Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

EA MMA excels in many aspects, capturing the true MMA feel for the genre.

A great story mode, phenomenal multiplayer, and exceptional replay value will really give you a bang for your buck.

As you progress through the predictable story from an amateur learning the ropes all the way up to fighting MMA legends, you learn new strikes, special moves, and learn to tie them all together into smooth combos to send the competition to the floor. The variety of strikes and special moves allows for a wide variety of fight styles, specializing in different disciplines.

The multiplayer is what keeps the game alive, progressing through the belts against other players in mostly lagless gameplay. The multiplayer is a great time because of the always new opponents you face and their fight styles. It is a great feeling to get a big strike TKO.

The one hiccup that EA MMA has versus other games in the genre is the ground game; Instead of maneuvering around the opponent to get an upper hand, you simply tap a button to either take a better position, or not let the opponent take a better position. This can be very frustrating when the opponent has the better position, won't stand up, and you keep disallowing them to get into a striking position leading to boring stalemates that can last for quite some time. The same applies for clinching.

Overall EA MMA is a great representation of the sport, offering a variety of fight styles and opponents to face.