Ultimate Fighting Championship : Web Wombat: Games

Crave's UFC is one of the newest fighting installments on the PS2. Based on a real fighting tournament (American of course) this game contains many real-to life-fighters to choose from.

If you ask me though - and technically you are - it's a sorry sight to see that there are any to choose from at all...

For a fighting game, UFC is very versatile with many different options, game modes, and fighting techniques. However, it just isn't fun.

I love simulation games, and that is exactly what UFC is. However, it is just about the only fighting 'simulator' that I think there is on the PS2, apart from Kengo, where you at least get samurai swords.

And I think there's a good reason for it: Real people submit or get knocked out too easily. All it takes is a well-placed move, and the fight is over...

You can dislocate a shoulder or elbow here and there, and the blood effects coming from the gashes above their eyes are gruesomely good, but there are no flaming uppercuts, no fireballs, not even a charge power-punch.

Sure these moves come from arcade style fighters, but perhaps it's the fantasy that people look for. To be able to do impossible moves like throwing fireballs, and to charge up one's 'Ki' to perform a deathblow - this is what we look for in a fighting game. To put it simply, UFC is just too plain.

Sure is a happy-go-lucky game, this one!!

However, there is an upside. There are many different moves to be mastered, which span across eight different fighting styles, so there is variation between fighters - they're not simply thugs in a bar fight.

As mentioned before, there are several different game modes to choose from, which in hand give the game some credit:

Arcade Fight your way up a ladder of ten opponents, and unlock new moves.

UFC Mode Another ten opponents, but this mode is set out like your typical fighting game mode with flashy entrances. More moves to unlock.

Tournament Create your own tournament choosing eight contesters all of which can be controlled by different people or the CPU. There can be up to eight players in this mode, so bring out the multi-taps! Great for multiplayer.

Exhibition A single match between two combatants. Human or CPU vs. Human or CPU.

Training Select a player from the list and practice their moves.

Career In this mode, you create a fighter of your own to train in one of the eight following martial arts: Jiu-Jitsu, Pit-Fighting, Wrestling, Sumo, Submission Fighting, Pro-Wrestling and Kickboxing.

Gimme a big hug - now doesn't that feel better?!

Career mode is UFC's savior. Without it, not only would the game be too plain, but also a very poor rip off of every single 3D fighting game ever made, but without the gravity-defying moves.

It takes absolutely ages to create a half decent fighter, though if you're impressed by the game, you will get joy from leveling up your character.

The graphics are fairly good: I would have expected more as it seems that the game lacks in other areas, but hey - not every game's a star.

The motion-capture in both throwing and wearing punches (and kicks) is quite good, and adds quite a lot of merit to the game.

Sound effects consist of incredibly loud 'thump's', 'thwop's' and 'smack's'. All that one would expect from such a game. I was considerably disappointed when there was no bone crunching noise when I clearly broke some poor man's leg, though. Sigh...

The other side to the sound effects is the really bad rock music/noise. But, once you get past that, you can almost enjoy the game. Almost...

All in all, this game was potentially a good idea. The first step down a long dark road was defiantly using a pathetic excuse of American entertainment as the game's structure.

Though it is a one-of-a-kind as far as fighting games go, the main features are pretty much a copy of 'leveling up' type games. If you enjoy wrestling or generally like to beat the crap out of digital people, then this would be worth a cursory glance.

Game: Ultimate Fighting Championship
System: PS2
Players: 1-2
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Crave
Distributor: UbiSoft

Rating: 60%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Ultimate Fighting Championship is on the shelves now.

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