From
the creators of the original Ultimate Fighting Championship on the Dreamcast
comes Pride FC, the first title based on the Pride FC mixed martial-arts
tournament, which is extremely popular in Japan and gaining momentum stateside
as well. For the most part, Pride plays exactly like the many Ultimate Fighting
Championship games released across consoles, which isn’t at all a bad thing.
The game provides a very deep and realistic interpretation of mixed martial arts
fighting.
For
those unfamiliar with similar games like UFC, Pride FC is not your typical
fighter. The game requires a great deal more strategy than most
button-mashers. You pick from a huge cast of fighters, each subscribing to a
certain martial arts discipline, like Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing or Karate. In order
to defeat your opponent you must either knock them out or by getting them into a
submission hold and forcing them to tap out. Often times its not enough to
charge an opponent with everything you’ve got and try to pummel the crap out of
them. You must use reversals, holds and blocks to defeat a challenger and even
if one person seems to be winning, the tides can turn in an instant with one
move.
The
game has several different modes of gameplay, but they’re fairly
run-of-the-mill. There’s the Grand Prix mode, which is a tournament, the One
Match, which is an exhibition match, and Survival mode, which is an Endurance
match. There is also a Create-A-Fighter mode that allows you to do just that.
You can change your fighter’s various attributes, such as height, weight,
fighting style and specialties. However, the Sparring mode from UFC (which
allowed you to fight matches and build up your character by winning, sort of
like experience points) is gone, making the Create-A-Fighter mode pretty
uninteresting. Overall, the single player experience is pretty short and
plain. The two-player mode is quite a bit more fun. New folks will typically
lose to seasoned pros fairly quickly, but two people who are familiar with the
gameplay will duke it out for quite a while and have a great time.
The
games graphics are fairly good, but not great. The characters have nice details,
such as facial hair, tattoos and weird hairstyles. However, overall the player
models look a bit artificial, and they don’t look different enough from each
other. They are pretty well animated though, and their movements seldom look
jittery and out of place.
The
environments are limited to the ring in which you fight, but it is nicely
detailed with various logos. The audience could have been done better, as they
look like they’ve been cut out of cardboard. The blood effects are cool, and
certainly not for the squeamish. Blood will fall on the mat in little droplets
that will stay for the entire match, and it will also spray on the camera after
a well-placed hit.
The
sound effects work for the game. The soundtrack consists of various rock songs
and fanfares, akin to many wrestling games. The punching sounds a bit strange,
like dropping a slab of prime rib on a concrete floor. The announcer voices are
accurately done in both Japanese and English and sound nice, but the referee’s
voice has a muted and tinny quality to it.
While
its definitely not Mortal Kombat, Pride FC’s realistic depiction of violence is
certainly not for everyone. Also, the game’s single player modes aren’t as
developed as they should be. However, anyone who is looking for a deep,
engaging fighting game to play with a friend would do good to check out Pride
FC.
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Gameplay: 8.0
The fighting
engine in Pride FC is very deep. Each character has a unique set of holds,
reversals and submissions, so fighting with each of them is a notably different
experience. However, the single player modes are pretty sparse, making the
single player experience very short and uninspired.
Graphics: 8.5
The fighters
sport some nice detail, but their overall appearance is just too shiny and
artificial. The animations are very smooth and fluid, though.
Sound: 8.0
The music,
composed of rock anthems and fanfares, is appropriate for a game of this type.
The announcer voices (in both Japanese and English) are quite good, but the
ref’s voice has a weird tinny quality to it and the punches sound a little
strange.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 7.5
This game doesn’t
do anything that UFC hasn’t already done, but that’s not really a bad thing.
Multiplayer: 8.9
The game’s
two-player mode makes up for the thin single-player mode. After getting a keen
grasp on the gameplay mechanics, two seasoned pros can have hours of fun
pummeling each other into submission.
Overall: 8.0
Pride FC offers
up a very deep, engaging fighting game, although the single player experience
leaves much to be desired. However, the two-player mode is a great time.
Anyone looking for a meticulously technical fighting game to play with his or
her friends and doesn’t mind realistic violence should check Pride FC out.
