Review: UFC: Sudden Impact (PS2)

UFC: Sudden Impact
Platform: PS2
Rating: Teen
Developer: Opus
Publisher: Global Star Games

* Has anyone actually tried looking for this game? If so here is a sample of some of the responses that I got while looking for it that you will probably run across as well:

‘UFC: Sudden Imact? No such game exists, you must be thinking about the original Playstation game.’-EB Games

‘Sudden Impact? Oh yeah, that game came out but we don’t have any copies in stock.’-Gamecrazy

‘UFC? What’s that? Oh wait the boxing game? No I don’t think we have any games like that.’-a different EB Games.

I can go on and on like that with several other gamestores. At least Gamecrazy acknowledged that the game existed. I know these people are just doing their jobs and have to deal with dorks like me, but when I tell you I just saw the game at Blockbuster don’t tell me that it doesn’t exist. Also, don’t call it ‘just boxing’ in front of someone who is a UFC fan.

So after I gave up trying to find the game to buy it, I settled for renting the game from Blockbuster. Now I’m really glad that I did just that since Sudden Impact is basically just a small expansion to the last UFC game. Part of me just want to say screw it and just write see: UFC Throwdown under all the categories, but I owe y’all a little more than that.

Enough bitching, let’s get to the review


Story:

There is an actual story mode to the game! A really tacked on story mode, but there is one there. The story/career mode begins by having you create your own fighter. Don’t expect anywhere near the depth for creating your own guy like you might find in other games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater or Tiger Woods Golf. You can choose the face, hair, body type/height/weight, trunks and tattoos. When you first start out most of the trunks and tattoos will still be locked.

Once you’ve got your fighter created the story mode starts. What’ the story? You’re a street fighter and someone thinks you’ve got what it takes to get into UFC. However it will require you to train for three years in order to prove you’re ready”¦.and that’s it. The story mode is told through text boxes with head shots of the guy speaking; most of the dialogue once you begin training will just be instructions of what to do next and gameplay suggestions and hints.

The training is nearly the same as it was in UFC: Throwdown, in Sudden Impact you choose which dojo you want to train in with the option to change dojo’s between years of training. Once you’ve selected a dojo to train in you’ll have the option to either learn new moves (you start off knowing nothing but basic attacks) or to train and increase your stats in certain areas. If you chose to learn new moves you’ll have to do certain things to learn that move like strike an opponent 5 times or do 3 takedowns. If you do it correctly you’ll gain the move and earn attribute points. If you fail you still learn the move but don’t gain as many attribute points. This starts to get really repetitive as you play as many of the things you do to learn a new move will be the same things you’ve ton a couple times already. There will also be some random events that occur in the career mode that will sometimes give you more points depending on the outcome. This includes fights that you can’t participate in. That really pissed me off as you can watch the fight or participate in it, the game will just pop up with a text box saying ‘Hey you’re fighting tonight”¦.you won/lost’. Although once it was funny as I was training in the pro-wrestling dojo and they made my guy do the j-o-b for another fighter.

At the end of every year you’ll participate in a tournament to prove what you’ve learned that you can actually fight in. Once you finish the story mode you’re in UFC and the story mode ends. So yeah, no real story to speak of and a training mode that makes you do the same tasks over and over again.

3/10


Graphics:

I’d say they aren’t any better than UFC: Throwdown”¦.but I think the graphics for Sudden Impact are a little bit worse than that game. The faces just don’t seem to be as detailed. There is some facial damage this time, but it isn’t that well done, looks more like smeared make up than swelling/bruising. The animation for the entrances is STILL really horrible unless all the UFC fighters are doing the robot dance on the way to the octagon. The fighting is animated well at least. The blood is okay, and the replay effects at the end of matches are the same as in Throwdown.

3/10


Sound:

By far the worse aspect of this game. Other than the fighter introductions from Bruce Buffer the game is full of generic music, apathetic crowd reactions (if you can call it a reaction), miscellaneous grunts from the fighters, and the same crack noise for every submission move.

Almost all of it recycled from Throwdown as well.

2/10


Controls:

Ever play a UFC game before? Than this game will be easy to just pick up and play since it controls exactly like every other UFC game before it. The square and triangle buttons control punching, and the x and o buttons control kicking. Different fighters have different combos they can string together for attacks. Pressing certain buttons together (triangle and o or x and square) will perform takedown moves while standing and will have different effects depending on your fighters position.

The stand up fighting and the ground game are very different. While standing you’ll be looking for an opening to either take down the opponent or for their guard to be let down and throw in a couple of punches and kicks. On the ground much of the fight is trying to stay in the dominant position and be the one who is the mount position. Most submission moves happen on the ground, and like other UFC games and Pride game, once a submission is fully locked in the fight is over.

The controls are just fine. The only problem is that there’s nothing really different except for a couple of extra positions like a side mount and being able to mount an opponent against the cage. Like everything else, there’s just a ‘been there, done that’ feel.

7/10


Balance:

There are three difficulty levels, and the first two are too easy. Fights on those difficulty levels don’t last that long, and tend to be unbalanced if you are playing as a grappler since you opponent will generally tap to the first one or two submission attempts. The Hard difficulty is where I really had some fun with this game, you really have to watch out as the fight can end at any moment from just making the wrong decision. When the game is on Hard the balance swings the other way to favor the strikers a little more as you’ll have to fight to lock in a submission.

The computer AI is a bit disappointing since no matter who you face, from a grappler to a striker, most of the fighters you face will still fight the same way with very little difference between them even though they fight different styles.

6/10


Replayability:

There are a bunch of single player modes that are just a variety of different ways to fight several opponents in a row. The story mode gets repetitive quickly and the story never changes. Multiplayer picks this area up considerably, but depends on if you can get some other people together that like this sort of game. The biggest problem about the replayability is that playing this game already feels like you’re replaying Throwdown or any of the other UFC games out there.

4/10


Originality:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This game is just an expansion of Throwdown. The lack of originality is what really hurts this game, it’s stale.

1/10


Appeal:

Was there marketing for this game? I only knew of its existence from seeing the name on a list of release dates. Other than that I haven’t heard a thing about the game, not even from UFC’s official site.

I can really only see this appealing to fans of UFC and of the other UFC games who might’ve heard about the game on accident or saw it in Blockbuster.

2/10


Addictiveness:

If you are a fan of UFC and the other UFC games, than there is a chance that you might find this game addicting. Although if you’ve already played the other UFC titles out there, this game is not going to be much different than what is already available out there. At the same time, as a UFC fan and a fan of some of the other UFC game, I found myself playing the game quite a bit in the time I had checked it out because the Hard mode always keeps you on your toes. Not sure if I would’ve felt the same way if I had the game for another week however.

5/10


Miscellaneous:

There is plenty to unlock in the game, extra fighters, new modes, extra dojos, and tattoos and trunks for your created fighter. But is it really worth your time to do so?

6/10

Final Scores:

Story: 3/10
Graphics: 3/10
Sound: 2/10
Control: 7/10
Balance: 6/10
Replayability: 4/10
Originality: 1/10
Addictiveness: 5/10
Appeal: 2/10
Misc: 6/10

Overal: 39/100


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