THQ has brought MMA to next-gen gaming in style. While the company is constantly dogged for its “stale” WWE Smackdown franchise, Undisputed captures the UFC fight experience almost perfectly.

The roster is huge, a few of name fighters include ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Brock Lesnar, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva and Georges St.-Pierre — sadly, no Randy Couture. Gameplay and presentation wise, THQ nailed the UFC experience down. You have the fight screen, ring intros and even the two fighters meeting in the middle of the cage touching gloves. Depending on your opponent and his fight techniques (wrestling, boxing, brazilian jiu jitsu) the match will play out accordingly. You get a wrestler he’ll take you down in minutes, transition to a mount and knock you the f out. A kickboxer or Muay Thai fighter will keep you standing and try to pick you apart with precise strikes. While a BJJ guy looks for you to make mistake and submit you. I’ve knocked out Forrest Griffin and ‘Rampage’ Jackson in the first round with clinch knees, but got my ass handed to me by Wilson Gouveia’s kicking and BJJ, while Rashad Evans is a beast with his wrestling and ground and pound. While there are too many flash knock outs, it keeps with the realism of UFC. Hey, you gotta love those sick head kick that sends fighters twirling to the mat.

Controls for UFC Undisputed are nearly perfect although there is too much “hold L1 or R2” with a face buttons for the various attacks. Once you get the controls down it becomes much easier to dictate the fight. Blocking is choppy at times as you have two button to press to block head shots and body shots. Also, too many times when you’re blocking you end up taking extra strikes when you’re trying to back away and get some distance. Oh and there’s online playability. You’d be amazed at the amount of people who try to keep it standing and avoid the ground game. Step your game up people!

The bulk of the game is centered on career mode as you create a fighter and have him rise through the ranks in his weight division. When selecting striking and grappling disciplines, you can’t go wrong with Boxing, Kickboxing or Muay Thai as a striking base. However, Muay Thai gives you awesome clinch strikes that payoff with flash KO’s. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a grapple is nice for submission, but there are many throws and slams you get from Judo and Wrestling. Once your fighter is put together, you actually live the life of a UFC fighter, training, sparring, and taking fights. Quick tip: when training your fighter, build your cardio, then strength and speed. The tougher the fights get, the more you’ll need to avoid gassing out and having the energy to finish someone late in the fight. Another key is camp invites, since that’s how you level-up your fighter and learn new strikes (i.e. head kicks, superman punch) and grapples (those fly spine buster slams).

For it’s first game out with the UFC license, THQ hit a homerun. While online needs a few improvements and they need to tweek the submission system, Undisputed is damn close to a perfect adaptation of the UFC experience. –A.K.