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UFC is the latest title in partnership between Yukes and THQ and brings the mixed martial arts genre to the next gen consoles for the first time ever! With a roster of 80 MMA stars in 5 different weight classes, veteran Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer, ring girls Edith and Arianny, 3 genuine UFC refs, and commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg on show, UFC Undisputed is the best experience of the UFC you could get without actually fighting yourself.

UFC’s game play is no easy task - with tough controls resulting in the tutorial clocking in at over half an hour long! To have to go through this immense learning curve just be able to play may be off-putting for any non UFC Fan. If you can overcome the tutorial and get to grips with the controls, you will not regret it for a second, and can start enjoying this truly amazing experience.

There are a few flaws with the core gameplay itself however. True you can sprint across the canvas by pressing the left stick in when your opponent is on his feet, but when your opponent is down and time is of the essence, your character really fails to make any sort of rush towards them. By the time your character reaches him, it's already too late and the chance to ground and pound him has gone. It’s this aspect that can really highlight the game’s sluggish moments which truly breaks up the play.

UFC does not have an energy bar as standard, however offers the ability to turn on a 'stamina bar' in the game's options, which is extremely useful. Even with that said, because the game has a flash K.O system, you could have no stamina left, being dominated, get one good punch in and  win! Flash K.O’s are surprisingly well balanced and are guaranteed to always put a smile on your face when you get one. It truly never gets old and you can even appreciate it when it gets done to you. This all gives the incentive to never let your guard down, even if you are dominating your opponent.

Classic fight mode allows you to leave the traditional exhibition mode and recreate classic fights from UFC’s past. There are 12 in all, ranging from the finale of UFC's Ultimate Fighter, Season 1, Bonnar vs Griffin, to Penn vs Sherk from UFC 84. It’s a great mode and all the cut-scenes are well done, resulting in a perfect feature for Core UFC fans as they can try to reenact exactly what happened in the real fight.

Almost all fighting games have a career mode nowadays and UFC is no different, offering a reasonably basic career for you to build your own star and rise through the ranks. The options and customization featured in the Create A Fighter aspect are pretty in-depth and allow you to create whatever sort of star you want, customizing your shorts right down to the thickness of your body hair. I would love to be able to say the same about the actual career, but it is bland. It basically consists of one exhibition fight after another with the odd two minute sparring session in between whereby you get awarded points to spend on your fighter’s technical stats, depending on your performance. When you’re not doing that, you’re cycling through weeks,  and adding points to your main three fighter stats (cardio, strength and speed). It just seems like we have seen it all before in similar titles. They could of made it so much better even by simply adding a few training mini games, to make the player feel more involved however sadly this just doesn't exist.

It would have been nice to see UFC Undisputed add some sort of ring entrance mechanic to give you a feeling of contact with the pretty distant and unresponsive crowd. Aside from your trainers and refs, you may as well be fighting in the arena alone. Throw in the inability to save your favourite moments from replays and the insane amount of stupidly slow loading screens, and it soon becomes clear that UFC Undisputed is not exactly the perfect game it could have been.

Not only does UFC Undisputed look fantastic but also has some of the best commentary I’ve ever heard in a sports game. It's informative, interesting and delivered with a real sense of purpose, without too much repetition often seen in other sports games. Music and sound effects wise though, you cant really fault the title.

The online aspect currently is rather standard, offering players the ability to fight with custom characters or take the reins of the best. I found that finding a match was a little bit too much effort at times, and although it may not be precise to say it suffers from major lag, the game often seems like your button presses have a short delay. You may find people spamming the same moves online but if you’ve learnt the basics and really put them into practice through the single player mode, you should have no problems tackling a real opponent. Although there is a leaderboard, it would have been nice to see a little variety in the competitive aspect of the game, perhaps a tournament mode of some sorts. However a real problem in the online ranked matches is that there are a lot of quitters - where by if you win a match they will often go back to dashboard quickly resulting in the game thinking that match never happenes. Disapointingly this really does spoil the game and is personally the main reason why i stay away from the online mode, as the actual fights themselves are really fun. Hopefuly Yukes will issue a patch to fix this in the near future.

There is no disputing that the game is a fantastic recreation of the UFC experience. Featuring a fantastic yet difficult to master control mechanism means that some more casual gamers may never fully get to grips with it. The game does however have quite a few setbacks. The career mode is pretty bland and uninspiring, also it's basic online features are nothing to write home about due to repetition, despite it's fun core mechanics. So with it's extensive roster, fantastic recreation of one of the world’s fastest growing sports and stunning visuals, UFC Undisputed 2009 is a must have for UFC fans and fighting fans alike. The extensive roster, commentary, ring girls, Bruce Buffer and Classic Fights mode ensures that the title is as good as it currently gets. Despite the stunning visuals though, UFC Undisputed remains on the brink of greatness due to its flaws. That being said, flash KO’s never get old ... especially online!