We've often marvelled how sometimes the simplest idea can lead something so addictive and so fun that you wonder why people worry so much about making this all-encompassing complex games. With Kung-Fu Live, the idea is as simple as a PS Eye and some comic book art, and technology does the rest. Considering the Playstation Move has recently been released, it's almost a gutsy move to be releasing a game that doesn't use it, and yet here it is. What's even more remarkable is the fact that this is basically doing what the Kinect is promising, with already existing technology.

Like any eye-toy game the camera captures your image and puts it on the screen in a miniature form, and the technology used by the game engine itself translates your motions, almost one for one and makes your avatar interact with the world around it. In Kung-Fu Live, the 'world' around it is a cheesy comic story, where the story elements are told in a classic OTT comic book style, and the actual enemies rendered in 3D. There's a lot of nice little touches to this game, for example, before every story segment you have to strike a number of poses that the camera captures, and then you're literally superimposed on the comic strip so that you feel a part of the action.

You'll have to think carefully about how you'll beat this guy

The gameplay itself is very intuitive - because it's the camera following you, your motions are pretty much repeated 1:1, and you basically make like you know kung-fu against any enemies that come against you. Striking certain poses does certain special attacks (that has a finite meter), and jumping with your arms in the air can do back flips. Stepping quickly to the side can also make you speed shuffle, but aside you that punches and kicks are registered normally, as well as blocking. The enemies react really realistically to blows as well depending on where they are hit.

There's a variety of different enemies to take on, from standard 'goons' to big hulking giants. You have to think tactically about some of these more dangerous foes, as simply swinging your arms about (the PS Eye equivalent of button mashing) won't always cut. Alternatively, you can use household objects that can be scanned in and used as weapons on screen, which is really cool.

This game also comes with a surprisingly decent multiplayer segment. Much like the main game, one person steps in front of camera and has to fight waves of opponents, but the enemies are no controlled by other people using the Playstation gamepads. This means you can have several people ganging up on the one guy, and it will take off their mad skillz to come through it alive. We tried a bit of this at our demo, and there was much laughter to be had. The only down side to this mode is actually for the people on the gamepads - this game is no Tekken, and the controls can be a bit sluggish. Still it's a small price to pay for something so enjoyable.

UNLIMITED POWAAAA!!!

As fun as this game is though, it suffers the curse that all games of this type will suffer: social and physical fatigue. With 10 levels, this isn't exactly going to be a game of epic proportions, so you're perhaps guaranteed a few hours of gameplay going through it solo. As a party game, it's value is second to none, but then there's the almost extreme physical nature of the game. When you get into it, you can really get into it, and eventually you'll just tire. We also envision many passion-fuelled accidents. Still, the fact that you can rotate in multiplayer may add some longevity to it, as everyone can be involved but not everyone needs to be active at the same time.

Still, this is no reason to not even try. This is a simple yet addictive little title that could be one of the last great EyeToy games. With the Move now well and truly in play, it'll be interesting to see if there'll be any more great titles like this, but at $15 you can hardly go wrong. Last time we checked they were hoping to have the game out before Christmas, but we'll have to wait and see. This is definitely one to watch.

Most Anticipated Feature: Challenging each other in multiplayer will be the best bit, we feel.