Supremacy MMA Hands-On Preview [E3 2011]

During our visit with 505 Games during E3 earlier this month, we had the opportunity to get some hands-on time with their upcoming blood sport fighting game, Supremacy MMA.

Now one thing I should say right off the bat, MMA fans expecting UFC: Undisputed are going to be sorely disappointed. Supremacy MMA is based more in the world of pit fighters as opposed to what the sport is now, and even then it is much more extreme than what MMA was back in the old days.

Players battle it out in various arenas, from gambling houses to biker bars as they try to take down their opponent and work their way up to the top of the underground MMA world. Like other MMA games though, Supremacy does manage to keep the many different fighting styles, giving each of the different real world fighters a unique feel. From boxing to Muay Thai and even savate, there are quite a few different fighting styles and with 12 fighters to choose from, there is plenty of variety.

The controls were extremely simple, which was a bit of a surprise at first. The game really does play like your typical fighting game with kick, punch, block and grapple buttons. Once on the ground you can pummel your opponent or use the left stick to change position to get a better handle on the fight. While you fight there is a gauge below the health that slowly builds up and when you activate it things slow down a bit. It’s almost like your character gets tunnel vision and can dish out more damage or land a special knock out once the opponent’s health is low enough.

To my surprise, Supremacy MMA didn’t have flash knock outs, it has more of an arcade fighting game feel and to keep things competitive you have to completely lower the opponent’s health to win, no quick one shot victory. Even though the combat didn’t have a lot of depth in terms of controls and strategy, it was kind of fun to just battle it out and wreck some havoc.

In our demo session we played as a boxer and then a savate fighter. We did fairly well, winning the first couple of fights before trying to get fancy and blowing a half health bar lead only to get destroyed by a brutal knockout.

Visually, the game doesn’t look too bad. The animations when you knock out an opponent or break a limb are pretty gruesome and they definitely grab your attention when they happen. The bruises and blood also look pretty dramatic and seem to be a little bit more extreme than what you would see in real life. That being said, all of the damage does appear in the right spots and it does add to the overall experience.

All-in-all Supremacy MMA isn’t going to be as deep as titles like UFC: Undisputed but it will likely be a little bit more fun for those gamers that don’t take the idea of bloody underground fights being a part of MMA too seriously. While pit fighting did play a part in the birth of the sport, the game is all in good fun and should be played as just that.

As a fan of mixed martial arts I can say that I did enjoy playing Supremacy MMA and gamers can looks forward to checking it out when it releases this September for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.