Tweet
EA SPORTS MMA Creative Director Jason Barnes shares his insights to the overall direction of the game.
Overview
With EA SPORTS MMA we built the game around four core goals:
Teach the world about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts
We know the sport is complex and the ground game is even confusing to fans, so we want to help fans and newcomers understand the sport. At EA Tiburon, we’ve helped teach a couple of generations of football fans what and how to use a dime defense and now we want to do that again for a young sport that is on the rise.
Showcase that MMA is a global sport
EA SPORTS MMA allows players to explore several leagues in multiple countries. Our roster includes champions and fighters from all over the world. Fights take place in Hexagonal and Circular Cages as well as traditional Boxing Rings.
Personalize the gameplay experience
The game constantly gives you feedback recognizing what you have done, through reactive commentary based on your career actions, interaction with your trainers, news articles about your fighter, and more. Customization is key.
Living up to the EA SPORTS brand
There’s a storied legacy attached to being an EA SPORTS game. Carrying that label carries a lot of weight and responsibility to our fans. That responsibility means that not only do we have to make a great video game but we also have to be authentic and true the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
So what the heck does a bunch of game developers know about Mixed Martial Arts?
In addition to being MMA fans, we also have our fair share of martial arts practitioners. In Judo, we have a brown belt and a black belt, our Lead Gameplay Programmer and one of our Character Artists respectively. We also have a Gameplay/Online Manager that moonlights as a Judo instructor and has a black belt in Dan hwa Rang Do.
In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, we have a purple belt under Gracie Barra that works as our AI Designer. In Tae Kwon Do, we have a black belt as our Audio Director. In the sport of Boxing, our Animation Director has even fought semi-pro. Most of the initial team that worked on the prototype started training MMA at a local dojo.
What kind of tools and technology did you use?
Since we have been working on the title for over two years, we were working in conjunction with the development of Fight Night Round 4. We started with a modified version of FNR4, and over time have developed the best tools and pipelines in our studio.
When developing the presentation of EA SPORTS MMA, we sent a small team up to speak to EA Bioware about cut scene tools. We looked at their tools and tech and discussed their philosophies behind creating these tools.
Gameplay
Easy to learn, Tough to master
Just like in real-life, when you step into the cage or between the ring ropes you are always one perfectly timed strike away from a knockout. We hand tuned every animation for chin vulnerability. Each action a fighter makes has a balanced risk vs. reward. In EA SPORTS MMA, if you lose a match you’ll be able to see exactly why you lost. You don’t feel screwed when you lose.
MMA is a complex sport, but we’ve made it easy to learn with consistent control no matter where the fight takes place. Striking controls in the same intuitive manner, regardless of whether you’re in a standing, clinch, or ground position. Fighters perform takedowns and grappling the same way from any position.
Using FNR4’s “Total Punch Control” as a base, we modified it to incorporate the much wider variety of strikes you see from MMA compared to boxing. Our “Total Strike Control” system adds kicks and flashy strikes like spinning backfists. We changed the uppercut to be a unique motion.
We have also included a “Classic Controls” button striking control option from the get go because we recognize that roughly 40% of our audience wants to use buttons.
No two fights feel the same
Each of the five weight classes has a different pace, feel, and threat. Heavyweights can end fights at any moment with a thunderous hit. Lightweights can bang for long periods of time due to their high stamina and fight at a lightning-quick speed.
Styles make fights. Submission fighters on their back are deadly in guard positions. Strikers have many ways to finish a fight, if they can stay on their feet. Wrestlers can take the fight anywhere. In MMA, winning a fight is not just about playing to your strengths but also attacking your opponents’ weaknesses.
To develop that authenticity in our fighting we consulted with Rickson Gracie, Randy “The Natural” Couture, Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, Pat Miletich, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, the one and only Big John McCarthy, and the list continues.
We have over 20 unique stances in game. Unique strikes like pawing jabs and quick hooks are based off stance. Nick Diaz has his style of hooks and Cung Le motion-captured his own spin kicks.
The ground game and grappling is fun
Grappling is a chess match- a complicated series of tiny movements and feelings so we want to make this easy to pull off and understand. With EA SPORTS MMA we emphasize timing as the key to the depth of gameplay.
Stamina management is the key to winning and survival whether you’re in a dominant position on the ground or defending against a clinch with your back against the cage. Each grappling move has stamina depletion associated with it based on risk vs. reward. When grappling, don’t button mash - the game is tuned to reward the skilled methodical fighter. If you mash, you’ll waste your fighter’s stamina and leave yourself vulnerable to being easily finished.
Survival is the key if you’re mounted or in other bad positions. Each position has a unique threat for each fighter. Also depending on that top or bottom position, strikes have different power. Set up strikes with passes and set up passes with strikes. Whether on the ground or in the clinch, you’ll have consistent control no matter where the fight takes place.
The “Feel the Fight” feature uses rumble to indicate when fighters are moving in a grapple. The idea behind this actually came from training MMA or more specifically BJJ and realizing the best way to indicate movement is to allow the player to feel it just like they would in real life. Grappling was the most difficult challenge when developing gameplay, because of the fact that each fighter can move independently yet without total freedom since they are connected to each other.
Fighters are always in the fight
Fighters are intelligent and give clues to the player that they are always in the fight. They raise their hands up when getting close to another fighter and drop their hands as they move away. On the ground the fighter will help visually indicate their opponent is making a grappling action. You can see this best as the fighter on his back in side control lifts his knee to indicate the top fighter is passing to mount. Fighters actually even touch gloves when both are showing respect
Submissions battles
Submissions are battles - you always have a fighting chance to survive. No randomness occurs during a submission, just player skill driven by their stamina management and fighter’s attributes. Submission battles are multistep - the best way to avoid a submission is to not get in one. The highest level submission fighters are also able to chain from submission to submission.
In joint lock battles, stamina management is the key. Choke battles differ because they are based on not panicking and finding a small window to escape.
Takedowns
Takedowns have different results based on timing and where it came from. Fighters have a small window of opportunity to counter a takedown with a knee or even a guillotine choke. The next line of defense against a takedown comes from denying it with a well-timed sprawl. The last ditch effort is the ability to pull guard.
Dashing takedowns are quicker to execute, but you are more vulnerable to strikes during the dash. From a double underhook clinch taking down your opponent will land you in side control (immediately passing guard), if your opponent does not defend it. Each takedown type also does stamina damage.
Health and Stamina
Fighters in EA SPORTS MMA have realistic health and stamina. When throwing “punches in bunches,” stamina spent quickly can return just as quickly. Grappling tires fighters out and takes away permanent stamina, especially when a grapple move is denied.
Attributes include unique health for the chin, body, and legs. Your head health can go away instantly, but you can clear the cobwebs quickly. Damage to the legs takes away speed and power. Damage to the gut and make your opponent lose stamina too.
The stun state changes the game. When you have someone rocked you feel powerful like a predator. When stunned you lose defensive abilities and are in survival mode until you recover. And even while rocked you still have a chance to land perfectly-timed counter to end the fight.
Finish Him!
When finishing fights, the presentation adds more sound to strikes and changes the camera to make the final ground and pound strikes more visceral and intense. In Vale Tudo and Japanese rules matches you can unleash ruthless soccer kicks, stomps, and knees to the head - some our favorite things to have worked on.
Submissions capture the intensity of the experience. During joint lock battles, the bone fills in with red from both ends to represent the level of stress applied to the joint. During choke battles, the camera zooms in while the sound and pounding your heart become more muffled.
Career
Personalized Career
Career Mode recognizes a player’s actions, performance, and record during their fighter’s history. Commentators will talk about your fight history during matches and Bas Rutten will speak to you through before and after your fights. They’ll recognize things like your pro debut, first win, rematches, rivalries, leagues you fight in, championship fights, first loss, and more. Randy Couture, Rickson Gracie, Pat Miletich, and the other trainers welcome you to their gyms and welcome you back when stay for a fight camp.
Bas Rutten leaves voicemails for you, win or lose, delivered to make you feel good - I mean come on it’s Bas. He has knowledge of your win streak - if you approach Bas’ own 22 fight win streak, he’ll even talk about it. He has knowledge of your title fights and how you won your fight. If you’re fighting a rematch, he’ll know about it. For example if the situation’s appropriate, Bas might say, “Two fights with that guy, two wins. Seems pretty obvious who has who figured out.”
Fight Contracts via email are personalized around your career. Even drama unfolds in your fight contract emails from Bas’ receptionist.
Web articles cover your fighter and details surrounding your training and fights. Details include your current fighting league, last fight, next fight - is it a rematch, contender, or title fight? Also covered is your travel history for fight preparation and your career potential and potential opponents. Depending on your performance, the articles are different if you have an undefeated, good, or less than stellar record.
Teaching the player both the game and the sport
Using on-boarding, we avoid giving the player too many techniques to learn at the start. We begin by teaching the player Stand Up. Clinch and Takedowns are actually locked out to make sure that you’re not overwhelmed. When learning to throw hooks you’ll hear Bas say “dangity, dangity,” adding his own personal touch from his hilarious recording sessions.
After learning basic Stand Up then you move onto an amateur fight with just stand up striking - no clinch or ground fighting. The next step comes in learning just the Clinch with no ground fighting. Then players will complete the package by learning ground fighting. You then have to fight an opponent in the amateur fight that will take the action anywhere.
When learning thumb skills for the game, players are also learning the sport of MMA including the language. EA SPORTS MMA includes over 50 training drills which include objective-based sparring and grappling. While sparring, ground and clinch positions display on screen. Other drills include stand up striking with heavy bags and clinch striking with tear drop bags.
MMA is a world-wide sport
In MMA you’ll train in 8 gyms in 5 different countries - USA, Brazil, England, Japan, and Thailand. You’ll fight in 6 different leagues with fighters from all over the world.
There are four different rule sets:
- Strikeforce Rules
o 3 rounds, non title / 5 rounds, title
o 5 minute rounds
o 10-point scoring system
o Hexagonal Cage
o No ground elbows, knees, kicks, stomps to the head
- Unified Rules
o 3 rounds, non title / 5 rounds, title
o 5 minute rounds
o 10-point scoring system
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o No ground knees, kicks, stomps to the head
- Japanese Rules
o 2 rounds
o 1st Round, 10 minutes / 2nd Round, 5 minutes
o Entire match scored
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o No ground elbows to the head
o Ground knees, kicks, stomps to the head allowed
- Vale Tudo Rules
o 1 round
o 20 minutes
o Entire match scored
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o Ground elbows, knees, kicks, stomps to the head allowed
Career Mode
We push you to have success early and often-winning is fun! After creating your fighter, you start out with ratings that make you a very competent fighter, at around 70% of your total potential max attributes. Fight to your strengths to win while strengthening your weaknesses.
As you progress, we balance the lower league fighter ratings and match your ratings. You have choices between two small leagues, between two medium leagues, and between two large leagues. Your fighter’s attributes grow and you unlock new moves when traveling to gyms around the world.
Once you start to get to bigger leagues you earn walkouts and have top league referees like Big John McCarthy in Strikeforce and Yuji “Boo” Shimada in Japan. Prefight and postfight presentations show the champ with their belt - each league has a unique belt. The champ and contender stare down before the fight. Official decisions highlight the winner with the belt around them- the camera even zooms in on it. One of my favorite moments.
End your career at the top of your game in Strikeforce or Mystic and you fight in a unification bout between the two leagues.
Production
User Consideration
Total Strike Control or Classic Controls button striking - you decide how you want to train. All training games accommodate both control styles. You can also simulate an exercise at the grade you have earned. So if you earn an A in Boxing Combos 1, you don’t have to replay it-you can just sim it. We even make that the default option after earning an A.
The only pop-ups you see are fight contract emails - we don’t make you hunt them down. We don’t bombard you with useless emails. When checking league rankings we default to your fighter on the list for his specific league so you don’t have to search for him.
Drills and exercises are put in menu order by stand up, clinch, and ground. All of the similar drills are listed in order. Each drill is set up so you can see which attributes will grow per drill. Drills are set up to work on multiple attributes, but each one focuses more on a particular attribute. So working on Boxing Combos 1 can improve you punch combo speed the most with little growth in the other areas, whereas Boxing Combos 2 increases your overall hand speed, but your combo speed does not gain much. Boxing Combos 3 and 4 increase your left and right hand power respectively, but not your hand speed or punch combo speed.
You can always spar or hit the heavy bag at any time at no time cost to your fighter’s career.
Graphics
EA SPORTS MMA captures the intensity of the fight game with realistic graphics that are even better than Fight Night Round 4. FN4 laid the groundwork and set a high bar that we built upon.
Faces showcase emotion during, before, and after the fight. Fighters’ muscles flex and jiggle. Our fighters’ bodies are so detailed that when we released the first screen shot showing Fedor doing an armbar to a mystery fighter, diehard MMA fans recognized it as Randy Couture from the scars on his knee and freckles on his stomach.
We handle damage realistically and make it special - you shouldn’t look like a bloody mess after every fight. Blood transfers from fighter to fighter, to the mat, to a fighter’s shorts, even back to the original fighter.
When a fighter receives bruises, first you see reddening then swelling. Bodies redden from repeated strikes and faces redden then swell. For severe damage, a fighter’s eyes swell shut and his nose will actually break.
Online
With online, we want to make the players themselves celebrities. Live Broadcast incorporates player-created Hype Videos and Live Announcers to create a community-driven fight card that highlights the top talent in our online leagues.
EA SPORTS MMA online rewards effort by allowing players to have success early and often. A fair matchmaking system makes quick matchups. Even losing is still valuable and acceptable - you’ll earn experience points towards a title shot even when you lose.
Our Online Modes provide the expected online experience and then some with an easy to use interface that allows you to search for friends, view deep leader boards, and more.
Upload your own EA SPORTS Highlights or even let friends download your created fighters through Fighter Share. View any fighter’s last 5 fights in full through Fight Replays - great for scouting and of course trash talking.
Commentary
EA SPORTS MMA commentary accurate reflects what you’d hear in an actual broadcast. Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock banter about the sport of MMA, the leagues you’re fighting in, the positions of fighters, showing respect or taunting, and fighter strategies. Our commentators are always aware of the action and will use break-in lines when they recognize a big moment happening - for example a knockdown will take precedent over general banter. Successful strikes landed and their type, successful takedowns, knockdowns, submission attempts, and more add to commentary statistical awareness.
Created fighters can be called out to a selection of over 475+ first names, 550+ last names, and 200+ nicknames. Commentators keep things personal and historical for you, being aware of your Fight Now history and the match type, whether it’s a championship, contender, rematch, or rivalry match. During your career you hear commentary about your pro debut, first loss, first win type (TKO, KO or submission), knowledge of majority of win type, and where you’re at in league progression - if you’re struggling in your career and on your last fight you’ll hear about your Tomato Can fight.
Commentators will recognize your fighter’s style starting in your second league once you’ve established yourself. For example they may say something like, “Rivero has a great base with his background in wrestling.” They also acknowledge who you’ve trained with and the special moves you’ve earned from them, such as learning the Diving Punch from Pat Miletich. Commentators will be aware of previous belts you have held and if you’re fighting a title unification match.
Our licensed fighters are highlighted by our commentators. You hear over 40 fighter-specific actions: Randy Couture engaging in a clinch, Nick Diaz taunting his opponent, Dan Henderson landing an overhand right, Bas Rutten landing a liver shot, and more. Commentators banter about fighters including details such as the origin of Renato “Babalu” Sobral’s nickname and Brett Rogers’ previous job before pro fighting.
Over 30 different matchups are commented on: dream matches like Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko and Frank Shamrock vs. Ken Shamrock, as well as real matches like Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers and Cung Le vs. Scott Smith. Commentators recognize specific actions between fighters such as when Shinya Aoki attempts a kimura on Mizuto Hirota, the same move he used to break his arm in their previous fight. Or when Fedor Emelianenko wins via TKO over Brett Rogers, the same way he won their previous matchup. Or when Fabricio Werdum attempts a triangle choke on Fedor Emelianenko, the same submission he used to win their previous fight.
Your cornerman will offer valuable advice between rounds, based on the round and the fight score. You’ll have access to 8 different cornermen from all over the world - America, England, Brazil, Japan, and Thailand.
Overview
With EA SPORTS MMA we built the game around four core goals:
Teach the world about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts
We know the sport is complex and the ground game is even confusing to fans, so we want to help fans and newcomers understand the sport. At EA Tiburon, we’ve helped teach a couple of generations of football fans what and how to use a dime defense and now we want to do that again for a young sport that is on the rise.
Showcase that MMA is a global sport
EA SPORTS MMA allows players to explore several leagues in multiple countries. Our roster includes champions and fighters from all over the world. Fights take place in Hexagonal and Circular Cages as well as traditional Boxing Rings.
Personalize the gameplay experience
The game constantly gives you feedback recognizing what you have done, through reactive commentary based on your career actions, interaction with your trainers, news articles about your fighter, and more. Customization is key.
Living up to the EA SPORTS brand
There’s a storied legacy attached to being an EA SPORTS game. Carrying that label carries a lot of weight and responsibility to our fans. That responsibility means that not only do we have to make a great video game but we also have to be authentic and true the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
So what the heck does a bunch of game developers know about Mixed Martial Arts?
In addition to being MMA fans, we also have our fair share of martial arts practitioners. In Judo, we have a brown belt and a black belt, our Lead Gameplay Programmer and one of our Character Artists respectively. We also have a Gameplay/Online Manager that moonlights as a Judo instructor and has a black belt in Dan hwa Rang Do.
In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, we have a purple belt under Gracie Barra that works as our AI Designer. In Tae Kwon Do, we have a black belt as our Audio Director. In the sport of Boxing, our Animation Director has even fought semi-pro. Most of the initial team that worked on the prototype started training MMA at a local dojo.
What kind of tools and technology did you use?
Since we have been working on the title for over two years, we were working in conjunction with the development of Fight Night Round 4. We started with a modified version of FNR4, and over time have developed the best tools and pipelines in our studio.
When developing the presentation of EA SPORTS MMA, we sent a small team up to speak to EA Bioware about cut scene tools. We looked at their tools and tech and discussed their philosophies behind creating these tools.
Gameplay
Easy to learn, Tough to master
Just like in real-life, when you step into the cage or between the ring ropes you are always one perfectly timed strike away from a knockout. We hand tuned every animation for chin vulnerability. Each action a fighter makes has a balanced risk vs. reward. In EA SPORTS MMA, if you lose a match you’ll be able to see exactly why you lost. You don’t feel screwed when you lose.
MMA is a complex sport, but we’ve made it easy to learn with consistent control no matter where the fight takes place. Striking controls in the same intuitive manner, regardless of whether you’re in a standing, clinch, or ground position. Fighters perform takedowns and grappling the same way from any position.
Using FNR4’s “Total Punch Control” as a base, we modified it to incorporate the much wider variety of strikes you see from MMA compared to boxing. Our “Total Strike Control” system adds kicks and flashy strikes like spinning backfists. We changed the uppercut to be a unique motion.
We have also included a “Classic Controls” button striking control option from the get go because we recognize that roughly 40% of our audience wants to use buttons.
No two fights feel the same
Each of the five weight classes has a different pace, feel, and threat. Heavyweights can end fights at any moment with a thunderous hit. Lightweights can bang for long periods of time due to their high stamina and fight at a lightning-quick speed.
Styles make fights. Submission fighters on their back are deadly in guard positions. Strikers have many ways to finish a fight, if they can stay on their feet. Wrestlers can take the fight anywhere. In MMA, winning a fight is not just about playing to your strengths but also attacking your opponents’ weaknesses.
To develop that authenticity in our fighting we consulted with Rickson Gracie, Randy “The Natural” Couture, Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, Pat Miletich, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, the one and only Big John McCarthy, and the list continues.
We have over 20 unique stances in game. Unique strikes like pawing jabs and quick hooks are based off stance. Nick Diaz has his style of hooks and Cung Le motion-captured his own spin kicks.
The ground game and grappling is fun
Grappling is a chess match- a complicated series of tiny movements and feelings so we want to make this easy to pull off and understand. With EA SPORTS MMA we emphasize timing as the key to the depth of gameplay.
Stamina management is the key to winning and survival whether you’re in a dominant position on the ground or defending against a clinch with your back against the cage. Each grappling move has stamina depletion associated with it based on risk vs. reward. When grappling, don’t button mash - the game is tuned to reward the skilled methodical fighter. If you mash, you’ll waste your fighter’s stamina and leave yourself vulnerable to being easily finished.
Survival is the key if you’re mounted or in other bad positions. Each position has a unique threat for each fighter. Also depending on that top or bottom position, strikes have different power. Set up strikes with passes and set up passes with strikes. Whether on the ground or in the clinch, you’ll have consistent control no matter where the fight takes place.
The “Feel the Fight” feature uses rumble to indicate when fighters are moving in a grapple. The idea behind this actually came from training MMA or more specifically BJJ and realizing the best way to indicate movement is to allow the player to feel it just like they would in real life. Grappling was the most difficult challenge when developing gameplay, because of the fact that each fighter can move independently yet without total freedom since they are connected to each other.
Fighters are always in the fight
Fighters are intelligent and give clues to the player that they are always in the fight. They raise their hands up when getting close to another fighter and drop their hands as they move away. On the ground the fighter will help visually indicate their opponent is making a grappling action. You can see this best as the fighter on his back in side control lifts his knee to indicate the top fighter is passing to mount. Fighters actually even touch gloves when both are showing respect
Submissions battles
Submissions are battles - you always have a fighting chance to survive. No randomness occurs during a submission, just player skill driven by their stamina management and fighter’s attributes. Submission battles are multistep - the best way to avoid a submission is to not get in one. The highest level submission fighters are also able to chain from submission to submission.
In joint lock battles, stamina management is the key. Choke battles differ because they are based on not panicking and finding a small window to escape.
Takedowns
Takedowns have different results based on timing and where it came from. Fighters have a small window of opportunity to counter a takedown with a knee or even a guillotine choke. The next line of defense against a takedown comes from denying it with a well-timed sprawl. The last ditch effort is the ability to pull guard.
Dashing takedowns are quicker to execute, but you are more vulnerable to strikes during the dash. From a double underhook clinch taking down your opponent will land you in side control (immediately passing guard), if your opponent does not defend it. Each takedown type also does stamina damage.
Health and Stamina
Fighters in EA SPORTS MMA have realistic health and stamina. When throwing “punches in bunches,” stamina spent quickly can return just as quickly. Grappling tires fighters out and takes away permanent stamina, especially when a grapple move is denied.
Attributes include unique health for the chin, body, and legs. Your head health can go away instantly, but you can clear the cobwebs quickly. Damage to the legs takes away speed and power. Damage to the gut and make your opponent lose stamina too.
The stun state changes the game. When you have someone rocked you feel powerful like a predator. When stunned you lose defensive abilities and are in survival mode until you recover. And even while rocked you still have a chance to land perfectly-timed counter to end the fight.
Finish Him!
When finishing fights, the presentation adds more sound to strikes and changes the camera to make the final ground and pound strikes more visceral and intense. In Vale Tudo and Japanese rules matches you can unleash ruthless soccer kicks, stomps, and knees to the head - some our favorite things to have worked on.
Submissions capture the intensity of the experience. During joint lock battles, the bone fills in with red from both ends to represent the level of stress applied to the joint. During choke battles, the camera zooms in while the sound and pounding your heart become more muffled.
Career
Personalized Career
Career Mode recognizes a player’s actions, performance, and record during their fighter’s history. Commentators will talk about your fight history during matches and Bas Rutten will speak to you through before and after your fights. They’ll recognize things like your pro debut, first win, rematches, rivalries, leagues you fight in, championship fights, first loss, and more. Randy Couture, Rickson Gracie, Pat Miletich, and the other trainers welcome you to their gyms and welcome you back when stay for a fight camp.
Bas Rutten leaves voicemails for you, win or lose, delivered to make you feel good - I mean come on it’s Bas. He has knowledge of your win streak - if you approach Bas’ own 22 fight win streak, he’ll even talk about it. He has knowledge of your title fights and how you won your fight. If you’re fighting a rematch, he’ll know about it. For example if the situation’s appropriate, Bas might say, “Two fights with that guy, two wins. Seems pretty obvious who has who figured out.”
Fight Contracts via email are personalized around your career. Even drama unfolds in your fight contract emails from Bas’ receptionist.
Web articles cover your fighter and details surrounding your training and fights. Details include your current fighting league, last fight, next fight - is it a rematch, contender, or title fight? Also covered is your travel history for fight preparation and your career potential and potential opponents. Depending on your performance, the articles are different if you have an undefeated, good, or less than stellar record.
Teaching the player both the game and the sport
Using on-boarding, we avoid giving the player too many techniques to learn at the start. We begin by teaching the player Stand Up. Clinch and Takedowns are actually locked out to make sure that you’re not overwhelmed. When learning to throw hooks you’ll hear Bas say “dangity, dangity,” adding his own personal touch from his hilarious recording sessions.
After learning basic Stand Up then you move onto an amateur fight with just stand up striking - no clinch or ground fighting. The next step comes in learning just the Clinch with no ground fighting. Then players will complete the package by learning ground fighting. You then have to fight an opponent in the amateur fight that will take the action anywhere.
When learning thumb skills for the game, players are also learning the sport of MMA including the language. EA SPORTS MMA includes over 50 training drills which include objective-based sparring and grappling. While sparring, ground and clinch positions display on screen. Other drills include stand up striking with heavy bags and clinch striking with tear drop bags.
MMA is a world-wide sport
In MMA you’ll train in 8 gyms in 5 different countries - USA, Brazil, England, Japan, and Thailand. You’ll fight in 6 different leagues with fighters from all over the world.
There are four different rule sets:
- Strikeforce Rules
o 3 rounds, non title / 5 rounds, title
o 5 minute rounds
o 10-point scoring system
o Hexagonal Cage
o No ground elbows, knees, kicks, stomps to the head
- Unified Rules
o 3 rounds, non title / 5 rounds, title
o 5 minute rounds
o 10-point scoring system
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o No ground knees, kicks, stomps to the head
- Japanese Rules
o 2 rounds
o 1st Round, 10 minutes / 2nd Round, 5 minutes
o Entire match scored
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o No ground elbows to the head
o Ground knees, kicks, stomps to the head allowed
- Vale Tudo Rules
o 1 round
o 20 minutes
o Entire match scored
o Boxing Ring, Hexagonal or Circular Cage
o Ground elbows, knees, kicks, stomps to the head allowed
Career Mode
We push you to have success early and often-winning is fun! After creating your fighter, you start out with ratings that make you a very competent fighter, at around 70% of your total potential max attributes. Fight to your strengths to win while strengthening your weaknesses.
As you progress, we balance the lower league fighter ratings and match your ratings. You have choices between two small leagues, between two medium leagues, and between two large leagues. Your fighter’s attributes grow and you unlock new moves when traveling to gyms around the world.
Once you start to get to bigger leagues you earn walkouts and have top league referees like Big John McCarthy in Strikeforce and Yuji “Boo” Shimada in Japan. Prefight and postfight presentations show the champ with their belt - each league has a unique belt. The champ and contender stare down before the fight. Official decisions highlight the winner with the belt around them- the camera even zooms in on it. One of my favorite moments.
End your career at the top of your game in Strikeforce or Mystic and you fight in a unification bout between the two leagues.
Production
User Consideration
Total Strike Control or Classic Controls button striking - you decide how you want to train. All training games accommodate both control styles. You can also simulate an exercise at the grade you have earned. So if you earn an A in Boxing Combos 1, you don’t have to replay it-you can just sim it. We even make that the default option after earning an A.
The only pop-ups you see are fight contract emails - we don’t make you hunt them down. We don’t bombard you with useless emails. When checking league rankings we default to your fighter on the list for his specific league so you don’t have to search for him.
Drills and exercises are put in menu order by stand up, clinch, and ground. All of the similar drills are listed in order. Each drill is set up so you can see which attributes will grow per drill. Drills are set up to work on multiple attributes, but each one focuses more on a particular attribute. So working on Boxing Combos 1 can improve you punch combo speed the most with little growth in the other areas, whereas Boxing Combos 2 increases your overall hand speed, but your combo speed does not gain much. Boxing Combos 3 and 4 increase your left and right hand power respectively, but not your hand speed or punch combo speed.
You can always spar or hit the heavy bag at any time at no time cost to your fighter’s career.
Graphics
EA SPORTS MMA captures the intensity of the fight game with realistic graphics that are even better than Fight Night Round 4. FN4 laid the groundwork and set a high bar that we built upon.
Faces showcase emotion during, before, and after the fight. Fighters’ muscles flex and jiggle. Our fighters’ bodies are so detailed that when we released the first screen shot showing Fedor doing an armbar to a mystery fighter, diehard MMA fans recognized it as Randy Couture from the scars on his knee and freckles on his stomach.
We handle damage realistically and make it special - you shouldn’t look like a bloody mess after every fight. Blood transfers from fighter to fighter, to the mat, to a fighter’s shorts, even back to the original fighter.
When a fighter receives bruises, first you see reddening then swelling. Bodies redden from repeated strikes and faces redden then swell. For severe damage, a fighter’s eyes swell shut and his nose will actually break.
Online
With online, we want to make the players themselves celebrities. Live Broadcast incorporates player-created Hype Videos and Live Announcers to create a community-driven fight card that highlights the top talent in our online leagues.
EA SPORTS MMA online rewards effort by allowing players to have success early and often. A fair matchmaking system makes quick matchups. Even losing is still valuable and acceptable - you’ll earn experience points towards a title shot even when you lose.
Our Online Modes provide the expected online experience and then some with an easy to use interface that allows you to search for friends, view deep leader boards, and more.
Upload your own EA SPORTS Highlights or even let friends download your created fighters through Fighter Share. View any fighter’s last 5 fights in full through Fight Replays - great for scouting and of course trash talking.
Commentary
EA SPORTS MMA commentary accurate reflects what you’d hear in an actual broadcast. Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock banter about the sport of MMA, the leagues you’re fighting in, the positions of fighters, showing respect or taunting, and fighter strategies. Our commentators are always aware of the action and will use break-in lines when they recognize a big moment happening - for example a knockdown will take precedent over general banter. Successful strikes landed and their type, successful takedowns, knockdowns, submission attempts, and more add to commentary statistical awareness.
Created fighters can be called out to a selection of over 475+ first names, 550+ last names, and 200+ nicknames. Commentators keep things personal and historical for you, being aware of your Fight Now history and the match type, whether it’s a championship, contender, rematch, or rivalry match. During your career you hear commentary about your pro debut, first loss, first win type (TKO, KO or submission), knowledge of majority of win type, and where you’re at in league progression - if you’re struggling in your career and on your last fight you’ll hear about your Tomato Can fight.
Commentators will recognize your fighter’s style starting in your second league once you’ve established yourself. For example they may say something like, “Rivero has a great base with his background in wrestling.” They also acknowledge who you’ve trained with and the special moves you’ve earned from them, such as learning the Diving Punch from Pat Miletich. Commentators will be aware of previous belts you have held and if you’re fighting a title unification match.
Our licensed fighters are highlighted by our commentators. You hear over 40 fighter-specific actions: Randy Couture engaging in a clinch, Nick Diaz taunting his opponent, Dan Henderson landing an overhand right, Bas Rutten landing a liver shot, and more. Commentators banter about fighters including details such as the origin of Renato “Babalu” Sobral’s nickname and Brett Rogers’ previous job before pro fighting.
Over 30 different matchups are commented on: dream matches like Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko and Frank Shamrock vs. Ken Shamrock, as well as real matches like Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers and Cung Le vs. Scott Smith. Commentators recognize specific actions between fighters such as when Shinya Aoki attempts a kimura on Mizuto Hirota, the same move he used to break his arm in their previous fight. Or when Fedor Emelianenko wins via TKO over Brett Rogers, the same way he won their previous matchup. Or when Fabricio Werdum attempts a triangle choke on Fedor Emelianenko, the same submission he used to win their previous fight.
Your cornerman will offer valuable advice between rounds, based on the round and the fight score. You’ll have access to 8 different cornermen from all over the world - America, England, Brazil, Japan, and Thailand.
