7.5

The Fight: Lights Out

The Fight: Lights Out is an interesting title and not just because it uses the new PlayStation Move control system. As opposed to those rather childish PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect games, The Fight: Lights Out is actually a rather indulging and at times realistic experience.

The game is also quite gritty with its street-like fights and more importantly, the PlayStation Move control works quite well with the concept. The Move controllers are quite responsive and there is some interesting game mechanics that definitely add a new level of accuracy to gaming.

The only word of advice is that you need to ensure that your Move controllers are securely attached to your wrist, unless you want your flat screen TV damaged. Also, you need to fit... quite fit to get the maximum out of this game as well.

The story The Fight: Lights Out is definitely like a bad C-Grade action movie where you participate in a variety of illegal street fights. Unfortunately the story is not fleshed out that well and they definitely dropped the glove here.

The game does give the player some options for customisation in order to tweak and change your appearance for some ownership. You are also trained by Danny Trejo who basically teaches you how to use the Move controllers and what you need to do to win. Like other sport games, there is also a gym where you can train such as the speed bag which is once again, another tough and physical workout.

From here, it's time to fight your way up to the top and lets just say that there a lot and I do mean a lot of fights. As opposed to story mode, The Fight: Lights Out does offer some quick games to keep you entertained if you have time restraints.

fFor lovers of online, there are a number of fight options from ranked matches to quick bouts. Online did provide us with some lag but thankfully it was quite smooth. One recommendation I do make is that before you start playing, you need to make sure the Move is successfully calibrated because if it's not and like all Move or Kinect games, it will give the player some endless grief.

Your opponents in The Fight are quite diverse and can range from quite easy to quite challenging but thankfully it's a relatively progressive scale in difficulty. The gameplay is not just limited to your basic punches either and thanks to the responsive controls of the Move, you can really target your punches to make them count. However, all this physical exercise does come at a price and with the Move controls, it does give you a good workout.

The only problem with the controls is that two Move controllers are required to successfully play the game. There is an option to mix and match with other controllers but it loses the accuracy.

It's a real shame that the Move starter packs for the PlayStation 3 only comes with one Move controller because most games support both controllers. By holding two Move controllers, these replicate your punches in the game and the tracking of the game is far superior for now, than the Kinect.

Apart from throwing punches, you also need to block by raising your arms up to block and the game does sense how fast and powerful your punches are. So when you want to do that final blow, you sometimes have to hit hard, even though you are punching the air.

Another tactic of the game are special moves which require the player to move the controllers in a particular direction. Although a little tricky to do, these moves can sometimes help if your almost down for the count or fighting one of the tougher opponents.

And just like a real fight, you can move around a little to dodge or move away from attacks, thanks to the PlayStation Eye camera. For a Move game, it's almost there... it just needed a little more tweaking to perfect the control system.

The graphics of The Fight are quite detailed but because of the shady world of illegal street fighting, the game is quite dark at times. The fighters themselves look quite detailed and they do move with this humanlike, sometimes catlike grace. Although they do look a little "buff" and "square" at times.

The musical score is quite standard for a fighting game and the voice acting is a little over the top as are the sound effects. All in all, it's an above average presentation.

In conclusion, The Fight: Lights Out does push the PlayStation Move away from those cutesy children's games and gives more mature gamers an more adult option. The controls work well but configuration is once again the key to succeeding in this title and you need two Move controllers to play it properly. Even though the gameplay doesn't change the world of fighting, the Move definitely takes it out of the armchair arena and makes you get physical. If you're lazy or like your gaming relaxed, best look elsewhere!