Motion Fighters Fists-on
We take the PlayStation Move to the streets for a vigorous round of motion-controlled brawling.
Earlier today at the 2010 Game Developers Conference, Sony announced the official name for its much-heralded motion controller: the PlayStation Move. Along with the announcement came a number of demos, which members of the press were able to play immediately following the presentation. One of these demos was Motion Fighters (working title), a one-on-one fighting game featuring two gritty-looking street brawlers. In the interest of science (the not-so-sweet kind), we grabbed two Moves and started swinging. Here's how it played out.
The streets of Motion Fighters are predominantly black and white, with a few splashes of color in the graffiti and, of course, blood spewing from your opponent's mouth. It should be noted that the game was in a pre-alpha state when we played it (20 percent complete, according to the screen), so the look and feel were far from final. That said, the brawlers were quite detailed and the environments set the right kind of back-alley atmosphere. Fighting as a muscular guy with a large dragon tattoo across his back, we took on a balding, leather-jacketed biker fellow with a mean scowl on his face. Punches landed with satisfying impact, and the aforementioned blood spurts served as gruesome rewards for particularly solid shots.
But landing a good punch is no easy task. A mere flick of the wrist isn't going to cut it here, so you have to really put some effort in and extend your arms. Straight punches register as jabs while curved blows register as hooks. Turning the Move sideways, lowering your fist, then thrusting upward executes an uppercut. All of the motions are pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Holding your arms together in front of your body will block, and leaning to avoid your opponent's strikes is as easy as leaning yourself. If you get caught leaning into a punch, be prepared to take extra damage. As you land blows on your opponent, a meter at the top of the screen will reflect how much punishment he is taking. Each blow increases the meter, though if you land a big one and then let your opponent recover, the bar will diminish slightly. This seems to reward hitting in quick combos and keeping the pressure on, which gives you more encouragement to batter your opponent silly.
If you are feeling particularly enthusiastic, you can unleash some dirty tactics to deal further punishment. If you get close to your opponent, you can grab him in a headlock by holding two buttons on the Move (the trigger and the action button, which is the big one right where your thumb rests) then swing your arm out like you are throwing a hook and pull it back. You can then proceed to uppercut him in the face or bring your elbow crashing down on his skull, but he is also free to take shots at you. You can also modify most punches to be elbow punches by holding a button when you strike, and swinging both Moves forward from your chest will deliver a nasty head-butt. When your damage meter reaches full strength, you can finish your opponent with a particularly gnarly finishing move, though we weren't able to see any in the build we played.
By requiring you to really put something into your punches and embracing its seedy street-fighting aesthetic, Motion Fighters looks to channel the raw, pugilistic satisfaction of beating the pulp out of a virtual somebody. We're looking forward to seeing how the controls are refined in future builds because it definitely felt like there was room to increase the controller's responsiveness to quicker combos. Still, the motion correspondence was pretty impressive, especially when dodging or landing a big haymaker. We'll have more on Motion Fighters in the coming months for all you fans of big hits and bloodied lips.
it's the future of handheld
PS VITA = LIFE
The official Vita thread http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=130023&page=1
