The Ultimate Fighting Championships have been in existence since 1993 and have taken place over 35 times. This fighting tournament features mixed martial arts fighting and various styles ranging from jiu-jitsu to Sumo wrestling. The sports videogame track record has seen both strong efforts (Dreamcast) and miserable showings (PSOne). UFC Throwdown for the PlayStation 2 is the latest videogame to try and capture the frantic pace and brutality of the real-life matches, and while its not a terribly deep game, it does replicate the sport well.

UFC games have had nice graphics since the Dreamcast offering of the series impressed gamers with its large, realistic fighters. Throwdown also features the smoothly animated and detailed fighters. Muscles are clearly defined, faces are realistic, tattoos are all in their proper places, and even logos on the fighters trunks are accurate.

As mentioned earlier, there are a wide variety of fighting techniques, which are all evident by the particular stance each fighter takes as soon as the fight starts. Some are hopping back and forth on their feet, some are still, but waiting to pounce, and others are leaning forward always ready to take the fight to the mat. This is the main visual difference between the disciplines, since theres not a huge amount of difference in the way punches and kicks look - at least to the casual fan.

In tournament mode, each match starts with a nice-looking intro that appears to mix a real arena and crowd with a pre-rendered fighter. Regardless of how the realism is achieved, the entrances are very impressive looking - the only problem being that they are the same for all the fighters.

Theres not much wrong with Throwdowns visuals, but they are hurt by their overall simplicity. Part of this is the nature of the event - there are no fireballs, no pyrotechnics before matches, and no weapons, but regardless of this fact, theyre still not very interesting. Theres a little bit of blood here and there and some motion-blur during the replays, and thats all the eye candy in the game. One glitch that occurred on occasion was when trying to escape a takedown, the opposing fighter would end up off of my fighter, leaving me stuck on the mat as he punched the air which somehow caused me to incur damage. It didnt happen too often, but often enough it should have been fixed.

UFC Throwdowns audio is easily its weakest aspect. Bruce Buffer does the pre-fight announcing, and sounds very lethargic. Theres little to no difference between the sound of a punch that lands and a punch that is blocked, and the same holds true for kicks. The fighters occasionally grunt and groan, but only sound realistic when they scream out in agony after a broken arm. The crowds are deathly silent at the beginning of a match, but sound very realistic when you are on the mat pounding your opponent into oblivion. Even the music that plays during each fighters entrance is uninteresting, and to make matters worse, its all the same.

The good thing about UFC Throwdown is that it does not rely heavily on its graphics and sound to convey a good fighting experience. Throwdowns controls are simple, the action is fast-paced, and the matches are short and violent - making the game a good one to play with friends.

There are several different play modes, but a few of them are very similar, so the meat of the gameplay is in tournament and career modes. The tournament mode, is a straightforward single-elimination tournament where you try to win the title in the weight class in which you are competing. As is the norm, the first fight is pretty easy and things get harder the deeper you progress into the tourney.

The career mode, while limited in some areas offers a surprisingly deep RPG-style experience while training a fighter from the ground up. After distributing a limited amount of attribute points, you have to accomplish certain sparring goals before you are even allowed into the octagon for real competition. By having you work hard and train for so long before your first fight, it really makes the actual Championship feel like something worthwhile. This mode falls short with its very limited ability to create a fighters appearance. There are only four skin tones and costumes to choose from, and theres not a whole lot to choose from with body types either. The control scheme is easy to learn, with two buttons used for punching, two buttons for kicking, and a combination of two buttons for submissions and takedowns. Theres supposed to be some depth to this control scheme, but it seems that other than some basic moves that seem to work well, mashing buttons with fury seem to produce solid results. Like the real event, most fights have a short time where the fighters kick and punch as they try and work themselves closer together. As soon as they are close, and theres an opening, one fighter lunges for the other and pins him to the ground. Once in this position, there are generally two things that happen - you can beat their brains out, or roll into position where you apply pressure to a limb and get them to submit. You can try and rotate the left analog stick to escape, but chances are pretty good that youre on the mat for good. In most cases this entire process takes less than a minute, coming to a close with the chilling sound of a bone snapping in two. This is all great fun, but short, simple fights are all the game offers. There are not many fights that go the distance, and theres not a whole lot of variety in the matches.

UFC Throwdown is an entertaining, yet unfulfilling game for a single player. If youve got some friends that want to brawl and want a relatively level playing field, the games tendency to reward button-mashing can make for some great matches. If there were some more variety in the modes of play, and a deeper create-a-fighter feature, something like what has been done in wrestling games, UFC Throwdown would be a much more compelling game.