E3 2007 wasn’t too long ago, and there were a LOT of big names that showed up. Aside from the Halo 3’s and the Metal Gear Solid’s making an appearance, one game that really piqued my interest was a new old game from THQ. They were the previous developers of UFC: Tapout and UFC: Tapout 2, the first receiving very admirable reviews, while the second receiving less-than-desirable reviews for not pushing the envelope and keeping gameplay generally the same as its predecessor. They promptly stopped the series and left the niche-crowd (including myself) at a loss. But, low and behold, with the rising success of UFC and mixed-martial-arts in general, they’ve revived the title from the grave, and the trailer looks great!
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21750.html
The big question for me is, can this be the next Fight Night? That may seem like a very optimistic question, seeing as how Fight Night is one of EA’s best-selling games, is one of my favorite games, and not to mention, is developed by *the* largest gaming company in the world. Having said that, the UFC 2009 trailer left me with a Fight-Night’ish taste in my mouth, and that’s a good thing. The character movements were smooth, the fighters looked great, and they even had the face deformations that made Fight Night so realistic! Also, UFC has been dominating the Pay-Per-View grounds where boxing events once reigned. Alright. So the graphics are great, the industry has momentum, but there are two other big factors that will come into play that we won’t yet know about until the game’s release…gameplay and depth.
Gameplay can easily and obviously make or break the game. When I say gameplay, I mean how does the controller *control* the fighter? In previous titles in the series, it was the standard controls for any game…thumbsticks move and look, buttons punch and kick. But what we’ve learned from Fight Night is the thumbsticks can be used in much more realistic and entertaining ways…left-thumbstick left hand, right-thumbstick right hand. Now imagine THQ taking some of EA’s vision and applying it to UFC 2009. Left-thumbstick left-hand, right-thumbstick right hand, trigger-left-thumbstick left foot, trigger-right-thumbstick, right foot! This opens up a whole new can of worms for fight simulation games, but I don’t know if THQ has the experience or a developer-pool deep enough to implement this, at least not for it’s first release back.
The second factor is depth. For any fans out there, mixed-martial-arts is far from simple. I am a big enthusiast and have been following the sport for a long time, and I am STILL learning the moves. Put simply, if they make the game too deep and technical, the average joe-schmoe watches-ufc-for-fun player won’t enjoy the game. Almost a little like popping in Madden for the first time…it’s intimidating and almost not enjoyable for the first little while. But on the flip-side, if they make the game too simple, they will lose interest from the target-audience, i.e. the UFC and fight-fans out there.
In short, when I think if UFC 2009 can be the next Fight Night, I think no…not YET. But, I think that the series CAN be…possibly after a few more title releases :)
*Update: It looks like Cage Potato has found some info on the release date for the game! According to this post, we can expect to hear an official release announcement at UFC 84 slated for May 24th, 2008. Yeesh, if this is right, then we probably won't get our hands on the game until at least the end of the year, or beginning of next year :s
Charles
