Reviewed: August 19, 2002
Reviewed by: Scott Shirhall

Publisher
Crave Entertainment

Developer
Crave Entertainment

Released: June 6, 2002
Genre: Fighting
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

6
8
5
7
6.5

Supported Features:

On November 12, 1993 combat sports were changed forever as the Ultimate Fighting Championship made its debut. For years people argued over who would win if a boxer fought a wrestler or if a kung-fu stylist fought a karate practitioner. The UFC let people see for themselves as fighters from boxing, wrestling, sumo, kickboxing, kung-fu, karate, shoot-fighting and other styles competed against each other in an enclosure known as the Octagon.

In other words, tough guys from every known combat sport step in to an octagon shaped fence and beat the living daylights out of each other. Violent? Yes. Entertaining? Damn right. Nothing like a good legalized street fight to let out some aggression. That is where Crave Entertainment’s UFC Throwdown comes in.

Crave Entertainment has made it possible for you to play with 25 of the toughest men in the sports world. All of the biggest names in the sport like Tito Ortiz, Jens Pulver, Pat Miletich, Frank Shamrock and Dan Severn to name a few are in the game. There is plenty of variety when choosing your favorite athlete or fighting style.

The UFC game series for me began in 2000 when I purchased the Dreamcast version of this title. That game was pretty good and so is UFC Throwdown. I say "pretty good" because it seems like the complaints I had then I still have today. Not that the complaints are major, but there are still improvements that can be made.

Now that some of you are up to speed, we’ll break down the game.

UFC Throwdown is quite simply a fighting game. If you are looking for some crazy Tekken stuff you’ve come to the wrong place. UFC is just regular guys, with deadly fighting skills, beating each other up. When you start up the game you will see this in the countless replays of knockouts from UFC film footage. There is no elaborate story line with this title. Simply, you just fight.

In order to unlock extra fighters and gain special moves you need to fight in UFC Mode. When you win five fights in a row you are awarded a silver belt and the fighter is then eligible to fight in an open weight limit tournament. If you can then take this fighter through five fights against randomly selected fighters that could be from any weight class you are awarded a gold belt. Any time you win a tournament or belt you will gain either new moves or a secret player.

Although there are differing modes there is only one way to fight. The modes offer very little variety and all seem about the same after a while. Basically you use the four shape buttons in differing combinations to punch, kick, grab and generally maim your opponent. The front buttons are not used for anything, which is a limiting factor in what you can do. Some of the combinations are a little hard to pull off and would be much easier if the front buttons were incorporated.

Probably the biggest problem with UFC Throwdown is the fact that each match lasts, on average, a minute or less. It is very hard to develop a strategy for a fight when either you KO your opponent or he breaks your arm only seconds into the match. A good fix for this would be to have special KO moves as opposed to just wearing down your opponent. I can’t recall many times when I have watched an UFC match and saw a fighter go down on the canvas after getting punched in the ribs. There needs to be a way that you must pull off a devastating head shot before your opponent is rendered unconscious.

The special submission moves are set up perfectly, as it is hard to pull one off unless you have worn your opponent down. The KO works really well when your opponent is down on the mat and you are pounding away at his face. With the right fighter a good ground attack will devastate your opponent.

The Tournament Mode is a lot of fun when you have a room full of players. You can set up your tournament with up to eight players that are either controlled by humans or the PS2. Each tournament is set up in a single elimination bracket and you fight until one of the competitors is victorious. Even with a roomful of people we only ran through three tournaments before we decided we had had enough.

Probably the most frustrating aspect of UFC Throwdown is the Career Mode. When you enter Career Mode you can create a fighter and supposedly train him and build him up so he can compete in the UFC. I do stress supposedly. I was very unsuccessful at this task. I created my fighter and was ready to begin his UFC career. Then I had to get him some moves. You are started with a limited number of skill points that you can spend to earn various new attributes and moves. The problem is that before you earn anything your fighter is awful. When you try to earn points you get beaten severely and end up having to spend more points. Yes, I am sure that if you become very familiar with the game before attempting Career Mode you would probably be more successful but, I always want to start building things myself so I jump right in. I suggest you don’t do it.

I wish there was more to say about the gameplay but there is not. If you can rapidly press buttons and twirl the joystick you pretty much have all of the skills needed for UFC. Crave really needs to find a way to make the matches last longer. Better defense and earning a special knockout move by fighting well, instead of just wearing your opponent down, would make this an excellent title. As it stands now the gameplay is holding back what could be a great realistic fighting game in line with games like Knockout Kings.

Here’s where one of the problems come in. Ring announcer Bruce Buffer appears to be like an actor in an old-time dubbed karate movie. Rarely does his mouth movement synch to what is being said. This is rather annoying and will often cause you to press the X button to skip the animation sequence. These synching problems continue when the referee starts the fight.

The graphics during the fight are excellent except for the lack of blood. How a man can get repeatedly bashed in the face and not show any bruising and bleeding are beyond me. When you do beat an opponent seriously enough to finally see blood it seems to come from out of nowhere. I want to see what damage was done when the fighters are brought to the center of the octagon for the final decision. A little bruising or cuts on the faces of the combatants would go a long way to project the brutality of the UFC.

Even with these little glitches the overall quality of the graphics is good. The FMV and animation sequences are beautifully done with incredible detail. There is rarely a place where you see straight lines and the animation is very fluid. Even the strikes and blows are animated well and you can feel the damage being inflicted.

The lighting in UFC Throwdown is excellent. This is one of the few titles I own where I don’t have to turn up the brightness on my TV to get all of the details. Aesthetically, UFC Throwdown is a winner.

The crowd noise is, in a word, unusual. Sometimes it sounds like there are thousands of screaming fans and other times it sounds like one guy is watching by himself. Some consistency would help tremendously.

The worst part of the sound category is the announcing and refereeing. Listening to Bruce Buffer taking five minutes to introduce each fighter while trying to sound like his brother is very annoying. Message to Bruce, you are not Michael and you never will be so just be yourself. To go along with this are the synching problems I mentioned before. If you are not irritated by the long drawn out introductions then the fact that Bruce is talking while nothing is being said is sure to bother you. As for the refereeing, I have only one, HUGE, complaint. John McCarthy the longtime UFC referee must not have lent his catchphrase to the development of this game. Oh, how I long to hear the words: Are you ready? Are you ready? LET’S GET IT ON! It says “Let’s get it on” on the screen so why does the man not say it? We may never know.

The only savior of the sound category is the actual fight sounds. The punches landing and joints breaking will have you cringing. Since the fighting is supposed to be the focus of the game I guess this is where Crave spent their money. Too bad the fights only last 30 seconds and the rest of the sounds go on forever.