One genre that has been lacking for Nintendo systems since the Nintendo 64 “glory days” has been the fighting genre. What’s better than two warriors going head to head, or fist to head for that matter, as they battle for the honor of being a champion and proving their fight discipline is the best? Well if you are like me and gaming doesn’t get much better than this, then get ready for UFC Throwdown. Crave has taken their well-made UFC Tapout style gameplay and improved on it drastically.

First off, they have finally improved the outdated roster of old, and added some much needed favorites in the UFC world. New to this game are the “Prodigy” B.J. Penn, heavyweight and recent broadcast announcer Ricco Rodriguez, the Canadian grappling sensation “Ronin” Carlos Newton, amongst others. Most importantly is the deleting of the outdated fighters from the Tapout roster. Say goodbye to UFC fossils like “Chief” Andre Roberts fight fans. Also gone from the roster are those who have moved on to other mixed martial arts promotions, namely the great Pride Fighting Championships. These fighters include “Big Daddy” Gary Goodridge, Guy Mezger of Lions Den fame, “The Specimen” Mark Kerr, and a few others. Perhaps one of these fighters might show up as hidden characters, but one has to assume they were taken out due to their affiliation with Pride and the possible inclusion of them in the highly anticipated upcoming Pride game for the Playstation 2. Yet we still see Bas Rutten in the roster though he is the world’s greatest color commentator as one half of Pride’s English broadcast announce team. One curious non-omitted blemish on the roster is the “East Side Assassin” Mikey Burnett from the Lions Den, who hasn’t competed in the UFC for quite some time, and definitely ranks up there with Andre Roberts as a fan requested "get the hell off the roster."

Crave has also reported a much more developed create a fighter and career mode will be implemented in UFC Throwdown. While no much news on this has been reported, judging from screenshots the create a fighter will allow you to not only choose everything from appearance to age to fighting discipline. You can also set the weight class in which you will compete in Champion Mode, which has been finally separated into all five weight classes recognized in the UFC(light, welter, middle, light heavy, and heavy). Your created fighter can also earn skill points to “level up” in five separate fighting skills which are life, stamina, kicking, punching; and the new area not included in Tapout, wrestling. One early screenshot also seems to show you will have the ability to set up your fighters move set, which is an essential factor in any decent edit mode.

With so many improvements promised as their already solid UFC series continues to yet another platform, Crave is giving both fight fans and GameCube gamers something to look forward to. And you can count on PGC to bring you any further news on this sure to be brutal title as it closes nearer to it s release!