 |
Review: Ultimate Fighting Championship |
It’s not particularly awful … but the mental scars left by the sheer frustration and rage of the first half-hour of play mean that I will never be able to look fondly on it. Visions of my first punch of the fight being countered and reversed into a submission hold and the automatic submission that follows will haunt me for the rest of my life.
UFC is not kind to beginners. You will spend your first few fights stumbling around the ring wailing “where are the moves?” and being submission hold-ed to instant death. I believe what I’m trying to say is that it has a very steep initial learning curve. Too steep for me in fact — I would have happily given up if it wasn’t for my duties here. Grr.
I’ve never seen any Ultimate Fighting … in fact the only time I’d even really heard of it was in the outraged English tabloid press (”BAN THIS SICK SPORT NOW!!!”) … but if you live an even more sheltered life than me, you may wish to be told that it’s a combat sport where practitioners of a variety of fighting styles kick the hell out of each-other in a one-on-one situation. That’s pretty much it.
The game follows this formula … you have numerous characters to choose from, using a variety of styles (wrestling, kickboxing, freestyling, sumo, Jiu Jitsu etc.)
There are various modes. The “normal mode” is called UFC mode — you pick one of the 22 fighters and are entered into a tournament against 15 others. Winners fight winners until the final. Fortunately here you can skip watching the CPU matches — as they always bore the hell out of me.
“Tournament” mode is like a customisable version of the above … you may choose who you fight and how many fights there are.
Once you complete UFC mode, then (and only then) are you eligible for the 3rd gameplay mode … “Champion Road” … here you face 12 opponents — and losing to any of them means it’s game over.
That’s a problem I have with this game … the “round” system. Lose in the first round and that’s the end of the fight. The only way to go onto round 2 is to run out of time, and then you’ll start up again with reduced health. The annoyance comes with the quick losses .. if you get submission held … or smacked down extra fast … that’s it, game over. You have to start again. There’s no 2nd round comebacks….
I guess this is like real UFC rules, but it still bugs me.
“Exhibition” mode is just anyone vs. anyone … player or CPU … whatever.
Then there’s “Career mode” where you create your own fighter and gain experience through fights and learn moves from other characters. It’s a bit limited … only a few different looks and voices … and from then on you just have a character with moves from other fighters. You can save them and enter them into any of the game modes. So much fun to be had there.
There’s an excellent and comprehensive training mode, and the usual options.
Now the whole thing kicks of with a decent FMV intro showing the real UFC stars smacking the living hell out of each other. This is not only pretty cool, but it’s also interesting to compare the real people with their polygon counterparts. And it’s not a bad translation. Although the characters all possess the same odd-looking angular shoulders, the overall effect is very convincing, with excellent details like realistic hair, muscles and even proper ears. (woo!)
They look even more realistic once the fight is underway and the animation is smooth and realistic, with no polygon glitching. The rings all look the same — this bland octagon shape with a wire mesh cage around it.
The visual side isn’t perfect … aside from the above-mentioned shoulders, the announcer has the worst lip-synch I’ve ever seen. It’s like the programmers purposely set out to make it so sound only comes out when his mouth is closed, and silence only when his mouth is moving. It’s stupid.
The ringside crowds also suck, hard. Those terrible-digitised, badly animated fuzzy sprites … ugh.
There’s an interesting effect they’ve used for the fight intros. The character walks out of the gate and into the cage … now the character is made of polygons … but everything else in the sequence is FMV. It’s not a bad effect (similar to Space Channel 5) … it’s just when your 3D models look better than your rendered ones — you really should either fire your CGI team or give your 3D one a raise…
The blood is also pretty weird looking. It’s not giant red loaves of bread like “Mortal Kombat” .. it’s little red dots that explode out of the other guy’s face and land on the floor and vanish. And I’d like to have seen damage effects, like in Ready 2 Rumble 2 - the game claims to be so realistic - but getting hit by these incredible punches and having showers of blood flying about don’t cause a single facial wound. Tsk.
But no matter … let’s talk about playing the thing.
There’s the Tekken-like button controls — LP, RP, LK and ZK (just kidding). As there’s no jumping or crouching — the stick/pad gives you full 3D movement. The motion is a bit slow and unresponsive - as are the attacks. It feels a lot like “Ready 2 Rumble 2″ in terms of physics and collision detection. There’s a lot of punches and kicks (no “special” special moves) — just different variations on those two attacks. There are small PPK style combos … and as far as special moves go, basically you’ve got “press buttons in a sequence” … and … “tap a direction and then press buttons in a sequence”. That’s it. No double-taps … no QCFs .. just directions and buttons.
You can counter punches and kicks by pressing both punches or both kicks at the moment of impact .. and you can also quick-step back and forward.
Where it gets interesting is when you use the “shoots”. (Look ma! I can use UFC terminology!)
Pressing both left or both right buttons will cause your character to go for a shoot. Or, to put it simply, a hold. If you miss - you stand there like an idiot, but if you hit, and you aren’t countered (there’s a hell of a lot of countering in this game…) you’ll push the opponent to the ground and sit on top of them.
Yes, this game has a ton of amusing poses that could be screen-grabbed and captioned “Gay shame of brutal fighting tournaments” … the “top backmount” pose is just hilarious. Oh my.
Where was I?
Anyway, once you’re on top of them … you take the hot candle wax and … wait.
Right … once you’re on top of them, you get to punch the living crap out of them. The deafening shotgun-blast impact noises and splatters of blood flying out make this easily the most entertaining bit of the game. It’s quite tactical too … the guy under you can block … and hit you back (in the face or in the ribs .. ouch) … and if he’s quick enough, reverse your punch and flip over so you change positions (pppft) and he’s on top of you.
You can also do various limb snaps and things … and get your opponent in a submission hold (automatic tap out = instant game over) — it is possible to counter them too, but it’s hard.
So you’ve gathered there’s a lot of countering going on. It’s not just the holds that have it, you can reverse shoots, slams and punches and kicks. And while it may be tempting to just rely on the mini canned combos (LP, LP, LP) … the fact that it’s so easy to counter mean you have to mix up your attacks if you want to win.
In some ways UFC reminds me of a wrestling game … more the “Giant Gram” ones than the WWF ones. The intricate move counters that rely on expert timing and the reversible throws and holds. It’s a lot harder than jamming on the “Counter hold” button in DOA2 I tell you.
The energy bar system is also a little different. There’s a red bar (Endurance) and on top of it a blue bar (stamina)
If you get hit … they go down together. But if you run around throwing punches like a lunatic … your character will get tired… and the stamina bar will go down - making you slower and weaker. The stamina bar gradually recovers if you rest, but it can only go up to the highest level of the red bar underneath. So if you’re at 50% health and you lose a load more stamina … you can only get back to 50% full. Right. Run out of the red bar and you’re dead. Or KO’d or whatever.
It is a violent game … I mentioned the vicious blows to the head of a downed opponent, there’s also the wince-making sound of a fierce kick to the face; and if you do it right you can kick the other guy into the chain-link fence around the ring which is accompanied by a suitably painful sound.
The sound effects really help add to the brutal feel. Incredible crunches and smashes accompany each blow, along with cries of pain and over 500 audience sounds (check it in the sound test). There’s no in-game music — but the menus and stuff have fairly cool-sounding rock music. One question though — WHY does the title music sound so much like the Star Wars theme?!?!?
Apart from the horrors of my first 30 minutes of play … there are a lot of things I don’t like in this game. It’s well-made yes, but it’s really more like a simulation than a real fighter. It’s slow, it’s dull to watch (or “realistic” as the back of the box calls it) and it’s limited. There’s no adrenaline-pumping action or moments of precision, coolness or sheer skill. It’s just … fighting.
And I just don’t like the characters. It’s good that they’re all real UFC’ers — but to the non-fan — they’re all just interchangable guys in black shorts. This is what this much-heralded “realism” gets you: boring characters. And where are the scantily-clad women? So what if there’s no female UFC competitors? Grrr.
Ultimate Fighting Championship is another one of those “not-quite-fighting” games … it’s too realistic and down-to-earth to appeal to Capcom and SNK lovers. If you’re flexible and can cope with new and different things — the slower pace and ‘tactical’ gameplay may appeal to you. Likewise if you’re a UFC fan (do they even exist?)
I suppose it was brave of Crave (hahaha … :sigh:) to try something different but, for me, this just isn’t what a fighting game should be. Oh well. Hire it, flame me, then return it. *Goes off to play SSF2T*
(Oh, and I thought I’d check out UFC.com - but it’s the homepage for “User Friendly Consulting” — an overly nice IT solutions company… if ever there was a time for corporate internet bullying … it’s now…)
