Although the striking game is immensely fun, almost instantly rewarding and will appeal to most players, it’ll take a lot longer to consider yourself a master of submission. Above the lowest difficulty, you’ll need to pretty much max out your submission skills in order to actually render them effective, as we have still only managed to force one computer opponent to tap out. This is hugely unfair, as once you’re on the ground there is a major disadvantage, as your opponent often seamlessly extends your arm and forces the submission win with you having the defensive strength of a drunken chimp. For the average player, it seems the only time submission attacks will come in handy is when you step into the online octagon, where you can physically out strength (or rather, out tap) your opponent into conceding defeat.

For many, the online arena is where the main competition will be. Undisputed’s career mode shows itself to be the proving ground where you build up your created character’s various attributes, and the multiplayer is where you utilise them. It’s extremely competitive, with every fight rewarding or taking away points depending on how you perform, which means you need to be on your guard at all times. Players are ranked through levels, with a dominant win contributing the most to storming through the various ranks and into the higher numbers. Starting off at level one, once you’ve got a few victories under your belt it’s interesting to see how other players react to you, as we received many messages congratulating us on our previously successful efforts over them. It seems the UFC community is a respectful and equally menacing one, as you battle to convert hypothetical fans to join in with your cause to be the best in the world. At times, we experienced a fair amount of lag against human opponents, which means the skill of the game is lost, forcing you to try and land devastating strikes on a foe that cannot read your next move due to a stuttering connection. Hopefully these creases will be ironed out in the coming months, as when it works properly, Undisputed’s online shenanigans are truly explosive.

With that said, there is a fair amount of content for the offline enthusiast to complete. Yuke’s has included a classic fights section where you can recreate bouts between the superstars of the UFC in the hope of unlocking the real footage. Just like WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, you’ll need to finish the match as it finished in real-life, often with a knockout or some kind of submission. There’s a huge roster full of fan favourites from past and present, which means there should be a fighter for everyone to get to grips with if they don’t fancy creating their own. Customisation options are heavily limited, with most online fighters looking eerily similar, and with the same logos on their shorts (albeit in a different order). We would have liked to have seen more options here, and are gasping for the opportunity to put our faces in the game via the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Still, for UFC fans, there is enough here to cover most bases, with hopefully some downloadable extras coming soon.

After a few days spent learning the complexities of UFC 2009 Undisputed, you have to applaud Yuke’s for their efforts. Their product mimics the technical wizardry and explosive brute force of newly crowned light heavy weight champion Lyoto Machida, who majestically knocked out Rashad Evans this past week in Las Vegas to clinch the belt. Allowing us to recreate those moments with such detail deserves recognition, as Undisputed’s brilliance forces us to wonder how the publishers will now resurrect the faltering WWE game franchise, which sits miles behind the UFC’s 2009 effort. An excellent first stab at recreating the drama of the octagon on the current generation.

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