A little over a year and a half ago, a small developer out of Arizona (Grey Dog Software) took the chance at tackling the sport of mixed martial arts in the form of a text-based simulation. Having done well with games based on wrestling simulations, it was a step that not only made sense, but was successful. The original World of Mixed Martial Arts had depth and tons of potential, so it came to no surprise when Grey Dog Software announced the sequel last year.

Let’s begin with what has been removed from WMMA. The most crucial removal from the original has been the business aspects. If you were a fan of modifying merchandise prices, working with sponsors and the like, you’ll be sad to know that they have been removed. But it was all with good reasoning; WMMA 2 focuses on the booking (match-creating) side of the business. So the main criteria for success in WMMA 2 won’t be all about managing your finances and working your way up the ladder with sponsors, but rather putting on great shows for your fans. Even then, not all the business aspects were removed as if they were a foregone conclusion -- players can put together PPV proposals and work on contracts for television shows. On top of that, players will be hiring and firing their fighters, along with the ability to now buy out other organizations to work as feeder/development companies. This addition should excite any hardcore MMA fan because you now have the ability to send away your bright and young prospects to earn experience without having to waste a spot on your cards. The only issue is that you can’t book shows for other organizations you own, but only send away and call them up.

In original, Grey Dog Software failed to incorporate a big enough database of fighters and organizations to hold a gamer’s interest. This time around, GDS has implemented a larger database full of fighters (both male and female) ranging from the Featherweight division to the Heavyweight division. Players are able to alter the database at their own free will in or out of the game (with a few exceptions such as contracts within the game). As of right now, there’s only one debuting fighter that will show up in the future of the game, so the starting database is practically the database you’ll be using throughout your career; not considering regenerated fighters (regenerated fighters are reused renders of retired fighters to keep the database at a larger state). GDS have done an excellent job with improving the database in comparison to last year’s version and there are promises of updates in the future of new fighters via download. It should also be noted that players can both download modified roster databases from other players that include real life organizations such as the UFC and also convert WMMA 1 databases to WMMA 2 format.

Another welcomed change that has been worked in is that fights can now be read in play-by-play format. WMMA 1 only allowed players to read the full post fight description causing for players to often skip ahead to the results and not care about how the fight happened. Due to popular demand, WMMA 2 has play-by-play so players can read the action as it happens. This is an exciting addition as you’ll grow attached to your fighters as you read how they progress through a match and see how they potentially win or lose.

Compared to the original, the criteria for being a great president for your company are a little different. In the past, I was never fired from my position nor was I ever in danger of being fired. In this year’s iteration, I’ve been fired twice without any warning along with seeing several other organizations’ presidents fired due to declining popularity. The popularity is handled a little differently than before as it’s no longer broken down by having popularity in every region (states, territories, etc) for each and every country, but instead just in the countries themselves. Booking cards becomes increasingly harder as you gain recognition and popularity due to that your fighters must be at the same level for your fans to appreciate your shows. If they aren’t, they’ll think that your main and co-main events are poor and won’t like the show no matter how good of a fight they put on. This is a drawback when it comes to having an arousing time with the game and finding out that you can no longer put on a quality show since your popularity has risen so fast, yet your fighters haven’t. It has been modified since the game’s release through updates, but players should still be wary about the difficulty of the game as it’s much tougher to be successful in WMMA 2.

If you have never played a text-based simulation before, you shouldn’t expect a graphical beauty that will require a maxed out graphics card. Instead, WMMA 2 has static 3D renders to show off what the fighters look like and several other graphical banners and backgrounds for a player’s viewing pleasure. Don’t expect any animated sequences where you can see how a match played out or watching big-named fighters sign a contract through replay segments. For what was presented in WMMA 2, the graphics get the job done but they aren’t as easy going on the eyes as last year’s release.

Lastly, in terms of what needs to be improved if there’s to be a WMMA 3, the biggest issue that came up with WMMA 2 was that rivalries and friendships have little to no effect in the game. It’s a rarity to see rivalries and friendships build up over two year’s worth of time in the game. This should feature should play a vital role for players who want book exciting cards as rivalries make for great marketing tools (even though players don’t handle that part of the business) to help sell your shows. But instead, even after watching fighters fight two to three times in a career, and having different results via submission, knockouts and draws, fighters in the game rarely ever build a rivalry with each other.

You can purchase WMMA 2 via GDS’s homepage.

Gameplay: 8.5
Much tighter and more exciting, WMMA 2 is a worthy sequel that focuses on the booking side of the MMA world.

Graphics: 6.8
The renders look great, but the background and banners aren’t visually impressive.

Sound: N/A
There’s no sound at all in this text-based simulation.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Hiring fighters from your rival organizations isn’t too hard if you are a big enough company, but keeping your job at said company is a little more difficult than it was in the past. If you’ve never played a simulation game in the past, you’ll need to have a lot of patience and time to invest.

Concept: 8.8
Grey Dog Software took a bold step in developing text-based simulators on a sport that is still growing. Here’s hoping that the team can work away at WMMA 3 and continue to improve on the foundation they have laid out in WMMA 2.

Overall: 8.2
As an improvement over the original, any MMA fan or simulation fanatic should definitely consider purchasing WMMA 2. You’ll be sucked in no time and there’s no doubt that you’ll look down at your clock and ask yourself, “Where did the last five hours go?”