Kung-Fu Live Review

Kung-Fu live is a PSN download title that utilises the PlayStation eye camera to detect movement and place you in the game. As the title of the game suggests, you have to flaunt your Kung-Fu prowess, punching and kicking your way throughout the game. With the release of the Kinect and competition from existing motion controlled hardware on the Wii, does Kung-Fu live do enough to make it stand out or is it just a *shovelware title for Sony's newly released tech.

Well first and foremost, the game is priced very competitively. The last time I checked it was priced at £10.99 which is fairly reasonable especially when compared to the cost of your average Wii game or indeed the price of Kinect titles.

Gameplay wise, the premise is immensely simple. your image is superimposed on the screen via the PlayStation Eye's movement detection capability, where you then unleash hell onto waves of baddies using any combination of punches and kicks that you feel like at the time.

Super moves are available to you as you progress through the story and consist of moves such as your character charging forwards and hitting the baddies harder by simply thrusting your arms in their direction.

Detection of some moves can be a little sketchy at times, if the camera doesn't pick up some of the moves that you make but that is usually down to lighting issues which you cant really do a huge amount about besides filling your front room/ office / games room with industrial grade lighting. Another problem the game suffers from is the pure amount of space needed to play it, after moving coffee tables and various living room objects out of the way I still came very close to whacking my partner in the chops. Not only can this be dangerous but it hinders game play a little as if the camera cant see you correctly, your character model starts to break up and grow lumps and bumps where it shouldn't or just fade into the background altogether which gets annoying. Still this shouldn't really be a problem providing you have adequate space to play it.

To combat the above problems, there have been pretty comprehensive menu's included which allow you to tweak and perfect pretty much every setting in the game so if you are patient enough to go through the settings manually, you may be able to enhance the experience for yourself that way.

Graphically, the game looks good. Story telling sections in between the action are told via a comic book style design which is a novel and interesting way of doing things. These sections are eyecatching and can be hillarious at times. The game will ask you to stike a few pre defined poses at the end of a level, these poses will be used in the comic book story telling sequences and are sometimes just too funny! Graphically, things in game are basic, not horrible by no means but they are enough, enough for you to have a good time. No more, no less which is fine as it seems to work.

The most important part of this game however and something which I have briefly touched upon, is the level of fun this game holds.

Playing the game is great, once you let go of your inhibitions of looking like an utter tool whilst playing (which you do by the way) its a great experience. Punching and kicking, flailing your limbs or using household props are hysterically funny both to watch and take part in. I actually cried with laughter when my partner brought our 6 month old kitten into the fray holding it up like a prop whilst she swiped at enemies (no animals were harmed!). This is certainly a game for parties, one to crack open a few drinks and entertain the room with your Bruce Lee style (read: pathetic limb flailing) Kung-Fu mastery! Kung-Fu Live is also a great workout, you sure do work up a sweat with all the movement and frantic moves you do but it doesn't feel like you are doing exercise as you are actually having some fun with it.

Yes the game does have its flaws, the recognition issues are annoying and the dropping of inputs sometimes can be rather annoying but if you can get past that then there is a lot of fun to be had here. Weather Kung-Fu Live offers long term entertainment value however, im not too sure. Like most games of this sort, they have a limited entertainment span for individual play, its playing with friends that is going to keep you coming back to this game. For the cost of £10.99 however, I see no reason to pick it up and give it a go there are worse games out there which cost a whole lot more. To answer my initial question, Whilst the idea behind the game isn't hugely original, it is executed well enough to stand out in the market and feels like some effort had actually gone into making the game unlike similar genre titles or titles utilising similar motion controlled technology.

*Shovelware - Software that is hastily made, without proper testing, and 'shoveled' down consumers throats in order to make some quick cash