Official UFC Website

Platform: Playstation

Genre: Fighting

Number of Players: 1 - 2

I've never been one that's too fascinated by the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It probably seems a bit strange, seeing as how I'm very much enthralled by the highly choreographed façade of professional wrestling, and there have even been UFC fighters as part of WWE's roster. Hey, I was never a fan of Ken Shamrock when he was wrestling, so why would I be a fan of him now. I know what it's all about, and it's not that I don't get it; I just haven't cared for it. That's not to say that I think it's something that's a complete waste of time, and you may have noticed that something such as the XFL never had a video game produced to back it up. No matter where you stand on the issue though, UFC has had quite a few games produced to further promote it and, I'm sure, increase the fan base. The latest of these is UFC: Sudden Impact.

Just in case you've never heard of the UFC, this is a sport (I guess) that pits trained martial artists against one another to see who is the best. It's a bit like taking the Toughman Contest, throwing in some boxing and some elements of Japan's K1, adding a bit of the WWE presentation, and then eliminating the rules. Originally, it was more of an underground event with most people only knowing about it from videotapes that were released. Having Ken Shamrock in the WWE helped out the status of the UFC quite a bit and introduced it to those that might not have otherwise heard of it. In fact, they even attempted to replicate some of it at pay-per-view events, something that the UFC enjoys these days. And, video games obviously help as well, in most cases at least (it never really worked for WCW, which was losing money as it was.)

Sudden Impact gives you a few different modes of play. I'm going to start off with the weakest of these and that's story mode. This is an attempt to replicate what THQ has been doing with the WWE franchise for a while now. You are the start of the story and you begin by creating your fighter. The choices here are very limited. You have control over the face, the type of trunks, tattoos, and the height and weight, which will determine what class you will fight in. Once that's been established you will being your career by being recruited right off the streets (apparently you are a tough street fighter.) You'll train in the gym and learn new moves before eventually hitting the octagon to prove how good you are.

This mode is very unimpressive. As I said, it tries to mimic the WWE create-a-wrestler mode, but isn't done well enough to make a dent in what those games have accomplished. There is far too much emphasis spent on training the character, and its very tedious and time consuming. Unless you are totally willing to commit to this mode, it's best in my opinion to just skip it all together.

The Arcade Mode and Champion Road are essentially the same things. You will select which fighter you want to play as and there are many fan favorite here such as Tito Ortiz, Tim Syliva, of course Ken Shamrock, and even Erica Montoya. Arcade Mode will have you just fight your way battle after battle until you are finally defeated. Weight class isn't going to matter here, and should you be successful, you will take on everyone that the UFC has to offer. Champion Road on the other hand will allow you to stay in your weight class and fight your way through five different fighters. Beating this mode will be the key to accessing different locked fighters. Tournament Mode on the other hand is more or less a free for all consisting of up to eight fighters. Think of it as being more or less a Battle Royal. Lastly, there is the usual verses mode, but you would expect that in any game of this nature so it comes as no real surprise.

The mechanics of the game play are fairly easy to pick up on, even for a first timer, but they are set up in a very familiar fashion. At first, it may seem to be just a button masher, and you certainly could play in that style, but there is a degree of thought that goes along with the game as well. You basic moves are punches and kicks, and these can be linked together in order to form combos. The one thing that I really like here is that you can literally beat your opponent in seconds if you time everything correctly. You can also lock your opponent in different grapple holds, allowing you to further beat them to submission. These are of course reversible, but you can gain quite an advantage this way, assuming of course you've already gained the upper hand. The animation is fairly fluid for the most part, though there are a couple of spots here and there that it seemed to lag a bit or not look quite as up to par as the rest, particularly in the entrance animations which come across as being very stiff at times.

On the opposite side of things though, Sudden Impact really doesn't do anything that's new or unique. With the occasional tendency for fights to be over as quickly as they began, you will find yourself either patting yourself on the back or crying foul at the game. For the most part though, we've seen all of this before in boxing titles, wrestling games, and even street fighting games. More or less, this is a game that is geared more towards the fans of UFC, and I don't see it as the type of game that's going to reel in those that have never seen the spectacle before.

But, let's close out with the fact that this is a game that can be found for around $20 brand new, and there's really nothing wrong with that. If you're looking for something that in some ways may be considered stress relief or to waste away the hours beating foes unmercifully in the octagon, this is going to be right up your alley. Personally, I could either take it or leave it. Hopefully, as more games are made for the franchise, more time will be spent on improving the create-a-fighter mode (hmmmm . . . there's that new hard drive out where content can be downloaded.) It's not that Sudden Impact is a horrible game, though it does have a few minor flaws that are forgivable, but it's just not a game that left too much of an impression on me.
 

-mike-