The world is filled with
a number of fighting championships. From mortal kombating to iron fist
tournaments, the late 80s and early 90s were all about stellar fighting games.
Sure, there were other titles released at the time, but for multiplayer action,
fighting games were the superior option. (Back then, online first-person
shooters didn’t exist, and consoles couldn’t produce split-screen gameplay for
four players.)
Fighting games aren’t
what they used to be, but Namco and Midway are still able to produce games that
sell two million (Deadly Alliance) and five million (Soul Calibur 2) worldwide.
Name alone couldn’t sell these games – Tekken 4 proved that. It was the quality
that DA and SC2 brought to gamers that made their appeal impossible to resist.
There is, however, one
thing that both of those games lack: realism. They’ve got realistic graphics
(to a point), but the gravity-defying moves are not possible in the real world.
The projectiles aren’t either, but that’s a whole other story. To me, the less
realistic aspects are a turn-on, not a turn-off, but some gamers don’t like that
over-the-top stuff. They’d rather have a fighting game that’s as true to the
sport as Madden is to football.
The only game available
to fulfill such a desire is Ultimate Fighting Championship: Sudden Impact. This
game is for the fighting purist, or for the UFC fan that just can’t get enough.
You can’t go into this game and expect to jump ten feet off the ground, kick
your opponent in the head, and watch him jump back several feet. That’s the
Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat kind of thing you won’t find here. Uppercuts
are present, but the impact is much less outrageous. That’s true of all the
moves in the game, both in form and in execution.
Sudden Impact includes 36
real UFC fighters. Disappointingly, that lineup sounds a little more impressive
than it actually is. You’ll enjoy being able to use your favorite UFC
contender, but if you’re like me you won’t be too happy about the lack of attack
variety.
Every fighter is equipped
with a similar collection of combos and attacks. Most of them are performed by
pressing one or two buttons. For the new guy, the person that’s never played a
fighting game before, this isn’t going to be a major issue. I don’t think it’ll
be an issue for wrestling fans either, since the game is slower and controls
more like a wrestling game than a typical fighter.
But if you know fighting
games, even just a little, you’re going to go into this game and wonder why
there isn’t more attack depth and variety.
That doesn’t mean the
game isn’t fun. I liked how the game incorporated the various grab moves, and
how you could pin an opponent to the ground and beat him till his meter
drained. It’s cool being able to reverse the moves and defeat an opponent
that’s pinned you to the ground, or forced you into another tricky situation.
Some gamers will use these opportunities to button-mash — and I’ve heard many
gamers say that a game isn’t fun if you can button-mash your way through it.
But to be honest I haven’t played a fighting game I couldn’t button-mash my way
through in more than 10 years. It’s the nature of the genre. Whenever you have
combos you create a risk for cheap gameplay tactics.
For fans dedicated to
their favorite athletes, there’s a [fictitious?] story mode. And for those of
you wanting more than 36 real-world fighters, there’s a mode that’ll let you
create your own butt-kicking fighter. Train him for three years and work your
way to becoming the Ultimate Fighting Champion. Obviously the years are not in
real-time, so you won’t really be training for 36 months.
Sudden Impact’s graphics
are much more impressive than the average $20 game. Face detail isn’t perfect
but it’s certainly impressive. Animations are fluid and appear to be pretty
realistic. The backgrounds are plain, but that’s an aspect of the sport that
can’t be changed without moving the fighters to a location that the UFC does not
use (like a bridge with a spike pit below – only MK can do that!).
UFC: Sudden Impact will
have a long-lasting impact on UFC fans. Will Soul Calibur junkies love it? If
my review didn’t already make that point clear, the answer is no. When Opus
Studio began developing Sudden Impact, I doubt they thought of Soul Calibur or
its fans. Sudden Impact is a different kind of game for a different audience.
It has more in common with wrestling games than fighters. That’s likely due to
the real-life fighters, many of which have a background in wrestling, or at the
very least choose to use grab moves in combat. At $19.99, this game is the
price of a DVD. UFC fans shouldn’t miss it.
Gameplay: 7
Two-button combos
and a lot of grappling moves make up the majority of the game.
Graphics: 7.9
It’s all about
the faces. I honestly couldn’t tell you if the bodies are in correct
proportion, but when you can recognize faces, you know the developers did things
right.
Sound: 6
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Two-button
combos? Come ‘on guys, this isn’t Virtua Fighter 1…
Concept: 7
Closer to the
real thing, with a few liberties taken here and there to keep the game from
losing its entertainment value.
Multiplayer: 7
For up to
two-players, offline only. The value of the multiplayer depends on how much you
value and your friends value the single-player gameplay. If you love playing
it, and your friends love playing it, you’ll have hours of fun playing it
together.
Overall: 7
Are ready? Okay
– let’s get it on! (Moving to the left, I show signs of evasiveness. I want my
opponent to think I’m on the move.) He takes the bait and lunges forward. His
attack is caught in my grab, and before you know, I’m taking him down. Tapout,
I’m the winner, yeah!!
UFC: Sudden Impact won’t
throw you into the ring to battle against the world’s greatest fighters, but it
is the closest you can get without actually being there. It’s a simpler
fighting game, but I think that the UFC followers will really get into it. The
cheap price doesn’t hurt either.
