For the uninitiated or unprepared, a niche sports game can be a cruel mistress. Without priors or forehand knowledge of the sport, one can feel very much out of their depth; there’s a specific way to play and subsequently best these games, and if you’re not privy to this it won’t often end well.

The Ultimate Fighting Champion tie-in is a particularly punishing one, in that even those familiar with the sport or adept at fighting games can struggle with the franchise’s intention to produce the real deal. After two hours mastering the justifiably lengthy tutorial section, I thought I was ready for what THQ’s third entry in the series had prepared for me (although this was my first real foray into the franchise); my first fight in the Career Mode proved that not to be the case.

At its best UFC 3 is a mightily enjoyable game that rewards you for your perseverance. A lot of fights are required to truly master the art of the fight, with many different fighting disciplines and move varieties on show for you to learn to precipitate, counter and utilise effectively yourself. If just one element of your fight style is weak you can’t ride your luck for long before the game throws you to the floor and makes it a point to show you have frailties.

“The fights are the best part of this game and what sells the game to people, so why hide them away and wheel them out when necessary as bite-size events?”

For a sport that on the surface appears to be a back alley fight Sponsored By Harley Davidson, the inner workings are very complex. Behind the flashy lights and the atmosphere-building testosterone-fuelling spectacle – which THQ absolutely nail to a tee – is a frenetic, brutal yet surprisingly sophisticated technique-laden activity. If the Career Mode made the fights themselves a much more important fixture than the show that engulfs it, I’d have enjoyed my time with it a whole lot more.

The filler is a vacuous tedium-producing series of deceptively time-consuming training mini-games – think Top Spin meets World’s Strongest Man – and offensively pointless fighter customisation. These hole-plugging activities make up a large part of your game progress time, in the same way that fat clogs your arteries: the fighting is what makes this game flow but THQ seem intent on padding the experience with fatty by-products, a labyrinth of time-consuming and fun-diverting options that are sadly more paramount to the success of your career than I care for.

Between creating a fighter, adorning him with apparel he strips himself of before stepping into the ring, creating my own weirdly intricate entrance for both UFC and the new Pride matches (from what I understand, these are more rule-free), participating in inane training exercises, buying sponsorship items and generally killing time in the new Camp section which lets you essentially join UFC factions to make allegiances and earn bonus CRED (read: money) for your loyalty, the game time/fight time ratio is staggeringly unbalanced.

The fights are the best part of this game and what sells the game to people, so why hide them away and wheel them out when necessary as bite-size events? Not that the fights themselves are without fault mind: the endgame submissions are a glorified mini-game themselves which renders immersion a fleeting moment and the otherwise subconscious suspension of disbelief impossible. Aside from this incongruity and the inadvertently suggestive touchy-feely moments where both fighters embrace and neither relinquish their holds, the fighting is an exciting, furious and thoroughly fun spectacle that plays second string to the minutiae in the key game mode.

“ Behind the flashy lights and the atmosphere-building testosterone-fuelling spectacle – which THQ absolutely nail to a tee – is a frenetic, brutal yet surprisingly sophisticated technique-laden activity.”

Other game modes thankfully put the fights above all else – the circus act that is the Career Mode is more WWE than UFC, but the other modes know what game franchise they’re a part of – but to go full circle here, for those with no UFC pedigree the chunky but one-track Exhibition Mode is really the only place for you to reside in lest you wander into a gun fight with a foam baseball bat. The Title Mode and subsequent Title Defense Mode are two which will have the AI throw its best arsenal at you, while the Ultimate Fights Mode needs the player to have an extensive knowledge of the likewise extensive move list to keep up with the strict yet rapidly changing requirements.

The online component isn’t even an area that should be considered for rookies: like any fighting game, UFC 3 will no doubt garner soon after release an elite band of crack fighters who (as is the way with these games) will show you no mercy. My first and only fight to date resulted in a very surprising win but I don’t expect myself to find a good run of form: the online component has its own levelling system which some will find a hook to keep them fighting but it’s best to tread lightly if these games aren’t your domain.

For the multiplayer experience, play with friends and fight it out amongst yourselves to see who comes out top. UFC 3′s Exhibition Mode has the right casual emphasis to allow for this and if you’re going to want to play this game with anyone but yourself and the AI, find people you know to get the best out of it.

Ultimately this is not the ultimate fighter game I’d hoped for. Fitting into the aforementioned uninitiated category – I’ve watched a few fights, played the UFC 2010 demo but never invested in UFC before – I felt like this would be a chance for me to expand my gaming repertoire. I can report back that those like me will find it tough to work their way into the franchise. The barrage of product placement coupled with a heavy emphasis on customising in the career mode will no doubt put off many, as will the frightening prospects of several of the other game modes and the brutal unpredictability many of the fights can bring with them (one fight I had lasted the length of one punch).

UFC 3 is going to be just what the fans want; for myself and everyone outside of the inner octagon, this is one fight we’re not going to have a chance of winning.