Kung Fu Ow!
Kung Fu Rider sends players on a wild ride through the busy streets of Hong Kong. Taking on the role of private detective Toby or his assistant Karin, players find themselves on the outs with the mob. When Toby and Karin are confronted by mobsters at their detective agency, players have no choice but to grab their office chairs, hold on tight and slide through the streets in order to make a daring escape.
Kung Fu Rider sounds like it’d be good, but then I played it. As a launch title for Playstation Move it should show off what the device can do, but this game fails to do that at every turn by implementing too many buttons for movements while failing to handle well as you steer the vehicles you drive. It would have been better if you turned the controller on its side for tilt control like you would with Mario Kart Wii, but it seems you can’t do that in this game. Or is it that you can’t do it full stop? Does Move need to be constantly pointed at the TV? If so then racing games are going to be pretty awful.
The game feels very arcade-like as you ride around the streets of Hong Kong on your office chairs, tapping a button to kick an enemy in your path, while making the odd gesture to jump and steer with the Move controller. It feels incredibly gimmicky and the fun factor wears off within minutes, the 27 courses are short and poor in design. You’ll get other vehicles through the course of the game, but you won’t get much fun out of them.
Steering your vehicle with the Move controller held vertically feels just plain wrong. If Move can’t support horizontal gameplay then that’s a rather big design flaw and I can’t seem games like Gran Turismo supporting Move with the vertical control scheme, it’s horrible to say the least. The visuals are average and the voice-acting is cheesy as the music.
The Verdict
Kung Fu Rider is without a doubt, the weakest Move title to date. It hardly makes use of the tech and even shows some of Move’s shortcomings, that is if Move can’t work horizontally. This could be the biggest own goal ever if that is the case, but I hope it isn’t.
