If you’d have told me that a few months into 2009 a fighting game would turn out to be one of my more pleasant gaming surprises of the year so far, chances are I would have presumed that I would have found that Street Fighter 4 had finally cracked the 2D fighting niche for me. As it turned out it didn’t really do so, hence it’s turned out to be UFC: Undisputed that has ended up filling the void that Fight Night Round 3 left empty when I’d drained it of all its fun some year or so ago.

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship for those less lazy and reliant on initialisms) is a fighting discipline where pretty much anything goes, save for poking someone in the eye and kicking them in the nuts. Featuring a whole wealth of styles from boxing to jujitsu and wrestling, the general idea is to beat the living heck out of your opponent inside of an eight-sided cage until he can’t defend himself or, preferably, even get up. Despite initial doubts as to whether Yukes, who are responsible for the rather sluggish fighting in the Smackdown vs. Raw series, could lend themselves to a quicker, more subtle sport, Undisputed has turned out pretty nicely indeed.

The key thing to note about UFC fighting from the start is that there are two very distinct disciplines: standing and ground attacks. Whilst the vertical side of the fighting is pretty much your standard punch and kick affair (with a face button being dedicated to each limb), it’s once you get on the ground that the game becomes rather different, although not necessarily in a good way all the time.

Initiating a grapple by chucking the right analogue stick in the direction of your opponent will see you attempt to take down your opponent, with rapid swirling of said stick increasing your chances of rendering them somewhat vulnerable. Once they are down there you can hammer away with kicks and punches to your heart’s content which is all fine, but the game’s system to jiggling the analogue stick ala Fight Night Round 3 to manoeuvre into different positions is rather confusing and, despite practice, really quite hit-and-miss. Likewise, the person on the receiving end has a similar system to try and swing the balance back in their favour, but it’s really quite tricky to get the hang of initially.

Still, the main meat of the fighting is entertaining and, most importantly, pretty true to the nature of the sport. Whether it be sending a crunching right shin into your opponent’s ribs or winding up for an epic-looking Superman punch over the top of their guard, it’s a system that will see cautious prodding and jabbing often give way to frenetic all-out brawling as the momentum swings one way and then the next. Best of all, though, is that a battle between two equal players will often come down to well-timed grapples, punches and perhaps on occasion simply hitting the perfect punch or kick at the exact right moment; more than one of my matches against Jay were won or lost within 40 seconds due to getting a painful knee square on the nose.

In terms of modes available, the most obvious one to head into is Career, in which you take a fighter that you have created via the rather detailed create-a-character mode and take him through his early days in the sport right through to what hopefully will be a title. It’s a pretty enjoyable way to spend your time with the game, although as UFC is more focused on the sport side of things rather than the entertaining storylines that wrestling provides it can feel a little less dramatic by comparison. Perhaps in a way it would have been nice for the game to throw a rivalry or two your way or to make a bigger thing of some of your fights, but running through arranging fights and upping your stats via sparring and training is quite a rewarding way of building yourself a decent brawler.

It’s quite open-ended too, with the mixed martial arts nature of UFC allowing you to specialise in one particular area should you wish. My Mr. T-alike became pretty damn proficient with his fists and hence was able to get the upper hand in fights where opponents tried to stand toe-to-toe with him. Sadly, the downside of all this was that I had completely neglected the ground portion of my skill set and hence was done like a kipper whenever an opponent was able to lock in some kind of painful submission move. Never mind though - Mr. T always, always bounced back.

That, in a way, pretty much sums up the experience of playing Undisputed quite nicely. Quite often you will think you have the fighting system down to a tee, but then come up against an opponent who uses a combination of styles that your own brawler can’t cope with and end up getting knocked down quicker than Ricky Hatton (bit of a low blow there, perhaps). Despite all this, though, the game is interesting enough and works well enough when you’re scrapping that you always want to dig deeper and try again, or to get in a bit more practice so you can master a new style. It’s a fighting game that you are never quite sure that you have mastered, which is a good thing indeed.

Hence, you can’t help but score it pretty highly. Yeah, you can talk about the impressive graphics that are pleasingly free from clipping during tense tussles and you can chat about there being approximately 80 real life UFC fighters (one who shares my name!) to take on if you wish, but the main selling point of the game is the fighting itself, and how enjoyable it ends up becoming. You get the impression that this will sit very nicely indeed with both the UFC and its fanbase too - no gimmicks, no frilly storylines, just complex, brutal fighting. Fight Night Round 4 may be just around the corner, but UFC Undisputed certainly does enough to deserve more than just a short time in the sun.