very jagged edges on characters during menu images as well as at times during fights.

Sound wise the game excels although I can’t help but wonder how much sound an actual UFC fighter makes when they’re hit, as in this game there’s a welcome “doof” sound when you punch someone square in the face. The soundtrack is nothing to get too excited about however the crowds and commentators are. After playing a lot of Smackdown v Raw 2010 the commentators got quite annoying after a while due to their bland repeating statements. UFC 2010 features actual information about the fighters that seems to be very dynamic and in-depth. They also present useful information about the condition of both fighters.

The game features a pretty poor achievement list in terms of how obtainable it is. I’ve been told a few times that a game shouldn’t be critiqued on its achievements, but they’re part of the Xbox 360 experience and developers should be scored accordingly. Quite a lot of the achievements are based around the online component of the game and one of them is for actually winning 100 Xbox LIVE Matches. In UFC a match could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. So unless you’re boosting enjoy the long haul. Some of the achievements are simple to get though and if you’re an avid UFC fan you will get them with time and probably without trying.

In today’s economy people look for quality titles to spend their money on especially when it comes to how long their experience will last. I’ve been playing UFC 2010 at time of writing for 22 hours and I am loving every second of it. I’m not bored, and the Exhibition modes are always fun to play. Career is in-depth and even though there’s too many menu activated prompts it’s still really enjoyable and offers hours of entertainment.

UFC Undisputed 2010 has come fighting into a market that was very tight and restricted to newcomers. Including an indepth career mode, hours of fun in Exhibition and one of the best online modes I’ve seen of late, Yuke’s and the UFC have a prospering outlook ahead indeed. You wanna be a fighter? Well this is how.

Pros

• Hours and hours of intuitive indepth gameplay

• Best online I’ve seen in a while

• Huge roster of fighters

Cons

• Too many online achievements

• Menu prompts get boring

• AI is sometimes quite punishing

Drjft Gaming Score: 8.6/10