The Ultimate Fighting Championship is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, having changed its ways from a freakish side show to a serious mixed martial arts competition. With growing popularity comes video game tie-ins, and although the UFC has already been down this path a few times (most notably with 2000’s Ultimate Fighting Championship for the Dreamcast), it’s time for a fresh take on the sport, so THQ has teamed up with WWE Smackdown developer Yuke’s to deliver UFC 2009 Undisputed. Although it has a steep learning curve, UFC 2009 Undisputed is just about the best mixed martial arts video game you could ask for.

Upon starting UFC 2009 Undisputed, the first thing you’re going to want to do is run through the tutorial, otherwise you will be completely destroyed in the Octagon regardless of whether your opponent is AI or human. Mixed martial arts is a complicated sport, and UFC 2009 Undisputed does an excellent job of capturing that complexity, so you need to learn the various offensive and defensive positions, blocks and counters before you start fighting. Without the right moves in your arsenal, you’ll become quickly frustrated at your inability to escape grapples and ‘ground and pound’ scenarios, and the game will seem pretty sucky.

Matches in UFC 2009 Undisputed consist of two fighters battling in an eight-sided steel cage called the Octagon. Fights can be won by decision (at the end of three rounds in a normal match, five in a title fight), submission, knockout, and technical knockout. Each fighter in the game has two fighting styles – one for standing combat (boxing, kickboxing or Muay Thai) and one for ground combat (Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Judo or wrestling). Each fighting style has its respective advantages and disadvantages, but the basic controls and concepts working behind each style are much the same.

Standing combat is reasonably straightforward. Players have a face button mapped to each limb, similar to the Tekken games, but arguably more complex when you factor in the range of attack modifiers. A standard button press results in a regular strength mid level attack; hold forward and it becomes a strong attack, the left trigger makes it a low attack and the left bumper makes it a high attack. Attacks also can vary based on distance and movement; if you’re in close, a high punch attack will become an elbow, but if you’re in probing range (and of the appropriate level), the same move will be a Superman punch.

It gets even more complex when you start to add combos, counters and grapples to the equation. Throwing punches in bunches and mixing up your attacks is the best way to get the upper hand in a fight, but if you settle into a pattern, you’re going to get countered. Counters come in two forms; counter grapples, which put you into a standing grappling position, or counter attacks, usually resulting from a player dodging your attack and answering with one of his own. They’re simple but effective manoeuvres; a strong, well timed counter blow will more often than not result in a knockdown or a flash knockout. Keep your guard up and pick your attacks well and you will succeed.

No matter how good you are on your feet, at some stage the fight is going to be taken to the ground. Ground takedowns are the best way to gain the upper hand in the fight; you can go for the straight up tackle style takedown, or use a standing grapple to trip or throw the opponent to the ground. On the ground, you can either be in the attacking or defensive position. As the attacker, you can pound on your opponent (usually resulting in a quick stoppage) or move in for the submission. The defender’s role is to block attacks and attempt to transition out of the ground grapple, either to simply get back up on their feet or gain the advantage. Transitions are probably the most vital part of your arsenal; spend an hour or two getting used to the system and learning how to transition out of and into every position. If you don’t have a solid knowledge of transitions, most opponents, be they AI or human, will simply whisk you into the open guard defence position and end the fight with five punches or less. UFC 2009 Undisputed is really unforgiving to newcomers, but if you take the time to learn the basics, you will have a lot of fun.

Over 70 UFC competitors are featured in the game, spread over four weight divisions (lightweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight – some fighters can switch between weight classes). Most of the big name UFC guys are here; former WWE champion Brock Lesnar, current UFC interim heavyweight champ Frank Mir, The Iceman Chuck Lidell, Tito Ortiz, Georges St-Pierre, Matt Hughes, Sean Sherk and so on. More fighters will be available in the future via downloadable content. While Yuke’s has managed to capture even the tiniest of details site as tattoos, scars and such, they don’t have the capacity for southpaw fighters to fight in their natural style – in other words, all fighters are right handed.

Players are also able to create their own fighters – a necessity in the career mode. The career mode puts you in the shoes of a UFC rookie, where you must build your career over the next 7 years with the eventual goal of entering the UFC Hall of Fame. You get your choice of three opponents, using the time between fights to spar and train to build your skills and attributes. Winning fights and working promotional events gains cred, which is key to gaining better training partners and being offered better fights. Your career has to be planned pretty carefully – with my first fighter, I flew through the first seven fights, only to be too weak to be able to match the fighters in the top 10 effectively. The second time around, I took on the lowest ranked opponents available and maximised my training time, making the career progress a lot smoother. It’s just like every other aspect of the game; you need to take the time to learn the ropes, because if you rush in, you’ll get beaten down quickly.

Career mode is pretty big time sink, and there’s a classic fights mode that lets players relive some of the most memorable moments in UFC history (though most of these fights seem to end in decision), but the real attraction for most fans will come in the online mode. Online play works much the same as the rest of the game, so you’re going to want to have a solid grip on things first – if you can dominate the transitions in the ground game, you’re going to do well. The ranked side of things is quite interesting – rather than just competing for belts or experience, you also build a fan following (based on the performance in the match), and have a set of objectives to complete each week. It’s best to try and find matches closer to home; my experience with players from the US was a little laggy, and as you’d expect, a lag spike at the wrong time can usually result in an easy victory. It’d be nice if in future games, Yuke’s developed a better system for punishing players who quit after losing a match, but before the game calculates the win.

Yuke’s has packed a lot of detail into UFC Undisputed 2009; the player models look fantastic, and they’ve captured the spectacle and presentation style of UFC Fight Night and the pay per views really well. Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan do a great job of providing commentary too. They’ve let everyone down on the animation front though – fighters move quite robotically, some moves seem really stiff, and the reactions to some blows seem to be oversold.

As a first year effort, UFC 2009 Undisputed is fantastic, capturing the vital essence of mixed martial arts competition and supplanting it into an engrossing video game. The game has a steep learning curve, but players are well rewarded after coming to terms with the basics. There are a few issues to be worked out for the future; stiff animation, a lack of southpaw fighters and an online system plagued by quitters are unfortunate stains on an otherwise fantastic package. UFC 2009 Undisputed is a must for fight fans.