As a longtime videogame critic and mixed martial arts fan, I was eager to get my hands on EA Sports MMA. From what I played at the E3 show floor, the game looks extremely promising.

Like EA’s other fighting franchise, Fight Night, players move with the left stick and strike via the right control stick. Flick the right stick in a left hook fashion and the player will do a left hook; conversely, flicking the stick in a right hook fashion appropriately initiates a right hook; however, unlike the sport of boxing, MMA also features kicking, submissions, guard passing, grappling, and more. These other functions are handled appropriately with the face buttons.

While blocking and striking on the feet is fun, the ground game is equally, if not more, intricate. Schematically on the Xbox 360 controller, the A button allows you to initiate takedowns, the B button denies your opponents’ advances, the Y button allows you to escape from bottom position, and the X button allows you to gain better position on your opponent. At first, the button layout was a little jarring, but since the controls are so consistent and cohesive, it all makes sense in due time. In addition, the rumbling of the controller is quite vital in terms of anticipating and denying your opponents’ advances.

In real life, takedown attempts seem to work best when mixed in with strikes. Initiating a takedown with the A button will give your opponent a rumbling cue, from which he can easily tap the B button to deny your advance. By mixing your strikes, which also causes your opponents’ controller to rumble, with your takedown attempts, the game accurately manages to mimic the complex trickery of real-life takedown attempts in MMA. In addition, attempting to escape out of bottom position will trigger a rumble effect for your opponent to deny, but if you mix in your sweep attempts with some strikes from the bottom, it will be much easier to get up. This is very similar to how the real sport works; in this regard, I was very impressed.

While EA Sports MMA is a fighting game, there is no traditional health meter; however, there is a stamina meter that allows you to power through guillotines, initiate submissions of your own, and more. The stamina meter depletes as fighters appropriately expend energy kicking, punching, or grappling. They can replenish their stamina by flicking the left stick away to avoid their opponent in the cage to catch their breath. In addition, fighters can only sustain an unspecified number of hits before they get knocked out, ala Fight Night.

Even though the game does not include the UFC’s huge roster, due to legal disputes, UFC hall-of-famer Randy “The Natural” Couture is in the game. Since San Jose-based fight company Strikeforce is a “premier league” in the game, alongside Couture are Strikeforce superstars Fedor Emelianenko, Cung Le, Alistair Overeem, and more.

From a visual standpoint, the game looks good. The fighters look like they should, sweat pours down their faces, and they move realistically. In my opinion, it looks more realistic than THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2010 effort. In addition, fighters seem to move like their real-life counterparts. You won’t see Jeff Monson attempt any spinning back kicks, but I saw plenty of cool-looking moves from flashy kick boxer Cung Le.

Overall, I can’t wait to see more of EA Sports MMA; it’s obvious the developer did their homework.