The Fight: Lights Out Preview

It’s a down-and-dirty, brutal world, where your fists are the only form of communication. Consisting of various one-on-one encounters in a gritty black-and-white setting, The Fight: Lights Out for the PlayStation Move is probably the closest you’ll want to come to a bare-knuckle encounter. It’s all about the underground vibe – sorta like “Fight Club” – and you can even train your character in a variety of combat styles. We should probably mention that you’ll need two Move wands to play, and we should also mention that we’ll need some seriously satisfying accuracy for this game to be a success. As a “Moving” experience, if the technology doesn’t come through, we’re left with a frustrating, mostly broken mechanic that fails to deliver the intense goods. Still, some of the first titles for Move, like Sports Champions and EyePet , have been encouraging so we’ll remain optimistic.

You’ll be able to punch forward with either hand – a Move controller in each hand – which can result in blows to the head or body shots. This sounds cool but there is one downside: it’s not an exact science, in that your blows will either fall on the head or body; you can’t go out of your way to aim at the shoulder, or something. We’re not sure why you’d want to do the latter, but you get what we’re saying. Some may see this trait as an immediate drawback but don’t forget about the aforementioned fighter customization, and the addition of diverse attacks. There are jabs, uppercuts, hooks, and you’ll even be able to execute a potentially damaging head butt by pulling both controllers back towards your chest. And hey, there’s more- you can start your assault with a two-handed smash to the head to stun your opponent, and then move on to elbowing him in the face. Nice.

There will be a total of 12 characters to choose from, and each one will be able to fight a little dirty, as we just explained. You can execute such attacks by holding the trigger buttons, and it’ll be interesting to see what kinds of variations exist. Based on what we’ve heard and seen, the key will revolve around your timing, precision, and strategy. While some opponents will yield to a total offensive onslaught (likely the first fighters you face), the more difficult foes will force you to wait, bide your time, and take advantage of specific openings. The ability to land spinning elbows and other brutal attacks is nice but don’t forget that if you miss, you’re exposed. Maybe you can earn some solid training by practicing with the Gladiator Duel in Sports Champions ; a cool form of combat that features different weapons, shields, and both offensive and defensive maneuvers. By the time a fight is over, you’ll probably be flushed and out of breath, which means you just had a decent workout.

The developers recently said they “conducted a ton of motion capture to ensure that every punch, every hit reaction, every dirty move and every hard-hitting knockout makes the player feel right in the thick of the action.” Therefore, we’ll be expecting a truly authentic experience that responds accurately to our movements and rewards those who fight well. That’s always the goal for this new motion sensing technology, isn’t it? We all want to feel as if we’re doing exactly what we would be doing in real life; provided The Fight: Lights Out manages to impart such a feeling, it should be a big success. But of course, the families who had fun with EyePet will want to give this one a pass if they don’t have any kids over the age of 16 or so. Leave this up to those who understand that violence can look cool but almost never is .