fighting

I have 3 friends who actually compete in the UFC, one is featured in the game.

I loved the dreamcast version, spent several hours a day playing it when I was laid off from work. Just my luck, this Xbox version comes out right after I got laid off again.

It's not quite as good as the dreamcast version, less features, for instance, no career mode. The arcade feature of the game is a blast and allows you to unlock extra characters, such as Ice-T a couple of chicks and this guy "Mask" who kicks mucho... The regualr UFC mode is exactly the same as the dreamcast version.

Graphics are good, not great. It's just a little better graphicswise than the dreamcast version. The sound is horrible but the action in the game makes up for it since you wont have much time to listen to the guys grunt. It's very playable with a large learning curve. They really [messed] up not including a tutorial for it. I've pretty much got the game whooped right now only because the moves and such are just like the dreamcast version.

If you like fighting games, they dont get much better than this. If you like the UFC this is a must have.

Being a big fan of NHB fighting, with many Pride, KOTC, IFC, Battlecade etc. DVD's, I looked forward to this game with great anticipation, but was sadly dissapointed. The graphics that were highly rated in previews, seem pretty average compared to those of DoA3, but the camera angles are done well, and do not intefere with controlling the fighters (as in the terrible charachter control of Silent Hill 2).

My main gripes are :-

1) lack of a training option - this would have made the game much more fun to learn and play
2) A useless manual that gives very brief and bad instructions on moves and strikes.
3) lack of "retry" option - in exhibition matches after EVERY bout, you are returned to the menu, and must reselect your fighter. Come on guys, just a quick retry option would save having to wait so long between every bout.
4) The fight intros look nice to start with but quickly get boring when they all look the same. They can be bypassed with a couple of clicks, but once again slows the game and deters from the action. More variety would have kept this interesting.
5) The game was advertised as being "bloody", but even with the gore turned up to maximum, I have yet to see anything except a few splashes of blood on the canvas. What happened to the bruises and cuts people were expecting.
6) A lot of moves seem missing or very difficult to perform. Still not seen a headbutt or elbows, sidemount or half-guard, and even knees are very difficult to use (once again a good manual would have helped).
7) So far low leg strikes seem to be far too effective, and can end most fights very quickly. How realistic is this, remember the one and half hours it took Sakuraba to use this taking out Gracie?
8) It is very difficult to keep the bout going for long. It is true that real fights can end quickly, but backing away from a clinch is far too slow and difficult to perform, which means slowing down or "holding" to catch your breath as in most real bouts is almost impossible.
9) No demo mode - the game intro of real fight footage just starts playing again. If there was a reasonable demo, or even better random AI fights, this would at least allow players to see what moves are possible in the game.

Without the detailed instructions on moves, it almost turns into a random keyboard basher (ala DoA3 - but al least that game describes the moves for each key combination). Trying to find out what is possible becomes very frustrating, and because there is no training option, this has to be done against a live opponent, who'll submit or beat ...[you up] before you can test what a key combiantion actually does. People will say "there is the moves option on the menu", but this just tells you which keys can be pressed in each situation, it doesn't tell you what they do!

I know they are trying to make money, but at [this amount of money] per game, I do not think it is too much to ask for the full instructions with the game. Oh well, have ordered the Strategy Guide, and hope that the game gets better with it.

Great game. The graphics and gameplay are amazing. I would like to be able to adjust the damage so that multiplayer matches would last longer or to handicap better players, to make for more exciting matches. The control setup seems a little awkward in comparison to other fighting and wrestling games, but they're relatively simple, and can be mastered quickly. Overall this is an outstanding game.