Mixed Martial Arts has been exploding as of late, but the video game offerings for MMA haven’t. Now EA Sports is jumping into the cage with EA Sports MMA. The UFC might reign supreme on TV, but even with it’s lesser known fighters EA Sports MMA is an amazing game in many aspects, from it’s intuitive gameplay to the amazing visuals.
When EA Sports decided to start making an MMA game, they wanted to break out of the USA and capture MMA worldwide. Unlike the competition which keeps you stuck in one cage, EA MMA takes you around the world and finds you not only fighting outside the cage in rings in other countries, but also puts you in other MMA leagues where the rules are much more brutal. Gamers will be able to fight it out in 6 leagues spanning 4 countries and have to abide by 4 different rule sets. This global nature of the game is one of the areas EA MMA shines, if you want a more structured fight you can go with a Strikeforce rules set, which is 3 five minute rounds, and no elbows, kicks, knees or stomps to the head of a grounded opponent. Or if you want more brutal and challenging action you can jump into a Vale Tudo match, which is a 1 round 20 minute fight, where elbows, knees, kicks, and stomps to grounded fighters are allowed. Vale Tudo matches are brutal and bloody, and a ton of fun.
Controls are another area where EA MMA excels. Gamers can use either classic buttons or the Fight Night inspired Total Punch Control. I’ve been one for classic buttons in the Fight Night games, but I must say the Total Punch Control system in MMA is not only simple but really effective. Using various flicks and motions of the right stick will dictate your fighters punches and kicks. Flicks of the stick equal jabs, and rotating can in directions can be hooks, back hands, or when used with a modifier can be numerous other devastating attacks. To make the controls even easier to understand, kicking uses the same thumb stick motions just with the addition of left trigger.
MMA isn’t all about the standing game, it’s also about the ground game. And getting to the ground and fighting on the ground is again intuitive and challenging. To takedown an opponent all you need to do is press A, then pressing A once on the ground will advance your position. The thumb stick remains your various punches and kicks while on the ground, and if you want to lock in a submission all you need to do is press X. If you’re not the attacker in these situations you’ll be using B to block takedowns and your opponents advances, as well as the thumb stick to lands strikes. But being on defense isn’t just simple pressing buttons, it’s all about timing. When your opponent begins to make an advance your controller will vibrate and that is the cue to try to block the advance. What’s really neat is depending on how quick you are to try the block dictates what happens on screen, so you won’t be seeing the same blocks and counters all the time.
Submissions are another area where the team set out to create system that is unique and actually requires skill and strategy. Locking in or defending a submission launches one of two mini-games, for arm.leg locks, you will be pressing either X(attacker) or B(defender). But press to fast and you’ll run your stamina down. Once a submission is started you’ll get a nice x-ray view of the arm or leg, and to lock it in and finish off your opponent you will need to fill the meter on the x-rayed bone, if it empties they get free. Button mashing is not the key! The other submission mini-game is for chokes, once the choke starts the camera will zoom in and a ring will appear on screen. Each player will then move the right stick around trying to find a moving sweet spot, keep finding that spot enough and the camera will tighten and you’ll start putting the fighter in the hold to sleep. Both of these new systems really make submissions fun and requires you to learn and practice the system.
EA Sports MMA has a handful of game modes, both online and offline. Quickplay lets you set-up any match type with any fighters and jump right into the action. Created fighters are integrated into all of the fighter selection screens so no mater how you play your created fighter is at your disposal easily. Most of your solo playtime will be spent in Career mode. You begin by creating your fighter, from his look to his tattoos and shorts. EA’s Gameface technology is available for you to download or shoot your own face pictures to use on the fighter. Gameface has come a long way since it was introduced, though not all the changes have been very good. While the head shape and structure works real well, unlike Fight Night which textures the face with game skin, MMA textures with your image. So in my case my goatee is part of the picture and just looks horrible when flatly laid on the fighters face. Yes I can overlay game rendered facial hair, but if someone has facial hair more then the game covers it’s gonna look funky.
As a new fighter you start out at the bottom. Bas Rutten will be your guide through your career as you travel the world. Once you start winning matches and completing Rutten’s training you’ll start unlocking other gyms and trainers from around the world. At these other gyms you’ll be able to learn special moves and also complete more advance training which will help you increase your skills quicker. I really like how the training system works in MMA, once you complete a training you have the option of simulating that training in the future or doing it again to raises your grade for the training. This makes training much quicker and less tedious, however it’s real easy to get an A grade on the trainings the first time. I found that beating the special move trainings the hardest and some requiring multiple attempts.
As you move up the rankings you’l face harder opponents, and have the chance to fight for the leagues belts. Once you win the belt you then are given a choice of another league to move to. While the career offers up some choices I felt it is pretty linear. You’ll basically be holding every belt of every league you fought in at the end. There was no option allowing me to stay in the league and defend my belt. The only exception is once you win the Stirkeforce belt, you then defend that belt. I would have liked to see a requirement that once you win a belt you need to defend it once in awhile, so you can still change leagues, but there is still an attachment to your prior championships.
Once you get your fighter built up you can then take him online, or use one of the many fighters in the game. I’m quite impressed with the online structure, you can jump into quickplay matches in each weight class. Quickplay matches will increase your XP and standing online, once you reach the top you’ll be able to fight for online belts. Also there are online Prize fights, where you can win real fights. These are sponsored tournaments, where as you fight you earn points, those with the most points will fight for the prizes. This is a really nice mode and I hope they keep the stream of sponsors going for a while to keep the prize mode interesting.
The other online feature is Live Broadcast, this isn’t a mode you can jump into and play. As you play online and gain notoriety the team at EA will see you and offer you a spot in a Live Broadcast. These events are streamed Live through the game and internet and are commentated live to the world. It’s a great little feature that really bring the game to life and give average gamers a chance to show their skills and get a bit of time in the spotlight.
EA Sports MMA is a phenomenal game. The amount of detail that went into all aspects of the game is mind boggling and I feel the developers really captured the global nature of MMA. This game is visually stunning, the fighters just come to life on the screen with all the details, from moving muscles under the skin to the amazing blood mechanics. Blood doesn’t just appear and act in a pre-set way. Each fight I’ve seen has shown different damage, from small cuts, to large flowing cuts that lead to both fighters having blood smeared all over their bodies and even their shorts. Presentation is also a bit of a let down, you get a normal fighting HUD which shows health and round information. But there is no broadcast style presentation, Strikeforce is shown on TV on Showtime, why aren’t these fights getting that broadcast look? Look at other EA Sports Games like NCAA and even Fight Night that got great ESPN Broadcast graphics, and if they couldn’t make a deal with Showtime, then look at games like NBA 2k11 that created their own amazing broadcast presentation. The other presentation/gameplay issue is the loading at times, granted some of the matches last seconds, but the sheer amount of loading through out the game can get quite annoying. Beyond the presentation this game is just a visual masterpiece. Gameplay is solid and will be enjoyable by all levels of gamers. The controls work and are standardized, so they stay the same no matter what position your in. I would have liked to see some more added to the career mode to make it less linear. Yes you can build your fighters moves and skills however you like. But I would have liked to defend my belts, and not have to leave a league once I became champion, also getting a choice in who I fight would be nice as well.
While the game has a few minor mis-steps in career and the presentation departments, the rest of it is great and this is amazing first effort by the team at EA Sports. If you are a fan of MMA this is a game you should pick-up. All the details that went into the game will blow your mind, and the visuals will keep you playing for hours on end. EA Sports MMA has scored a major knockout on the competition and is sitting nicely at the top of MMA fighting games.
A copy of EA Sports MMA was provided to us for this review from Tiburon.
