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For starters, the demo of EA MMA features four fighters from two different weight classes, as Bobby Lashley and Alistair Overeem represents the heavyweight division, while Jake Shields and Jason Miller represent the middleweight division. To answer a potential future question, you cannot do open weight fights in this game, so heavyweight fighters fight heavyweight fighters and so forth.
Game play wise, there is a huge difference between what EA MMA is presenting and what the already established UFC Undisputed presents. While both UFC Undisputed games featured a more realistic version of MMA, EA MMA delivers a more “arcade-like†version of an MMA game. While this may make the game easier to play for novice gamers, experienced gamers could find this to be a turn off.
However, one thing that EA MMA does effectively is let the player see how much impact each individual strike has, especially the punches. For example, when I was playing as Alistair Overeem against Bobby Lashley, I caught Bobby Lashley with a six punch combination, when I finally put Bobby Lashley on all fours, I hit him with a diving punch and it looked like I knocked him into next week.
While takedowns are pretty simple to execute, I feel the biggest problem players will have with this game is the submission system. For those not in the know, UFC Undisputed 2010 uses a system that has you twirl the joystick in a circular position to secure a submission. In EA MMA, you have to use the joystick to find the hotspot in the circle, which allows you to apply the submission, which can be very difficult.
One thing that EA MMA does the blows out UFC Undisputed 2010 is fighter entrances, which is something that can help EA MMA shine. In EA MMA, the fighters not only gets his full entrance, but entrance music and fireworks as he heads towards the cage. Which is the exact opposite of UFC Undisputed 2010, which simply features fighter introductions by Bruce Buffer.
There are two different controls that a player can use in EA MMA, one is the Total Control System and the other is basic controls. The basic controls closely resemble what UFC Undisputed 2010 uses for its control scheme, with very little differences. The Total Control System is similar to what EA Sports did with the Fight Night series, with the joysticks being used for striking instead of the face buttons.
As far as EA MMA pre-orders go, there are three very interesting offers being made via Gamestop, Wal-Mart and Best Buy. First off, Wal-Mart offers those who pre-order a downloadable fighters in Frank Shamrock, while Best Buy offers referee John McCarthy as a downloadable fighter and Gamestop offers Herschel Walker as a downloadable fighter.
Overall, the EA MMA demo was enjoyable to play, but it will truly be interesting to see how the final product compares to the UFC Undisputed video game series.
You can also pre-order the game at the PWInsider Amazon Store for $59.99 for both the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
