Mixed Martial Arts has been around for quite a while, but it took the forming of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the mid 90's for it to become popular. Over the last 5 or so years, it has exploded into the mainstream, raking in big money from pay-per-view and has become arguably more popular and legitimate than Boxing.
Capitalising on the UFC success, 2 proper UFC backed titles have been recently produced and received widespread acclaim, largely due to being the "official" and only decent MMA game. This has now spawned a few knock offs, who i feel might be trying to cash in, but never the less there is a new Genre of fighting games emerging.
I have put together a few previews of upcoming MMA inspired titles below.
EA Sports MMA
Release Date: October 21, 2010 Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Tiburon
Easily the most well known upcoming MMA game and has a lot of potential, having been in development shortly after Undisputed 09's success. If you've played Fight Night, it will follow a similar structure with you training a fighter in mini games and traveling the world to learn new moves and techniques for each style or discipline.
If you've been following this game you would know how it came to be, with Dana White (UFC President) approached EA originally to produce a UFC title. He is quoted as saying "EA Sports told us, 'You're not a real sport. We wouldn't touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this... We go out there and do this thing, and it's successful, and now ******* EA Sports wants to do a video game."
That spurred the a follow up quote from Dana White again, "If you do business with EA, you won't be in the UFC". As a result EAS:MMA has 60 real world fighters, and are lacking some huge names from the sport, but the gameplay should be good and the graphics are top notch.
Release Date: TBA 2010 Publisher: 505 Games Developer: Kung Fu Factory
At first glance, Supremacy MMA might not look too appealing, not being supported by any notable MMA franchises or having any real world fighters. However because of this, they are allowed some no hold's bared stuff that the bigger companies wont go near.
It's set to have an underground feel and players will be able to dislocate and break arms, legs and necks via punches, kicks and submissions, along with beating people to a pulp. The visuals for Supremacy are average, but if they get the controls and moves down properly this should be a brutal, bloody and hopefully quality title.
Release Date: January 1, 2011 Publisher: THQ Developer: THQ
Ok, so stick with me, but UFC is making an exercise game for the motion sensitive Xbox Kinect. It is backed by the UFC and will feature all licensed fighters and trainers. However i cant see any UFC fans taking this too serious, UFC is a contact sport and dancing in front of your T.V. cannot replicate that experience.
I cant help but think these type of games are a gimmick with Wii started the trend, so now PS3 (Move) and Xbox (Kinect) have followed. There are now a heap of other motion sensor training games for almost every activity you can think of including dancing, NFL, Biggest Loser, Zumba, tennis and Boxing.
Danny Bilson (THQ Executive) said "We want this thing tuned to perfection without lag. I'm not going to ship it until it's the coolest fighting thing in the world." Right, so that means it aint ever coming out.
There is little info on the next Undisputed installment, but we do they are going to be released annually. I was a little disappointed with the progression of 10' in some areas, although they improved the gameplay and control, the graphics and actions were too similar to warrant a purchase from myself and the game did sell worse than expected.
Will be interesting if Undisputed like its name can remain the Undisputed MMA game with so many other titles coming out over the next 6 months. I would think so, especially with support from UFC the sport getting bigger all the time.
Release Date: November 2010 Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: MA Studios
Fighters uncaged will be a launch title for the new Xbox Kinect. It looks like MMA inspired moves in a street fight environment, in a similar style to early Kimbo Slice and Felony Fight video's. It's different to the training games, and will be a fighter like comparable to Wii sports boxing i would assume.
Although its for Kinect, its not meant to be like the other "family" games and according to developers it will fit the mould of brutal and tactical combat associated with MMA. However, I've read a few reviews and its been described as tired, sloppy and unpolished and struggling to pick up movements, like many other motion games.
Haha, ok so not exactly MMA, but it does technically include mixed martial arts and i recently watched the movies from the 90's... **** they havnt aged well. Saying that MK was a friggen awesome game, and the new installment appears to be going back to the classic roots that made MK so popular in the past.
Its set to follow the generic arcade fighter template, but offer all the favourites with 26 classic fighters. Each of whom will have their own unique moves, stances, characteristics and 2 gruesome fatalities which apparently never play out the same.
Anyway, thats a wrap up of all the MMA games on the horizon, post your thoughts and comments below, thanks. If anyone says nice find, ill send shieldsy over to yours for a MMA demonstration for your throat.
looks good bro, mma is definatly the premier fight scene now, as it has been for a couple of years now, i think with button mashers its going to be hard to beat the THQ UFC series as they have really done well with there control system, kinect tho is extremely interesting and i cannot wait to see this in action
all mma games will be similar... as its mma, just like all soccer games, all motoX games... Kinect is going to be a a huge selling point for these new titles, but which game will use it the best
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