Review – UFC Undisputed 3

Another year, another UFC iteration.

The thing about annual franchises, FIFA, Rugby, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed etc, they all seem to reach a plateau of general playability and simply refine each passing year. This model yields two noteworthy results...

1. Each Game, UFC Undisputed 3 included, is actually very, very good

2. You’ll NEED to be a pre-existing fan to get anything substantial from the experience.

Undisputed 3 (not to be confused with Isaac Florentine’s 2010 prison brawler) actually reminded me of the last WWE SmackDown game I ever played. It may have been called Here Comes the Bring It, or something to that effect.

As such, Undisputed 3 features a large roster of scantily clad combatants, extensive, and often hilarious commentary from El Guapo Bas Rutten, an in-depth career mode that focuses more on stat based mini-games than actual fighting and a high level of polish for arenas, character models, entrance music etc.



It also sports an intimidating combat system. Any five minute round of MMA can see swift jabs, snapping kicks, thunderous uppercuts, nasty clinches, kimura armbars, takedowns, position shifts, guard blocks and a sizeable amount of ground and/or pound.

It’s the kind of system that demands a daunting 30-50 minute tutorial of the layman gamer. Like any franchise though, long-term UFC fans will be slapping on rear naked chokes in seconds!

Despite the combat depth and tactical choice at your disposal, Undisputed 3 silky controls mimic what you’d expect from a particularly well known Capcom fighter. And daunting as it is to compete with an AI that knows its guillotine from its triangle choke, getting the hang of combat is intuitive enough.

Just attack the openings, which is both easier (and cleaner) than it sounds! When an opponent goes high, you go low. Or lower. Or lowest. Or simply dump them on the mat and try to break their legs.

The quantity of unclothed male flesh on display be damned! Undisputed 3 (painfully irresponsive tutorials notwithstanding) is a blast to play, with intricate combos and ambitious takedowns becoming second nature after but a few exhibition matches.



Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine, sparkles and spinning heel kicks. Though not the most graphically staggering fighter on the market, Undisputed 3’s loading screens are a kick in the teeth! It wouldn’t seem such an arduous wait if they were filled with tips and techniques or even drilled the basics of the unfathomable entity which is MMA into your noggin.

However with only the gaudy UFC logo on screen for minutes at a time, an inability to skip certain repetitive sections and sluggish menu response, navigating between bouts is like having your elbow slowly hyper-extended against another man’s crotch.*

But the truth is, if you’ve already decided to skip this title, it’ll have precious little to do with my criticism of load times. In fact, it won’t have anything to do with Undisputed 3’s quality whatsoever.
It’ll be because you simply don’t have enough of an interest in MMA.

And in all fairness, that not Yuke’s or THQ’s fault, now is it?


*An exaggeration.