Pride FC

"I must give this game a Mongolian Chop"

GRAPHICS:

The game shines here. The fighters like look their real life counterparts. Their is blocky photographers at ringside and a paper crowd, but the fighters are just awesome. The stage set is also nice with the elevator lift that Pride uses at their events. The game includes the ''crappy pants'' walk to ring that was seen in Anchor's RAW game which apparently they have gotten rid of for RAW 2.

SOUND:

While the game includes introductions from the real Japanese Pride ring announcer as well as the familiar voice that introduces the fighters in English, the game doesn't include the real fighters music. Although, I wasn't expecting this do to Pride fighters using music from movies like Rocky to Speed to popular bands, its just not the same watching Sakuraba come to the ring without the Speed 2 TK Remix. The crowd is a bit weak too, while they are good during the fight, the crowd noise is very weak during introductions. They don't clap to fighters themes or really cheer them that much. The game does have some good original themes made for the fighters, which is more than I can say for the original themes in THQ's WWE games.

GAMEPLAY:

This in my opinion, is the reason that Pride is no different from any other MMA game. Why can't these companies do these games, right? If there is one thing I hate, its watching my fighter put someone in an armbar and seeing my opponent tap out in a second. I've never seen Don Frye tap out and i'm sure if he has, the move wasn't applied for one second before big Don tapped. Maybe this might change on difficultly levels, but i'm sure even the player who likes to play the game on easy doesn't want to see a tapout five seconds into the fight. I have only seen one company do this right...Spike. The creators of Fire Pro Wrestling and King of Colosseum. Both Fire Pro Wrestling D and the new King of Colosseums have ''shoot style'' which is basically MMA. They have the various mounts, punches and submission holds. The thing is in King of Colosseum and FPD you might have to keep trying a submission because either your opponent blocks the submission attempt or your opponent will just not give up. In King of Colosseum, you can't just lock on a submission hold and win in five seconds, you have to hit your opponent and work for the submission, something I didn't see while playing Pride.

Another problem I have with the game is its arcade style. For some reason, either since YUKES jumped on THQ's ship they love the arcade style. For a company thats working on their second pro-wrestling game, Anchor sure made the wrestling moves look weird in this. Ok, maybe they were going for the Bob Sapp beast-like powerbomb but whats with the stiff hurracanrana with the ''Wwwooooshhhh'' wind sound? The arcade style is something I really don't like, I guess I was looking for King of Colosseum simulation style gameplay rather then the SmackDown quick fight. The game is quite easy to control. You can hit combos and take your opponent down with ease.

MODES

Another disappointment. Much like Anchor's RAW, this seemed like a quick release(even though it was anything but) then a full game. You have exhibition, training, create a fighter, survival, and grand prix. Before each fight you get a nice production package of the fighter. Something interesting in create a fighter is that you can pick a mask to wear to the ring. Unless I missed it, its a shame Sakuraba doesn't have his orange Super Strong Machine ripoff mask or his Vader mask. In fact..Sakuraba doesn't have any pro wrestling special gear! I know the commentators aren't allowed to mention Pro-Wrestling on Pay Per View, but this game does with its moves and even includes pro-wrestling as a style. So why can't we have Sakuraba with his SSM mask, Great Muta mask and blowing mist, or Vader mask? Anyway, back to modes.. Survival is your one fighter as he runs the gauntlet as another each fighter in the game. Grand Prix is a tournament for the belt. This game is missing a career mode. They should have had something like where you train in gym and finally make it to various Pride events, like in Victorious Boxers or the Vale Tudo trial mode in King of Colosseum Red where you train in a Pancrase gym to make it to special BLADE (Pride rip off) shows. Anchor might make the excuse that this is just a ''demo'' for the next game like they did for RAW, but it makes them look bad for not putting their full heart into the first game.

OVERALL

While it is better than those half assed UFC games, Pride still has some problems that companies who make MMA games need to get fixed. There still has yet to be a deep MMA game with a good career mode and submissions. Something Anchor needs to look into.
7/10

RENT OR BUY

Was it really worth the long long long wait? Not really..the game will be fun for awhile, but can quickly got boring with no real point in going for the Grand Prix. Where's Bas Rutten? Or The professor as a secret character for that matter? They must get Bob Sapp for the next game.
Rent

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/03, Updated 03/08/03