The most underrated and brutal fighter of all time
The game play is top notch, blending wrestling moves with brutal street fighting and martial arts. The controls are intuitive and make for some fancy footwork when getting out of trouble. Being a fan of fighting games and wrestling games, urban reign by far has the best and most satisfying combat in gaming history.
The graphics aren't too bad even to this day, and the animations are perfect and capture some wincing pain moments even without resorting to adding blood.
The multiplayer is a lot of fun; get a mate round with the same skill as you and you're in for some epic battles. Play with someone new to games, and get ready for some laughs. With plenty of characters (eventually) and some nice weapons, the multiplayer makes or some brutal fun. The modes on offer include 1v1 2v2 1v2 1v3 1v1v1v1 which makes the game more of a violent version of Super Smash Brothers compared to a standard 1 on 1 fighter.
The game's only downfall is with the story mode, the whole mode consists of 1v1 1v2 1v3 2v2 fights which whilst are fun, can get very very difficult very quickly. You will need to know every reversal trick in the book as the CPU gets very cheap and very nasty.
Aside from the very cheap cpu in the story mode, the game offers some excellent 1v1 fights and other combinations with a vast array of modes, which can be played against cpu opponents of varied skill settings of against friends. Certainly a very underrated game of the last generation.