The Latest Best Selling Fighting Game

I'm over 60 and still compete in senior MMA competitions. I've fought pro and semi pro for over 40 years. Without reservations, this is one of the best training sims anywhere if you love fighting sports. I have read dozens of very negative reviews about this fighting games, and with a little research, have figured out the four biggest problems:

1. You MUST calibrate in game, and be sure that your camera is exactly where you need it for both head and body shots.

2. You have to know how to throw a punch! If you put too much shoulder throw into your punches like an amateur, astonishingly, this game realizes it! Punching with real life, last second power bursts take a lot of energy, but are just as effective as they are in a real fignt, and you'll get plenty of wins. Punch THROUGH the face or body of your opponent, not TO or AT it, and you'll find an amazing difference. If you're fighting me online, please ignore this advice. Follow through really helps with registered power!

3. I'm convinced this game was designed for near daylight. Incandescent, and especially those energy saving little twisted neon things don't cut it for head motion. Open the drapes, and you'll find head tracking works great. Without this feature, the game loses a lot of its realism.

4. The online experience isn't very well developed at this time, but hopefully will be after the holidays. One warning-- even if you know you can beat a lot of online opponents with your skill, you MUST realize that it is only half your skill that matters online-- the other half is character experience and features, which have to be earned, won and bought in home practice. Don't give up by going online too soon and then not understanding why lesser fighters are kicking your butt-- they have more advanced fighter qualities. I'm sure cheats will surface in a few months, but for now, stick to building your character before you venture online. That said, the online side of this is incredibly fun. I'm guessing this will be hard to find once folks find out about that.

Please realize this is NOT like a character gaming experience, although the career engine and other features are very robust. To be very honest, this is basically a workout game that, with competition, makes you forget the cardio side long enough to really sweat! If you think of it in the same vein as aerobics, you'll love it, and not expect a lot of deep story lines and intrigue. Bosses are great fun-- a throwback to my era of tough endings! Cheat Hint: to beat bosses, assume they each have a "weakness."

Warning to parents with younger kids: my grandkids can't punch hard enough or correctly enough to use this, and unless they are tall, the camera angle of the MOVE in general may be too high and steep to pick up the full range of their motion. Also, kids love to move around, and if you do the rope a dope shuffle with this game, it will stop tracking your hits. Your feet have to stay glued to the floor with this one, so don't waste your money if it is for too young kids (under 5 or 6, depending on height)! Remember also, there are numerous "special" movements of the move controllers that have to be learned, like jumping, ducking, bobbing and weaving, etc. The balance of light in the room has to be right, or one of the controllers or head tracking will be disabled, which makes it a much tougher fight, because the system doesn't "see" you move your head, and you have to duck with buttons and controller flicks, dropping your guard.

Remember also, when you first get a controller, you need to "sync" it to the console by plugging it into the USB and pressing the playstation (on) button. Holding the trigger down and swiping up, down, right and left enables menus, otherwise you'll be switching back and forth between wireless and move controllers. Also, don't forget that you need the little bluetooth broadcast chip in the usb to pick up the wireless signals, from the move controllers, or the nav controller. If the screen says to use the (i) button for input, and you notice there is no (i) button on the move controller, what they mean is to hold the trigger down and swish continually to the right or left to increase or decrease the parameter (weight, difficulty level, age, etc.). Other than very young kids who won't get the subtleties of jab and duck, five stars, one of the most fun and realistic workouts on any of the big 3 (ps3, wii and Kinetic). play games.