The Fight: Lights Out Review

You gotta swing the Move wand like this if you want to kick some ass, comprende?

Got it, Mr. Trejo, thanks. Oh, have you all not met Danny Trejo? He's Machete, and your own personal trainer in The Fight: Lights Out, a fighting game for the Playstation Move that puts you in the gloves wrapped hands of an underground fighter.

You gotta play to win, ese! Mr. Trejo is right. If you're going to succeed in The Fight: Lights Out, you have to really throw punches. There are few canned animations. Punches, hooks, and uppercuts are all one to one. Some special moves are triggered, but the action required to pull of those moves often retains the feeling of actually doing the moves, like you're doing all the work.

You gotta train if you want to beat the best! Training with Mr. Trejo does boost your stats significantly. Training exercises especially come in handy when your stamina and health meters fail to carry you through to a victory in a fight. As you fight, you have to balance the amount of attacks you perform with your stamina meter. Having a lowered stamina means that you'll be left open to your opponent's attacks. Training will boost your power, stamina, health, endurance, and speed depending on what activities you do. Your in-game character reaps the benefits and you feel all the burn.

But that's really the biggest issue with The Fight: Lights Out. One-to-one fighting controls sound cool but are completely exhausting. Can you imagine how draining it would be to actually perform a barrage of actual hadoukens? And why is there a stamina bar with motion controls? If you're not tired swinging the Move, then why should the fighter in the game? It just doesn't make any sense.

This is real fighting! Real street fighting, amigo! Mr. Trejo certainly does his best to bring the dirt and grit of underground fighting to The Fight: Lights Out. Colors are sometimes too gray and drab, but fighter damage, sweat, and impacts all have a startling quality to them.

Yeah! Kick some ass, holmes! Mr. Trejo! I'm trying to write a review here!

Don't move your legs or you'll break the game! Make sure the Playstation Eye Can see the Moves of you'll break the game! Break the game and I'll break you, holmes! Mr. Trejo!

...Sorry, amigo.... You'll have to forgive him. The developers trapped him in an underground training facility with no clean clothes, no one to talk to, and no light, save for a pair of glowing Move wands. When you show up, he's going to be understandably enthusiastic to see another person. It's just too bad they couldn't have left a bathroom for him down there too.

If it weren't for the glowing pink ball in one of his hands and a blue ball in the other, Mr. Trejo's performance could be taken seriously to a point. The same goes for the rest of The Fight: Lights Out. The game can't seem to decide what it wants to be - a realistic boxer or just a windmill-flailing exercise - leaving the player with a jilted, unsatisfying experience. It's frustrating when you have no clue how to react to enjoy the game properly.

The Move hardware works really well. That sometimes hinders the player because The Fight: Lights Out doesn't pull any punches. It can end up being too much work for what amounts to not enough enjoyment. There's no assistance whatsoever and that makes The Fight: Lights Out brutal to play.