I love UFC. Hell, I love WWE. I don't know why, or what about it specifically, I think it's just the spectacle of it all. With WWE I love that it's such a production, grown men in these dramas with lines of dialogue, and characters and just the theatrics of it all.
I think I like UFC because it's secretly what people want the WWE to be, actual fighting.
More to the point, I love the UFC games.
Why? Well, I've always been a fan of fighting games, but until the UFC games came around we were limited to our choices.
Yeah, I know, all you fighting fans out there are typing me a list that says.
-Street Fighter
- Virtua Fighter
- Tekken
- Mortal Kombat
- Rumble Roses
- DOA
- MVC
and the rest. Here's the problem, they're all arcade fighters. You pick a character, learn his moveset, learn his combos and bam, you're awesome at it. Everyone has a special fighter they like, and they play that fighter. Button mashing whether it's at a specific moment or just an out and out smash fest.
The UFC games, and the WWE games even, require a bit more.... I dunno, thought? You have a stamina bar, you can get injured. Hell, the old UFC games (of which there are many), you could get kicked in the head in the first few seconds and be knocked out. Something about the randomness and yet the science behind it makes it work though. Same idea with Fight Night, it's not just a button masher, since that would destroy your character faster than regular fighting would.
So, UFC 2010 is the vastly improved version of UFC 2009, which was the first next-gen creation of MMA fighting. The original UFC was an extremely solid fighter alone. You picked a fighter and each one had a focus of kickboxing, wrestling, muy thai, boxing, judo, and the rest. Then you went against different people in your weightclass, with different fighting styles. Depending on the fighting style you'd have to fight differently.
Essentially it's all left punch, right punch, left kick, right kick, but you can change the height of those blows, as well as the intensity so you end up with a huge range of possibilities. I spent one entire fight low kicking my opponents right leg. Was at it for a good 6 minutes. Finally he took me to the ground, and I twisted my way to his leg and put a lock on it, he tapped within seconds. It's that sort of science that goes into it that makes this game much more than some button masher.
Fighting against someone who likes to box? Better use your kicks and takedowns whenever you can, otherwise dodge and weave away from him. The game allows you to think critically about what your doing, and how your fighter should move in his situation, and they do it quite well.
Graphics: do people even mention these on the next-gen systems anymore? It looks great. Done.
Sound and music: solid as ever. they spend tons and tons of money on these games to get the sounds right, and they do their job right.
Career mode. Aha, I think I might have you there sir. Career modes are the strongpoint of wrestling games, and they really really really (see: really) want to be the strong point of UFC games too. Unfortunately the point system is very rpg heavy. Spent your last 3 weeks of training on cardio work? Well, your character better have high stamina points to allow him to last longer, or higher speed points to keep him moving during the fight, since he'll be tired from all the cardio workouts.
Too detailed? Nah, people out there like that kinda stuff, and from what I hear it's had a complete overhaul for the better.
As for myself, I like to make a character look like a cirque performer, give him the name Balzak and send him on his way.
Should you buy this game? Maybe. I'd say rent it first and play the hell out of it. It's going to stay on my shelf for a while simply because I enjoy ability to have an intelligent fighting game once and a while, beyond that... well... you'll need to be a huge UFC fan. Oh you are? Buy this game.
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