UFC 2009: Undisputed Review (X360)

Career mode is the real meat of the single-player component, and it is extremely well done. You create a fighter, select a weight class, and choose what stand up and ground fighting styles you want to use. You start out as a super low-level fighter and have to train to get better. You have several weeks between fights, and you can select one thing to do each week. You can train your strength, speed, or cardio. You can spar with a partner in order to earn points you can apply to your standing strikes, takedown defense, submissions, or a bunch of other things. You can invite another fighter to come in to train you on your stand up or ground work, which eventually will open up new moves for you to use. You can take part in autograph signings or promotional events to earn cred, which opens up new sponsors and training equipment. Or, you can rest. Rest is all-important because everything you do (other than PR stuff) takes energy and you have to balance training with rest so you are fresh for your fight. It is a well thought out overall process and the risks and rewards for training vs. resting are tested pretty much every fight.

The career mode overall is just plain cool. As you train and get better, you really feel a difference in how your fighter performs. All of the training might sound boring, but it really pays off because you’ll see results right away. It is rewarding and satisfying to train up a fighter who fights exactly how you want them to. The career mode will keep you busy for a long, long time.

There are a few weaknesses in the features and modes list, however. The create-a-fighter doesn’t offer a ton of appearance options, so you won’t be able to make someone that looks exactly how you want. Also, you can’t change weight classes in career, so if you want the achievement for winning each of the UFC belts you have to play through the career several times. This isn’t a huge complaint, but it would have been nice to be able to face new challengers with your fighter because by the end of your career you will have fought the same people over and over and over again. Also, your fighter doesn’t ever age in career, which is just silly.

There were a couple of missed opportunities here as well. It would have been awesome if The Ultimate Fighter reality show could have been implemented in career. Between training and building rivalries (randomly generate a “cast” of fighters, then when you fight them again in your career it would have been a big deal) it would have added a lot. Also, I know I can’t be the only one thinking this but I would have liked to have seen the real “Do you wanna be a fighter?” speech from Dana White. The game is “T” rated so they couldn’t add in an F-bomb laced rant, but it sure would have made it feel even more authentic.

One final complaint is that there isn’t a ton of stuff to do. Once you go through the classic fights and win the belt in career, the only thing left is multiplayer. There should have been an arcade mode or something where you pick a fighter and then go through 7-10 fights in a row like in other fighting games.

Graphically, UFC 2009: Undisputed is a great looking game. The fighters all look very close to their real life counterparts and the animation is smooth and surprisingly realistic. The damage model is also very good and features some pretty gruesome deep cuts. On fight night, the game looks and sounds exactly like a real UFC event from the graphics and music during the “Tale of the Tape” stats to Bruce Buffer doing the intros, the UFC Octagon Girls walking around with round cards, and even real UFC refs like Herb Dean, Mario Yamasaki, and Steve Mazzagatti. Other things like Dana White putting the title belt around your waist when you win it career are little and unimportant but would have been sorely missed if they weren’t here.

The sound is very good overall. The same music you hear on UFC shows is all present and accounted for along with a few other licensed tracks that play on the menus. In career mode on the menus you hear fight commentary and interviews from real UFC events, which is pretty cool and some of the interviews are hilarious. During the fights, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg provide commentary and it is amazingly accurate and true to their real life styles. They even occasionally make mistakes calling moves and actually correct themselves. It is another little touch that was unnecessary, but makes the game 100% more real.

All in all, UFC 2009: Undisputed is the great UFC game fans have been waiting for. The presentation is spot-on and exactly like you see in a real UFC event. The gameplay and controls are complicated, but necessarily so in order to be as realistic as possible. And the overall feel of the game is that it was created with care and pride and Yuke’s really took their time to produce the best game possible instead of just rushing something out the door ASAP to cash in. There are a few areas where some improvements could be made (an arcade mode and better Ultimate Fighter integration next time, please) but overall UFC 2009: Undisputed is as close to perfect as we could have asked for. If you are a UFC fan, I highly recommend it for a purchase.