• Posted November 8th, 2010 at 20:42 EDT by Steven Williamson
• 10 Comments

“Don’t wave your hands around like you're chasing flies,” warns bare-knuckle boxing trainer, Danny Trejo prior to your violent journey into the lawless world of street fighting. His gruff and aggressive voice fits perfectly with the dark and gritty theme that throbs through the veins of The Fight: Lights Out, the first ever PlayStation Move-compatible brawler.

Indeed, in terms of overall look, Swedish developer ColdWood Interactive has created a sombre game that accurately captures the violent spirit of the type of men who take part in no-holds-barred fisticuffs. The characters are intricately designed and look overtly aggressive in the ring, with their bulging biceps and battered and bruised faces, while the locations that you fight in, such as a grimy, abandoned warehouse, make for some appropriately gloomy arenas where the dark red of spilled blood stands out impressively against the ill-lit palette of black and white colour.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no real storyline to tell you about, other than you assuming control of a rag to riches, lowly street fighter looking to make it big and earn money along the way. What is disappointing, however, is there’s no real character building, which would have given more meaning to the numerous one-on-one bouts of bare-knuckle fighting that you’ll participate in – we’d rather beat someone we hate to a pulp, rather than someone that just looks a bit mean.

Compensating somewhat for this lack of depth is a basic customisation system, allowing you to earn points at the gym and through fights and then spend it on improving various attributes, such as strength and speed. As you battle from one opponent to the next, your character builds in stature, as does your confidence as you feel the difference in the ring. Sadly, the gym games are particularly monotonous as you rain blows repeatedly on a punch bag, or physically drain yourself by trying to pummel a speed bag as fast as you possibly can. Nevertheless, you won’t spend as much time in the gym as you will in the ring so you should be able to live with it. Just don’t waste all your energy there because you’ll really need it!

Setting up the two PlayStation Move controllers takes just a few moments of calibration before each match, but it can get a little tiresome doing it so frequently. We’re told that frequent calibration is necessary because you may have moved from the position you were standing in at the start of the last fight, so the PlayStation Eye needs to reassess your positioning prior to each bout. Ideally, you shouldn’t move when boxing otherwise shots don’t register. As it turns out, it doesn’t really seem to matter whether you stay still or move a little bit because your shots register inconsistently anyhow.

As soon as a fight starts you’re free to jab, upper-cut and body punch your way to success by mimicking real-life boxing moves with both controllers clenched firmly in hand. In reality, it’s not quite that easy though, especially if you’re unfit. The Fight: Lights Out is a real challenge physically and by our third match we were on the verge of begging for the beatings to stop, and we'd lost our coordination, punching our arms frantically forward like we were trying to batter our way through an invisible brick wall. You really do need stamina to play The Fight, and lots of it.

What’s more worrying though is the lack of accuracy with the Move controllers. We were expecting true 1:1 accuracy, but what you actually get is a boxer that responds sluggishly to your movements, often bringing his fist forward slightly behind your own actions. When the game does recognise your movements precisely, matches flow smoothly and The Fight: Lights Out is fun to play, but it does so inconsistently and those moments are all too brief. Such is the problem that it doesn’t just feel like you’re ... (continued on next page)