Pride FC
- February 14, 2003 00:00 AM PST
Pride FC easily resembles a UFC game. In fact, take away the name, and you get another chapter in the UFC series.
Mixed martial art competitions are surely gaining fame stateside, but in Japan, the sport is already a knockout with spectators. Of the many fighting divisions, Pride is perhaps the most well known in the Land of the Rising Sun, where two pugs duke it out with jaw-busting punches and leg-breaking holds in a square ring. The game, Pride FC, however, doesn�t fully represent the extremes of the bloody competition.Ultimate Fighting Championship fans will easily recognize Pride�s look and feel. In fact, the controls are completely identical to those in all of the UFC titles, which include the easy maneuvering of punches, kicks, and grapples. The game does look sharper than UFC: Throwdown, but characters are still blocky and the arenas lack detail and depth. Even the sounds are tuned down to horrible hit effects and sparse audience participation.
Luckily, an in-depth create-a-fighter mode saves Pride FC from a tapout. Though there�s a huge lineup of brawlers available, the option to create your own sweaty warrior and use him in matches is much more appealing. Beyond the basic body and clothes types, you can create an impressive library of combos for your gladiator�s every stance, which results in a variety of countless hand and kick flurries.
All told, however, Pride FC�s gameplay style is exactly the same as all of the UFC titles, which shows that THQ put little thought into making this game, and instead, betted that slapping Pride on top of the UFC name would work. This is not a unique and revolutionary fighter. Instead, the game appeals only to gamers who�ve enjoyed the UFC games.
