Each battler has their own distinct fighting style which consist of styles such as submission style, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, etc. The quality of each design, while not photo-realistic, is unique enough that you don’t believe that X fighter is just Y fighter with different colored shorts or a buzz cut versus dreadlocks, each character really seems individually modeled.Īnd the individuality is not limited to the fighter portraits. Although you are just the promoter, you do gain a strong attachment to your top fighters and having a 3-D picture of them helps create a closer attachment.
One cool feature with WMMA is that it has created 3-D character designs of each fighter. The most important thing in a text-simulation other than the simulation engine itself is the interface design and components. Most of us are familiar with roster swapping and financial transactions in baseball and football but I had never once considered whether the non-existent name value of Helen Fox, “The Maryland Mauler,” in Canada should be a deciding factor in a prime-time match with “The Queen of Mean,” Oakland, California’s own Simone King, who is renowned for her kick boxing. The expansion of a seemingly simple sport not only is unique but also provides a fresh set of pawns to move around. WMMA has a breadth of variables, ranging from league rules (are kicks to the head of down opponents legal or illegal?) to the intensity of marketing in specific regions to your own reputation with fans. At the same time, you must curry to your fighters’ desires while monitoring television ratings, financial spreadsheets, and fan satisfaction. Whichever league you choose, you become the president given the responsibility of making your league popular and financially successful.
If you want the fighting experience, you would certainly be better off just playing any of the console wrestling games.Īfter choosing your character, you next choose which league you want to oversee: Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (the strongest league), ALPHA-1: Japanese Full Contact Combat, British Cage Fighting, Women’s Extreme Fighting Federation or you can also choose unemployment. This role as fighter-promoter has been the tried-and-true method of the Extreme Wrestling games, and I think it works for WMMA as well. Upon starting a new game, you must select among Jennifer Avatar or Scott Avatar (both humans with mediocre reputations) and Mittens Blurcat (fantastic reputation). Instead of pulling joints out of their sockets inside the cage, you are pulling the strings on broadcasting deals behind the scenes. Your character throughout the game is not an actual fighter, but the president of a league. Getting your start: The Chick, the Dude, or the Cat The game is rich in character development, has a sleek and simple interface, and it possesses a finely-tuned simulation engine. I have found WMMA to be a great introduction to the sport as well as an engaging text-simulation overall. Furthermore, the game is conceptually, a bit of a contradiction in that the popularity of the sport WMMA portrays is best known by its Neanderthal-level of brutality however, WMMA requires you to be a suit-and-tie corporate flack. With all of that said, WMMA does not have an official license, so if you are a fan of Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz you will have to settle for the game’s fictional database of more than 350 fighters. WMMA does all of this very well and will help further cement the sport in the eyes of many.
The game’s premise is simple: Become a Don King-esque promoter of the fighters by booking matches, inking television deals, and spotting top talent. World of Mixed Martial Arts (WMMA), created by Adam Ryland and released by Grey Dog Software, is a spin-off on the spectacular Total Extreme Wrestling games also created by Ryland. A prime-time slot on network television is just the latest trend in that direction. Fans of MMA have long noted how this fist-flying, drop-kicking brawl was replacing boxing as the nation’s preferred form of sporting violence. For anyone who watched March Madness, you surely saw one of the Mixed Martial Arts/Ultimate Fighting commercials that were touting competitions to be broadcast on CBS.