EA Sports MMA Gameplay Footage - Shinya Aoki vs. Nick Diaz

I’m not a huge gamer or anything but this looks awful.

Neither character fights enough like their real life counterpart. Where is Nick’s patented “punches in bunches” technique? Aoki is not throwing enough flying submissions for my liking. The ground game mechanics seem like a button mashing contest. The game looks pretty fun though despite my nitpicks.

I like Aoki winning the striking game early, including working from the thai clinch…hmmm.

I actually played this at Strikeforce Houston and it was a lot of fun. I bought both UFC games and really liked them a lot as well, What makes this game fun to play is the control system. Its way better than the UFC in that aspect.

Also, soccer kicks are freaking sweet as well.

All in all, my first impression was very very good.

but watching the camera rotate a little after every single movement is making me dizzy.

my wii get a good MMA game…i’d like to point and click body parts while in the gaurd to go for submissions. or i need to accept the fact that at 26 years of age wii isn’t for me or those games. screw it i still have those bad ass THQ rasslin’ games on my N64.

Compared to UFC Undisputed, the detail of the graphics of the fighters look nowhere close to the detail UFC put into their game. EA’s graphics look like they are from a PS2 or regular XBOX game at best. Also,the punch and kick motions seem totally herky-jerky. I will say that the grappling seems as good if not better than UFC’s game, though.

Another huge annoyance is the loud “thud” sound every strike produces. It makes it seem kinda like watching a cartoon fight with full sound effects.

Undisputed looks and sound better hands down. I guess once I play EA I can say for sure, but I own Undisputed 2009 and 2010 for 360, and they both seem much much smoother than anything here would have me believe about EA.

A couple of things…

1) Yeah, the running around. I hope that it’s controlled with a “sprint” button or something, but if it’s not, it’s seriously not the end of the world. If you’ve played Fight Night Round 4, or even the THQ UFC games, you know that sometimes your fighter just will not move fast enough. I’d rather move fast, than hardly move when I want to. Once again, I really hope its controlled with pressing in the stick or something, but it’s a bit late to be hoping for things.

2) I’ve seen complaints of button mashing on the ground, let me explain that mechanic. If you just tap the button repeatedly, you’ll run out of stamina, and fail at whatever it is you’re trying to do. You have to tap a bit to fight it, let stamina return, tap a bit…and repeat, tapping at times when your opponents stamina is falling. First fighter to lose all stamina, loses. So, no, it’s not QUITE button mashing, because button mashing = fastest masher wins…this is controlled mashing, which I think works well.

3) We really don’t know much until we get our hands on the game. No offense to the guys playing the game in the preview videos, but most of them look like they suck. Nothing gets defended, nobody is putting together combos…you know, the list goes on. At least whoever was playing Aoki knew to go for subs…

4) Graphics…really? Maybe I’m easy to please, but it looks fine to me. If you have a problem with the STYLE, or the LIGHTING, thats different…but the Graphics don’t look bad to me. I think the camera style for Undisputed is better, it’s certainly easier to watch, and brings you closer to the action. The way EA’s camera is, you’re far away from the fighters, so all that work they put in on aesthetics for the fighters is a bit harder to see. (And man, some character models are terrible.)

5) Worthy of note, is that I’ve never seen one negative comment from someone who had played the game. They may have made suggestions (the striking has improved a ton thanks to those) but never “this game is horrible”.

I couldn’t help but be distracted by the CONSTANT flashing in the background. The ground transitions are smooth but the stand up looks horrible. I’m disappointed.

looks wack

Typical EA Sports.

I wish this ground game and roster of fighters was in the THQ game, cause the ground game looks really good. But, the stand up needs a lot of work, doesn’t really seem like the impact of the punches/kicks register with any snap. The constant camera movement might get debilitating too.