Sony Comes Out Fighting

Last week Sony dropped off the final version of The Fight, and although the review was meant to go live this week, I’ve a confession to make: I’ve barely made it past the first rung of opponents and the pyramid of brawlers and gritty locations goes way beyond what I’ve managed to work through.  Why?  Because I’m having so much fun smacking the living daylights out of the first couple of enemies.

It’s delicious, in a visceral, bloody kind of way.  Your arms in the game, mapped 1:1 with the Move controllers (you can play The Fight with one controller and a Dual Shock, but it’s not nearly as good), are a natural extension of your own, and your on-screen fighter reacts precisely as you’d expect him to do when throwing the punches.  There’s no silly combos here, whatever you can do with your own body your avatar does.

Well, that’s not strictly true: there’s a button to move (it’s the big Move button) and there’s another couple of things to remember (like holding the trigger and moving up, down does a slower, more powerful attack) but for the most part you’ll feel like you’re in the game more than, perhaps, any other game ever made.  And what’s more, you’ll tire, quickly, my arms are still aching from the weekend’s attempts at man-on-man warfare.

The game starts with a lengthy tutorial section before letting you loose on the single player mode, but it’s worth mentioning that there’s some issues with the calibration.  You need to do one too many into-the-camera gestures when starting the game, and in between each fight you’ll need to reset the Moves by stretching out and then assuming the guard position, it seems a bit of a shame but given that you’re likely to move your feet mid fight it’s only fair to assume that the game will get mixed up.  The head tracking, which apparently needs blistering sunshine the likes of which Scotland can’t afford, didn’t work for me at all.

The graphics are nice though: as noisy and dank as you’d expect but also packed with character, and although there’s a distinct lack of colour there’s plenty of detail too.  EA’s Fight Night looks better overall, but the style that Sony have gone for with The Fight works well.  The voiceover work is on the wrong side of cheesy, sadly, but the various punches, blows and cuts sound great against the rumble of the baying crowd in the background.

And then there’s Danny Trejo, a personal acting hero of mine and perfectly pitched in the game’s dark designs.  He’s clearly having fun, too, and when he brings up two glowing Move controllers whilst grunting about blocking it’s hard not to laugh.  But The Fight doesn’t have a sense of humour, this is a serious, no-holds barred attempt to show the world just what the PS3 can do with two Move controllers, and in that respect at least, it’s a success.

Review soon.

37 Comments

  1. Given how knackered I got once I passed the Silver Cup in Sports Champions’ Table Tennis I think I need to get fit before considering this

    but wow Danny Trejo a great fit

    • Ditto, the archery left me as out-of-breath too. Maybe they’ll make a Machete game to if Danny’s a hit!? Glad to hear this game’s delivering on its promise too – the previews near E3 had me wondering.

      • Perhaps we should be first in line for ‘Get Fit With Mel B’

        ;)

    • Yep. We exclusively revealed Danny Trejo was in The Fight a few months back.
      http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/08/17/interview-the-fight-lights-out/
      :)

      • But he’s not playable right? Just your ‘coach’?

      • Cheers Kovacs, that interview went under my radar (so ta for the link, great interview by the way, it’s looking like a no brainer 1st dayer for me)

    • just wait until you get to the champion cup level on table tennis if you think silver is bad…

      • number 6 in gold difficulty is nigh on impossible!

    • Have you tried the gold cup for Gladiator Duel?! My God, I was sweating buckets when I finally beat it!!

  2. This may be the first Move game I get, I’ll have to get another Move controller though, so unfortunetly it will havev to wait. Great review again nofi, Danny Trejo is ace, some of the wierdest movie combos for an actor ever! Dusk till Dawn, Desperado and Spy Kids!

    • Don’t you notice a pattern there?? he’s called Robert Rodriguez ;-)
      p.s Machette is absolutely fucking brilliant!!

  3. sounds like its come on leaps and bounds from the version i played. excellent.

    • I was thinking that – I’ve never played it but from videos I got the impression this would be a bit of a flop because the movement looked very laggy and it looked more like you did gestures to activate pre-canned animations rather than 1:1 tracking…

      If it really is as responsive and immersive as the preview suggests then this is definitely back on my wanted list…

      • Yes, a big change from what I was expecting. One to watch i think…

  4. you mention fight night looking better – does this support move in the same way then?

    Also is there multiplayer in ‘The Fight’?

    • Yep – multiplayer confirmed. See the link above where I asked about going online.

      • Ace – would love to try this out in 3d too

  5. This is the game I plan to get with Move, looks loads of fun!

  6. Hmm, you sure do seem to like it, and no mention of the lag seems to indicate it’s not an issue. The version I played at Eurogamer was very laggy, so I am still apprehensive.

  7. This is the one I’ve been waiting for :D

    Question: Is there like a training part, with punching balls etc. that could -theoretically- be used for proper exercise?

    • Get Fit With Mel B?

      I don’t know if you get to punch her though

  8. Can’t wait for this, loving the archery on Sports Champions at the moment but this really looks the nuts.

  9. I’m dubious about this one, the videos look really sluggish. Things can be tweaked though, so I’m interested to see the reviews.

  10. Day one for me – played it at the BetaRooms event and was impressed. Can’t wait to get stuck in to the real game, with the ‘dirty moves’ too which should be fun!!
    With this and Times Crisis it looks like the MOVE is getting a nice range of games…

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