Gaming Target - Xbox: UFC: Tapout 2

Written by Leigh Culpin on April 18, 2003

Full Review: Deja-VuЕ

TDK Mediactive has released the second UFC game for the Xbox, and though it's certainly a rather good game on it's own, there aren't really enough changes from the initial game to warrant buying this one.

For those unfamiliar with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) it's a bare-knuckle, more or less anything goes fighting tournament that takes place within an octagonal ring (dubbed УThe OctagonФ Ц go figure). The only way to win one of these competitions is to either force your opponent to tap out (thus the name) or actually knock him out. Whichever method you choose, you can bet you'll rarely (at best) get all the way through a whole round without KO'ing someone. The various competing fighters each have their own fighting styles, though these don't really have much impact on the actual gameplay. UFC is a highly technical game, with various fighting positions (based on either standing or ground-based poses) and the ability to block the various types of attacks. Each face button is mapped to a different limb, and pressing combinations of them will perform either grapple, submission or blocking moves. The game's controls are fairly easy to get used to and are also respectably responsive, enough so that you'll be able to start playing the game without a major learning curve within a few minutes.

Graphically UFC is a mixed bag of tricks Ц the crowds are fairly well done, and the character models have fairly well defined musculature, but the animations are stilted and the clipping can be a bit off, problematic when only two relevant characters exist at any one time. What little lip syncing there is isn't very well done, and the sounds to go with it generally aren't terribly hot, but they do still get the job done. Far and away the character models are the graphical highlights, especially considering that the menus are so 80's arcade style it hurts. The music accompanying the main menu sounds like it fits that time period as well, making Sega Genesis game soundtracks look good. The game's actual music is very much on the heavy metal side of things, but the game lets you use your own soundtracks if that's not your taste.

The game features various modes, but all center on you either challenging for the title or defending it. You can also create your own character to play as, and a fairly in-depth process has been created to accommodate this Ц you can compete in competitions and practice in between to Уlevel upФ your custom fighter which you can then use for the championship modes. Despite this, however, the single-player gameplay is somewhat linear, and the game's best qualities come into play in the two Цplayer mode.

Having played the first UFC, nothing really stands out in this incarnation of the series Ц the graphics are slightly better and a few more characters are available, but the game feels more like a patch for the old version rather than a completely new game. While even the concept holds it's own sub-category in the realm of fighting games, it's hard to understand where the time and money went into this game's development when comparing it to the original.