UFC Undisputed 2009 was hailed as the greatest mixed martial arts game ever to be made. However this wasn’t much of a compliment as MMA games on a whole had been a tragic affair at best so even an moderately good game would been seen as the coming of the messiah. That being said Undisputed 2009 was a solid and fun to play game. From the outset Undisputed developers THQ looked to turn their deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship into a “Madden like” franchise and set to push out a game annually. Due to the unfortunate reception of Undisputed 2010, THQ decided that maybe they weren’t ready to take the franchise to that level so quickly and decided to take a two year gap been Undisputed 2010 and Undisputed 3 to really deliver a much improved product.
While the game is months away from it’s January 2012 release date, the information that has been trickling out is promising to say the least. The biggest announcement so far has been the “Pride Mode”. Finally THQ is taking full advantage of Zuffa’s (The UFC’s parent company) 2007 purchase of the Japanese MMA promotion named Pride. In this mode users can play out their old school MMA fantasies under the Pride rules which allows soccer kicks, knee’s to a grounded opponent and much more. Also included in this feature are alternate versions of UFC fighters. For instance there will be two versions of Wanderlei Silva, one being the current UFC version and the other resembling his appearance and skill set during his days as the Pride middleweight champion.
Alongside the Pride mode is the inclusion of the featherweight and bantamweight divisions which were recently introduced into the UFC after the complete merger of WEC fighters into the UFC. So we can hope to see the likes of former champion Urijah Faber, current champion Dominick Cruz and much more.
There are also a vast number of game play improvements. From being able to cage walk to get back up to the stand up position to sickening leg breaks from a well timed kick check. There seems to be a huge dose of new animations, new positions and all in all a plethora of tweaks to make this game stand up above the rest while keeping the original feel that made the game so popular. Overall UFC Undisputed 3 on paper looks to be a phenomenal upgrade to the franchise and should have hardcore fans of mixed martial arts foaming at the mouths.