Ultimate Fighting Championship: Throwdown

"An Excellent Game That Does The UFC Justice"

I bought this game looking for some top class brawling action, IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. I owned the first game on playstation and had played it on the Sega Dreamcast and it deserved an 8/10, This game is infinitely better in every possible way. That means better graphics, better gameplay and better sound.

The Characters

There are 28 playable characters from the start and a few extra ones for you to unlock. That means all the greats such as Frank Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Mark Coleman and even the aging Dan Severn ( Formally in WWF/E ). All characters have different styles and these styles are very important to the gameplay. 10/10

The Graphics

Absolutely stunning, the bodies never pass through each other and never pass through the octagon either. Lighting affects are brilliant and you can actually see sweat running down their bodies! These are the best character models and all around graphics on the ps2. The menu is nothing special and reminds me of the early street fighter. I can not make out the crowd and to be perfectly honest you won't notice because you are trying so hard to win the fight. The developers seem to have put a lot of time, energy and detail into the character graphics and it really shows. 10/10

The Sound

Bone crunching sounds feature in this top class game. When you punch somebody there is a realistically painful sound. If you put somebody in a submission you can hear their arm crack. However there is a letdown to the sound and that is that the competitor entrances. The entrances themselves are average but most if not all competitors come down to the ring with the same music playing. The music isn't that great either and sounds a bit generic. However you can easily skip the entrances and will probably end up doing so anyway. 9/10

The Controls

I will start this section by saying that the controls are the same as on the first game. For those who have not played the game here is a brief run-down of the controls.

The controls will be hard to learn and hard to get used to, but when you do i am sure you will find them excellent. For punches you can just press one of the 4 main buttons. But if you want to become an Ultimate Fighter you will need to learn takedowns and submissions, these moves consist of pressing 2 buttons at once. For Example press x and square to take your competitor to the floor then press x and o to apply a submission. As i said earlier they are quite difficult to get to grips with but when you do they will become second nature. 9/10

The Gameplay

To put it simply the gameplay on this game is incredible and as in depth as a game could be. There are many positions you can find yourself in and many moves and counter attacks for each position.

You can choose in the options the round time and the number of rounds. Also you can choose the difficult which makes this game ever more accessible and in depth. As i mentioned earlier each fighter has a different style and abilities and it makes a huge difference. For Example if you choose a kick boxer you would want to stand and brawl with your opponent but if you're a wrestler you will want to take them down and out manoeuvre them. This makes the gameplay one of a kind and i can not think of anything to improve on it. 10/10

My Overall Opinion

If i haven't already made it painfully obvious i love this game and if i had to choose 5 ps2 games to keep this would definitely be one of them. If after you have read this you are still wondering, rent or buy? Then you can just be safe in the knowledge that if I could put my hand through your computer and slap you I would.

OVERALL RATING 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/02, Updated 09/17/02