'Lights Out' videogame puts players in street fighting scene

Virtual fighters engaged in a bare-knuckle brawl as Sony introduced a world of street fighting played out with Move motion-sensing controls for PlayStation 3 videogame consoles.

Players bobbed, jabbed, punched and head-butted under the daunting gaze of action film tough guy Danny Trejo, whose animated character is a coach in "The Fight: Lights Out" title set for release on November 9.

"I love that this gets you up off the couch and into action," said Trejo, whose easy smile and friendly manner were in sharp contrast to the hard guy roles he has acted out on screen in films like freshly released "Machete."

"You just play for a short bit and you can really feel it," Trejo told AFP at the Sony event, held in a San Francisco bar.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) said last week that it has a hit on its hands with its new Move motion-sensing controllers.

Sony reported that it sold more than a million Move devices in North America and Latin America in the 30 days after releasing them on the market in September.

"Retail demand is incredibly strong and we're working hard to keep the product in stock," said SCEA chief executive Jack Tretton.

Two dozen videogames tailored to Move play are available, with titles, including shooters such as "Killzone" and "Resident Evil," as well as sports games like "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11."

An additional 15 Move games planned for release in the coming year range from sports and shooter titles to puzzle and "family-friendly" fare aimed at capitalizing on the appeal of motion-sensing controllers to casual players.

Move controllers, which are reminiscent of small black flashlights topped with brightly colored orbs, allow gamers to control PS3 play with swings, jabs and other natural movements instead of the toggle-and-button commands that have been trademarks of play on PS3 and rival Xbox 360 consoles by Microsoft.

At the Mighty nightclub in San Francisco late Wednesday, players used Move controllers to act out street brawler moves instantly copied by their in-game champions.

PlayStation Eye cameras mounted on flat-screen televisions tracked movements of players that battled in a multi-mode that pitted combatants at different consoles against each other in one-on-one matches.

On-screen graphics let players see how much of a beating they were taking or giving, and dirty moves could be executed with proper combinations of buttons, triggers and wand waves.

A single player mode of the game launched a campaign in which a fighter battled increasingly dangerous animated adversaries, training in a virtual gym and unlocking new moves along the gritty journey.

"The Fight: Lights Out" will be priced at 39.99 dollars.

Move wands are sold for 49.99 dollars. A smaller "sub controller" wand for use navigating characters in shooter games is priced at 29.99 dollars.

Sony combines Move controllers with Eye cameras and a videogame in bundles sold for 99.99 dollars. Adding a PS3 console to that bundle raises the price to 399.99 dollars.

PlayStation Eye cameras, needed to track movements of controller wands, sell separately for 39.99 dollars.