UFC 2009 Undisputed

You can tell a lot about a game from its tutorial. And UFC 2009’s is a killer — a 30-minute bootcamp showing you the game’s amazing range of moves and maneuvers. Skip these lessons, and your time in the virtual octagon will be shorter, bloodier, and more painful.

Such is the nature of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Athletes in this mixed-martial-arts competition need loads of skill and tactics to beat rivals versed in a wide array of disciplines, and players of this über-authentic translation need to learn how to box, clinch, and grapple using their 360 controller. It’s a lot to remember: Undisputed’s fighting is approachable and reasonably intuitive, but it’s also complex and takes a long time to master — much longer than, say, Fight Night Round 3. Ten hours in, we were good at kickboxing but still lousy at ground fighting, for example.

Of course, you don’t have to excel at everything. In Career mode, you create a fighter with the specialties of your choice — boxing, kickboxing or muay thai, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling or judo. You start at the bottom, entering low-level fights to earn credits used to boost your stats. We liked the level of control: a calendar tracks the weeks to your next fight, and for each non-event week, you can choose to train, spar, or rest. Random credit-boosting events crop up — instruction camps, photo shoots — and emails present more fight opportunities. The setup keeps you involved and motivates you to keep climbing in rank.

Or you can just play as a pro in Exhibition mode and battle another athlete in your weight class (A.I.- or human-controlled). We had a blast in matches over Xbox Live: beating buddies with arm-bar submissions and head-kick knockouts made us giddy, and the quick, brutal nature of UFC matches really lends itself to online play.

Classic Matches offer extra love for fans, letting you re-enact 12 famous fights. Vintage footage sets up each bout, and if you imitate real life — e.g., KO-ing Matt Serra with Georges St- Pierre in round two — you unlock footage of the actual match. It’s tricky but rewarding.

And that describes the game as a whole. Unlike Yuke’s’ recent WWE Legends, which used button-spamming quick-time events to make the game super-accessible, Undisputed is purposely complex and challenging. Casual players may balk at its learning curve, but UFC fans willing to invest some time will appreciate the payoff.