One of my favorite sports, banned on most cable providers, is the martial arts competition known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a.k.a.,  the UFC.  The UFC is a forum where martial artists of all types can compete to prove that their discipline is superior.  UFC is 100% real, and unlike the corrupt boxing federations, is relatively pure.  While violent, there is a respect among the vast majority of competitors and the purpose of the fighting is to prove which tactics are superior, not to sacrifice a hapless fighter.

I had wondered how the designers at Crave were going to implement combat of this type into a game.  Matches in the real UFC can last for seconds, or as long as 20 minutes, including overtime periods.  The majority of real combat is fought on the ground, in the 'guard' position where the disadvantaged fighter does his best to protect himself and try and reverse the situation.  For a video game, UFC comes about as close to replicating that style of combat as I have ever seen.  First and foremost, you will need to fight on your feet, exchanging punches and kicks.  Defense is important here to, because you can quickly take a lot of damage if you are not careful.  Most fighters in the UFC are excellent strikers, but are masterful in their grappling skills.  The same holds true for this game.  I like to bring fighters down to the mat ASAP.  Once on the ground, in an advantaged position, you can deal out destructive blows to your opponent that will give you victory fairly quickly.  In addition, there are a bunch of submission moves you can attempt to end the match by tapout.  This can happen while in either advantaged or disadvantaged positions.

The beauty of this game is in its counter attacks.  As a good fighter, you can catch kicks and turn them into a power slam to get your opponent on the map.  You can reverse a situation where your fighter is getting hammered when on the ground by countering an attempted submission.  This results in a reversal, where your character assumes the advantaged position, giving you the upper hand in offense.  The learning curve of the game increase fairly fast, and within a few hours, you'll be countering your opponents moves instinctively.  Doing so will transform you from a fair fighter to a superb fighter.  Knowing when to block and how/when to counter is where all the fun is in this game.

The presentation of this game is awesome.  Fans of the UFC will instantly recognize many familiar characters the sport has.  "Big" John McCarthy, the ring referee and his famous "Let's get it on!" are duplicated flawlessly.  Ring announcer Bruce Buffer, former heavyweight champs like Mark Coleman and many of the more recent fighter like Frank Shamrock are in this game.  In total, there are over 22 fighters, each bringing different styles of fighting to the Octagon, some of which are Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Submission Fighting, Kickboxing, and many more.  There is an intro video in the beginning of the game that features the Megadeth song "Crush' Em" that seems to flow with the action nicely.  Recreating the UFC tournament is very well done also.  Each character comes from the backroom to the Octagon, while the audience (you) sees the "Tale of the Tape", showing the strengths of each fighter.  Overall, very well recreation of the UFC and it's environment.

Combat itself is played out somewhat uniquely, but closest resembling that of the game Tekken.  Punch buttons (left and right) on the top, kicks on the bottom, combinations of these performing counters and grapples.  While fighting on the ground, the combinations will come in to play more, allowing you to win, reverse, or if timed wrong, lose the game quickly.  Unfortunately, the book that comes with the game really doesn't tell you how to fight.  You will have to get your face smashed a few times and learn the hard way in order to come up to speed.  Luckily, the learning curve is not too bad, so you'll be up to speed in no time.

Bottom line, this is one of the best Dreamcast game I have!  I personally have been getting sick of fighting games over the last couple years because most game companies dish out the same ol' crap with pretty graphics.  Crave gives fighting fanatics something new.  A new combat system that is very cool and has new tactics and strategies.  I would love to see a UFC 2 in the future, with more fighters, more grappling, and maybe modem play(?).  Great game!

reviewed by Todd Alexander

Ultimate Fighting Championship Video Footage
Encoded at 150kbps (size: 2.9MB) (time: 2:30)

Requires Real Video 8 player (basic player is free)