4 of 5

Write now Article Tools

I'm a gamer. I'm also an avid MMA watcher. As both a gamer and an MMA fanatic I think I can speak for all MMA gamers when I say that we have been waiting for a good mixed martial arts gaming experience.....and that we are still waiting.

There are quite a few MMA simulations on the market today that focus on the fighting aspect of the sport but not the complete sport itself. In other words, I can punch a man in the face but I am unable to negotiate my fighter's contract. This lack of realism has hurt the recent crop of MMA games. Grey Dog Software, with their latest sports simulation World of Mixed Martial Arts, hopes to deliver the realism MMA fans crave. Does the game deliver? Not really, although it does have some positives.

WMMA's first glaring weakness is its lack of licensed MMA superstars. This would not necessarily be a bad thing if you could create your favorite mixed martial artists but no such option exists. You are given a multitude of pre-made warriors, both male and female, but they just don't have the personality of real fighters. While the combatants are beautifully depicted with three-dimensional artwork on par with the characters from any major fighting game franchises they lack the "it" factor that makes a gamer care for a character. Each character is assigned a fighting style but you would not know it. Why?

You never actually see a fight occur.

That's right, folks this is a fighting simulation with no actual fighting. Not only are you unable to participate in any fights but you're not even able to watch the event unfold. The only graphics that have any involvement in gameplay are the fighter pictures and the navigation menus. Grey Dog's wrestling simulation Wrestling Spirits found a way to implement a fighting system into the gameplay so one could actually compete in the matches. That same technology should have been added to WMMA because what is a fight sport without an actual fight? For the nearly forty dollar price tag one would expect a little more.

While the menus are very detailed they are not as easy to navigate as they could have been. Menus lead to screens with more menus and the function of everything is never fully explained. I was able to figure out the mechanics but it ended up being very time-consuming. This game should have had a built-in tutorial of some nature; the fact that it did not is inexcusable.

All of that said there are some positives here. The gameplay does allow you to feel like the C.E.O. of a MMA company. You make all the decisions, from locations to hiring talent. In that aspect it does everything a management simulation should do and offer to the gamer.

World of Mixed Martial Arts is not a bad simulator but IS a bad MMA simulator. Without any actual fights this fighter KO's itself.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Learn more about this author, Pharoah Bolding.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Online video game reviews: World of Mixed Martial Arts?
We want to hear your view. Write now!