Review: The Fight
The Fight makes a horrible first impression and is initially an exercise in utter frustration. Motion controlled fighting games aren’t incredibly popular and the reason for that is that so far they haven’t worked very well!
Don't hurt me!
From the initial calibration phase you begin to suspect that there may be some problems. Firstly with the lighting, The Fight apparently requires a ridiculous amount of light in the room. Even playing with all the curtains open in the middle of a sunny day with light streaming in the windows I had a rating of ‘average’ lighting. Playing at night with just the inside lights on wasn’t any different. Perhaps playing the game outside or on the surface of the sun is the more appropriate place, but for the rest of us playing in our living rooms The Fight may just struggle to see and track you. This is further emphasised by the head tracking which sometimes worked well while other times it thought my chest was my head or it just gave up and switched itself off.
At the beginning you are thrust into a tutorial mode starring Danny Trejo who will be in your face, yelling at you and acting all tough as he explains the various controls. This tough guy attitude is immediately cancelled out by him holding up his glowing Move controllers and punching thin air whilst screaming and you will laugh and laugh before you realise that it’s exactly what you will look like while playing. Minus the moustache.
Yeah I'm yelling at you!
Once you finally get into the meat of the game, i.e. fighting people, things start to heat up a little. I must say that once I miraculously managed to get some ‘good’ lighting I actually started to have a bit of fun. If you’re unfit (hello!) it’s also a nice little workout and the game even tracks your fitness progress by calculating your BMI and telling you how many calories you are supposedly burning.
What I initially chalked up to problems with the motion detection ended up being a problem with my own fighting technique. Once set up properly, the motion controllers can map what your arms are doing pretty accurately, so while I was just randomly punching away, which came across as a dainty fist bump, I realised I should be fighting like I was in a real fight (but not run away) and finally started getting some decent hits in and winning matches. As you win fights you can upgrade your abilities. You can also get your arse handed to you online – finally, drunken fist fights can occur across the internet. The future is here!
Don't hurt me... again!
While the game is best enjoyed with 2 Move controllers, if you only have the one you can use a dual shock as your other ‘fist’ although it’s not as accurate and you need to use pre-set motions in order for the game to recognise it. While the game is kind of fun it’s not good enough to justify buying the Move (or a second Move) just to play it.
When you can get it working and spend some time with it then The Fight is a bit of fun. It’s an average experience overall, but shows there could be potential for a motion controlled fighter in the future.
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