Review by: Jason McMaster

Until this point, fans of the MMA have had THQ’s UFC franchise to digitally act out their fantasy of combat in the octagon, but another contender has entered the fray: EA Sports MMA brings the EA touch to the sport, but only if you’re a fan that branches beyond the UFC. Due to legal issues between EA, THQ and Ultimate Fighting Championship owner Dana White, most UFC fighters are not in the game. While this is a serious issue for many fans, EA Sports does a fair job of assembling some big name fighters—and most importantly, the game is a hell of a lot of fun.

EA MMA has several different modes from Quick Fight to Career, but they all basically lead to the same thing: punching dudes. From the very beginning of Career Mode you’re introduced to Bas Rutten, who becomes your agent and trainer. You’ll fight your way through an amateur league before turning pro and taking a shot at the big time.

As fight fans will note, this game is based off of the Fight Night engine, and all the lighting and body rendering technology that comes with it. Still in attendance is the “right stick” striking, but fans of the buttons should be pleased to know you can use those instead. The stand-up fighting feels finely-tuned and has a better sense of weighting to the hits than earlier Fight Nights. The big surprise, however, is the ground game.

When you’re on the ground, or in a clinch, button mashing is punished harshly. If you pound on the buttons, your stamina will decrease and weaken your strikes as well as your defense, thus making it easier to be passed or transitioned. Instead, the position game is played by timing your pass attempts and blocking your opponent’s moves. Being blocked reduces your stamina and puts you in a weaker position.

When on the ground, chokes and submissions are handled like a tug of war. For chokes, the player must move the stick around to find the “sweet spot” while your opponent does the same. Returning the stick to neutral position recharges your power while moving it around reduces it. Submissions are more of a button battle. The more often you press the button, the more pressure it applies to the appendage in question, or removes pressure on defense, but drains stamina with each press. Of course, chokes and submissions are fight-ending moves, and aren’t the easiest things to pull off.

On the other end, the stand up game should feel familiar to fans of Fight Night with a few new additions. Your body has a few different damage areas - the head, legs and stomach - that must be brought down to zero before a TKO can take place. Blocking your opponent’s blows can give you an opening to fire off that punch that may put him on his ass, but if you block the wrong way, you can get seriously rocked, losing substantial amounts of stamina from the part that was struck. Once a body part has dropped to a certain level, the fighter drops to the ground and you can pounce on them. While being attacked after a knockdown, you have to pound the defend button like it owes you money and hope that your stamina comes back faster than your opponent can knock it off.