The Fight
At the start of The Fight, you’re confronted with a gruff, angry Danny Trejo who barks at you how to play the game in FMV. It’s strange, confusing and doesn’t really work, much like the game itself.
Filling the shoes of a token fighting game for the Move’s early days, The Fight is a bare knuckle fighting game in which you climb up the ranks of underground street fighting, dragging your ugly customised character with you.
It’s a stark black and white affair, with only blood adding colour to its grim existence. Oh, and the glowing pink balls on the edge of the controller in your hand.
There are flashes on potential in its Move-enabled control scheme, which allows you to use two Move controllers or a single Move controller and sideways Dual Shock.
As with other Move titles - Sports Champions, for instance - two controllers work best but no matter which configuration you choose, nothing ever feels quite right once the actual fighting begins.
The Move’s depth-sensing capabilities and PlayStation Eye tracking means you can’t really cheat the control scheme like you can on similar titles on the Wii - you have to really swing and jab, but there’s still usually a huge disconnect between what you input and what your bumbling avatar actually does.
It’s a disparity compounded by the game’s rigid animations and odd perspectives. Unlike Sports Champions, your character does not move one to one, and moving someone’s fists from a third person perspective with your own hands just feels bizarre.
The fights are otherwise functional but quickly become repetitive, and once the initial glean has worn off, there’s little to keep you coming. Unlike games like Fight Night, it’s difficult to master due to its random, inaccurate nature. You don’t care about progressing because it quickly loses its fun.
The Fight has some good ideas, such as head tracking for bobbing and weaving, but constantly struggles with its own control scheme and wraps it in a generic and boring presentation which doesn’t endear at all.
It feels like a mechanic yanked from a mini-game collection and stretched over an idea designed by committee and altered by focus testing. The end result unfocused, rushed and isn’t really worth it.
Verdict: 5/10
Platform: PlayStation 3
Genre: Fighting
Developer/Publisher: ColdWood Interactive/Sony
Release: 05/11/10
FemaleFirst Michael Moran