UFC 2009 Undisputed (Xbox 360)

However the somewhat innovative approach to the training mode does have some positive spots, in your typical combat sport game any “sparring” option on your training window is nothing more then the chance to practice with your character in a zero threat of losing environment. In UFC Undisputed sparring actually serves a much larger purpose. Your overall performance in the sparring session is graded and you're awarded points to distribute around your characters various skills. The skills in question aren't your typical power, speed and endurance as with some similar games,they go into your characters actual skills in the various and many aspects of the MMA offensive and defensive game. The afore mentioned factors of speed, strength and endurance are also in there as well to be developed but these are simply improved by assigning them into your training routine rather then forcing you to play and re-play any kind of tedious mini game, this means no more frikin' virtual rope skipping. Yay!

Tying to this a pretty quick and somewhat robust character creation system the career mode is pretty much anything you could want with a few notable exceptions, chief amongst them is the lack of any option to move up or down a weight class in the game. Once you've picked your fighting weight you're stuck there and will have to compete only with the people of that division until the end of your career. Added to that is the slightly odd lack of ageing mechanic for the fighters, it's a fine idea in the sense of keeping every fighter at their prime fighting age meaning you don't have to worry about your fighter becoming slower, weaker and maybe a little fatter as the game moves along. Also this ensures that the other fighters in the game are just aged shells of the fighter they were in their prime but your little fighting nubie was too new to the sport to hope to battle them in their prime. However this can be an irritation for people who want their career mode to be as fully realistic as possible and while it would probably be a minor one, the fact that every fighter has an ageing painting in their attic is odd enough to be noticed.

So UFC Undisputed is what could be considered to be a very, very fine game at it's core but it's nice to see that there are many other little features to work towards. You have the exhibition mode where you can choose from a vast number of current and past UFC fighters and battle it out in the Octagon, once again we hit the problem of the fighters being locked into their weight classes and while some fighters may have different versions of themselves in two weight classes you can't giggle with joy and create a BJ Penn Vs Brock Lesnar encounter. Also noticeably missing are well known UFC stars Randy Couture and Clay Guida. Couture's absence was due to contract problems with UFC at the time and Guida's omission is apparently due to, well, his fine long mane of of un-tameable hair proved to be impossible for the game engine to imitate, so they just dropped the guy entirely. A shame but the game is open to DLC at a later time, more arenas and fighters would seem to be something to look for in the future.

Also another fine feature are the classic fights where you are treated to a video package from former UFC ring girl and current...erm...pretty UFC speaking girl Rachelle Leah and then are treated to the hype videos for the fights in question. The real delight here is that the game encourages you to end the fight in the same way the actual fight ended, so if the fight finished with an arm bar in the second round the game rewards you for repeating this with an exciting little montage of the fight for your viewing pleasure.

Overall UFC Undisputed 2009 is as close to a complete package as you could hope for. The use of the Havoc engine is used as perfectly as you could hope and there's a real sense the game is made for people who have a love of the sport by people who also have a deep appreciation for the sport, it holds complexity while still managing to be fun along with it and while it may not be all that interesting for someone who doesn't care for the sport, if you're a fan of MMA and the UFC at large there's no real reason to not recommend this very fine title.