How Well Do Current Fighting Games Represent Their Sport?

[RaychelSnr]

With only two fighting games to consider, there is a limited body of evidence to see how sports fighting games have transitioned into the next generation. It's still a bit of a sore spot that there has not been (and won't be for some time) a boxing product, but we have EA Sports UFC and WWE 2K15 to fill some of the gap.

What's notable about EA Sports UFC is that it started out from a relatively solid base, and it's been iterated and improved a half dozen time now (via patches). Entirely new animations and concepts have been added to the core gameplay loop, and things like stamina, punch speed and groundwork have been tuned to counteract some of the problematic spam and exploits that have been an issue for offline and online play.

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[SHAKYR]

EA UFC is a hybrid sports combat gaming experience. It has realistic and arcadey elements. The arcadey elements take away from the game. The overall game does not have much depth. You feel the things that are missing. The 2k15 WWE experience is on point and captures the wrestling experience with great additions brought to the table by 2K/Visual Concepts. I'm hoping to see a boxing game in 2K/Visual Concepts future plans.

[Ant from HellCounty]

EA UFC is missing KEY MMA elements. It DOES NOT represent the sport of MMA well.

WWE 2K15 is a great wrestling games, could use some tuning, but it represents Sports Entertainment VERY well.

[Clarityman]

Do 1 counts late in the match after a big move happen often in sports entertainment? Does kicking out of a finisher after a 1 count represent sports entertainment VERY well...?

WWE2k15 is a step in the right direction in a lot of ways, but this article hits it on the head: wrestling should not be about simple combat, it should be about telling a STORY.

Off the top of my head, I can think of about ten ways of fixing the pinning meter-- all 2k would have to do is implement one or two of them:

1. On a 1 count, the highlighted kickout marker should be VERY small. On a two count it should expand exponentially depending on the move preceding the pin. Between a two and a three, there's an increase again based on wrestler stats and the move preceding the pinfall attempt.

2. Create a stat for all wrestlers called "Kickout Ability." This functions different from Resiliency, in that it determines the size of the highlighted kickout marker. Main eventers would have a very high kickout ability.

3. After a finisher, even if a player hits the highlighted region, the kickout animation won't kick in until a late 2 count.

4. After big moves, and late in the match, the kickout meter won't even appear until the 2 count has begun, but then the highlighted section is way large and hard to miss when it does appear-- meaning the epic match can continue until a more interesting conclusion is reached.

5. Decrease the timing between a 0 and 1 count, and increase the timing ever so slightly between a 2 and 3 count (I know it's already a little longer, but it should be longer still).

6. Make the meter timing variable... in other words, on a 1 count it moves impossibly fast, between 1 and 2 it moves slower, between 2 and 3 it moves at a pace somewhere between.

7. Reinstate Epic match length, but have it affect the highlighted kickout marker size in a way that lends itself to actual epic matches.

8. Finally institute a spirit meter (which is what I thought momentum would finally be this year-- WRONG) and have the highlighted area fluctuate based on spirit levels-- which is more representative of wrestling anyway.

9. Another option would be to do away with the meter completely, go back to button mashing, and tie it to a spirit meter... the AKI games never had this problem, the only way you were kickout out of a finisher at 1 is if you hit it very early in the match.

10. Hire me as a creative consultant, so I can suggest about a hundred ways of improving the gameplay for your series and bring it to "elite, can't miss, must buy" status.

Pick one, 2k...!

[oakevin]

What "KEY" elements are missing from EA UFC that prevent it from being a great representation?

[SHAKYR]

What "KEY" elements are missing from EA UFC that prevent it from being a great representation?

It's watered down to make casual arcadey fans happy. The game limitations are evident if you are a true fan of the sport.

[CHAPEdawg45]

I like some of the KO animations of EA UFC, although I'd really like to have more of a "ragdolly" effect to them. The ones where dues will lock up completely are good for canned animations. But most of the time when a dude gets dropped, or from what I see, it's far more of a loose looking motion because the guys body shuts down. I'd like to have more of that in the next installment.

[sarlndr]

Glad I picked UFC up for $14. It's a fun game but you all are correct about how it doesn't represent UFC it plays like an arcade game. Which is fine with me.