Crave scores a knockout. When you think "fighting game," you usually think of spinning hurricane kicks, earthquake punches and fireballs (amid loud shouts of "Hidoeken!"). Twelve–year–old girls in skirts usually stand a good chance of knocking out hulking behemoth opponents. In short, fighting games have always been a blast but never a genre to be called realistic. Crave Entertainment has changed all that with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Modeled closely after the pay–per–view event, UFC is the first fighting game to offer genuinely lifelike fights, with a graphics style and control schemes that reflect the gritty reality of a no–holds–barred cage fight.
The UFC was started in the early 90s as a martial arts competition to answer the age–old question of, which martial art was the most effective in a real fighting situation? With a bare minimum of safety rules, competitors fought to the point of knockout or submission (where a fighter surrenders with a tapout). The lesson of the early events: Size doesn’t necessarily matter, and technique is better than strength. The first champion of the UFC was its smallest competitor, Brazilian jiu–jitsu stylist Royce Gracie, who terrorized his opposition with a dizzying array of groundfighting techniques. Over time, a hybrid style of martial art developed; today’s toughest fighters command a blend of standup striking arts and grappling systems.
Crave’s fantastic game captures the entire spectrum of no–holds–barred competition in exact and thrilling detail. It features 24 fighters modeled after real competitors, each featuring his actual complement of skills. You also have the option of creating a fighter using a mix of 32 different martial arts. Want to concentrate on standup KO’s? Specialize in Thai kickboxing. Want to bring your opponent to the ground and restrain him while you clobber him with punches? Wrestling is your game. Want to make audiences gasp by beating opponents as you lie calmly on your back? Then check out the slippery wizardry of Brazilian jiu–jitsu. There are thousands of possible moves and combinations, but the logical flow of techniques and counters makes the fight very easy to control. If you’re grappling and someone goes for an armlock, you’ll have to defend it and reverse the situation, or else you’ll be tapping out in agonized defeat. Just as with real fights, it’s never over ’till it’s over — sometimes you can turn a dire situation (like having an opponent on your back) into sudden victory (by reaching down and hyperextending his knee). The ebb and flow of ground grappling makes for something like a brutal chess match. One fighter makes a move, and it opens up new angles for defense, counterattack or submission.
The graphics are absolutely fantastic, with the most realistic human models of any fighting game ever. The competitors are ripped but definitely human; they move with gracefully captured motion and their grappling techniques are all smooth transitions. The details of the event, the cage, referee Big John McCarthy and the ring girls are all rendered with broadcast–style accuracy, right down to the fonts used for the tail of the tape. You can play in training mode, exhibition, or a tournament mode that lets you enter into an eight–man UFC championship tourney and a Road to the Championship mode in which your fighter enters as a newcomer and has to earn a nod for the title shot. As you win, you earn skill points, which you can then spend on improved attributes and new techniques (when my jiu–jitsu fighter earned enough points to incorporate the stunning triangle choke, it was a happy day indeed).
UFC is a nearly flawless fighting game — four–player mode would have been a nice touch, although it would have detracted from the realism.. Even if you’ve never had any interest in the underground sport of full–contact fighting, it’s an innovative game that gives you the closest thing to a real fight that you can have without stepping into a steel cage. Easily the most realistic, and definitely one of the most fun, fighting games to ever come along.
"Finally, a truly superb ’genuine’ and ’realistic’ fighting game, but this one happens to be only for Dreamcast gamers. Our sympathies to those who do not possess this machine!"
