Last week, I attended a press event for The Fight: Lights Out, Sony's gritty, PlayStation Move-based boxing game (Wii Sports boxing this is not). While most press events are pretty low-key -- here's the game, here's some grub -- Sony decided to amp up the competition for this one by slotting about 20 of us games writers into a bracketed tournament. I made it all the way to the final round -- which I promptly lost.
Should you decide to set up your own The Fight: Lights Out tournament when the game comes out on November 9, here are a few tips from a near-champion on how to almost make it to the winner's circle.
Tip 1: Flail.
Picture yourself and another schlubby games journalist, each holding glowy Move controllers in your hands. Neither of you have any real-life fighting experience. Who's going to win the match? The one who lands the most punches, of course.
So as soon as the bell rings, start flailing like mad. Sure, your onscreen representation may look like a schizophrenic swatting the demons away (and truth be told, real-life you probably looks like that, too), but all it takes is a few solid connections to knock the other guy out cold. The more you flail, the more likely you'll hit him.
Warning: Flailing without stretching beforehand may result in your arms being very sore the next day.
Tip 2: Fight dirty.
While watching the match to determine my next opponent, I noticed one guy throwing elbows and backhands. I asked the Sony producer next to me how that worked. He told me you can fight dirty simply by pulling the trigger on the Move controller as you throw your punch. Dirty moves result in heavier damage. In the single-player game, fighting dirty earns you less money per match, so you'll want to vary up your play, but a tournament is strictly about winning. I laid out my next two opponents with a couple well-placed backhands to the head.
Tip 3: Get Danny Trejo on your side.
Danny Trejo, badass star of movies like Machete, appears virtually in The Fight: Lights Out as a trainer. To promote his involvement with the game, the real Danny Trejo was at this event. He introduced the final fight between me and Jose Sanchez of Electric Playground. Asked to provide a few words of advice before the Move controllers went on, Trejo whispered to Sanchez that he'd give him 100 bucks to throw the fight.
Sure, I would've liked Danny Trejo to be rooting for me on my own merits, but it felt pretty damn good that he wanted me to win...whatever the reason.
Tip 4: Forget everything you just learned.
The shock of making it to the finals caught up to me just as the championship match began. I subsequently flubbed the controls, hitting the camera buttons when I meant to be throwing dirty uppercuts -- meaning I had a sweet aerial view of my fighter's skull fracturing from an elbow blow. I made a valiant effort to recover after that, but the damage had been done.
But hey, even though I didn't win, I still left with ridiculous photo as a consolation prize:
