There's a bit in Fist Of Legend - the definitive check-it-out-on-video Jet Li film - where Jet faces off against Japanese master Fumio Funakoshi. During the pre-fight buildup, the old geezer asks Jet to show him his "most powerful" move. Jet responds by punching a rock to bits. The old man chuckles, says, "I've never seen a rock that hit back," and casually chops a falling leaf in half with one hand. Fight on.

The point? It's all about control. You can chuck polygons about, make the fighting as OTT as you like (that'd be Hulk, then) and plaster famous faces all over your game, but without a decent control system you're doomed from the start. Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster, quite honestly, was arse. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, despite some nice scuttling-up-the-walls sections, was even worse. Enter The Matrix was okay, but there just didn't seem to be much relation between the buttons you pressed and the moves you actually did. So how can Rise To Honour hope to be any different?

Well, it's all a case of ambition. Rather than go with the safe control option - i.e. hitting buttons - Sony America has opted for the more risky system of flicking the right analogue stick in the direction of each enemy. Timed swipes in different directions form multi-directional combos, letting Jet reverse aim mid-pattern. Strange decision? Sure is. It's a more refined version of a similar system that ruined Blade I, and to say that it takes a bit of getting used to is an understatement - it takes nearly an hour of solid play before the analogue control feels natural. It's also a bit short on precision - while Jet never totally refuses to respond, there's not way to ensure you'll pull off exactly the right combo. The flipside, though, is that this system is the perfect way, maybe the only way, to recreate a proper Hong Kong fight sequence - letting Jet dole out the slaps with ice-cool directional control, even when he's completely surrounded by bad guys. Of course, it helps that rather than doing the universal 'not the face!' arms-crossed pose to block incoming attacks, Jet ducks, hops and leans out of the way, giving the fights the sort of fluidity that's practically a Li trademark. There's a definite tempo to different fights, too - early opponents come in tentative ones and twos, but by the end everyone's piling in at once. transitions are smooth, with the camera cutting to a slow-mo action-cam if something exciting happens - a boss countering a counter, say.

For anyone who's seen a film by Rise To Honour's fight choreographer Cory Yuen before (he directed The Enforcer, and did the choreography for most Jet Li films), the feel is undeniably similar. Best of all, the whole game's stuffed with fanboy-pleasing touches - from the heel-flick Jet uses when he picks up a bat to the No-Shadow kick special move. If there is a sticking point it's that it's fairly easy to win most scraps by countering - simply holding L1 and R1 and constantly flicking the stick is enough to reverse most attacks. The developer has tried to minimise this by instituting 'Block' and 'Adrenaline' bars which get worn down by constant countering, but the first one regenerates almost instantly and the second's only useful for Jet's flurry attack, so it's never really a problem.

The context-sensitive action is a bit more dubious. The theory's sound enough: every time you've got the option to interact with the scenery, 'Jump', 'Smash', 'Hide' or whatever flashes up on the screen, at which point it's a simple matter of tapping R1 to pull off the appropriate move. In practice it's a bit more fiddly than that - wall-kicks in particular are so hit and miss that it's barely worth bothering. Most other actions involve smashing goons into bits of scenery, which is fine for lending a bit of variety to your fights but not exactly a vital combat skill.

Besides, there just isn't enough of it - in a typical hospital scene you'll spot about half a dozen objects that Jet could kick, twirl or bounce off in real life, and only one of them might be useable. It's also arguable that having 'Jump' flash onto the screen mid-scrap is a bit off-putting. And that's before you even consider the chase scenes, which are basically extended bouts of running punctuated with the odd click of R1. The upside is that some of these interludes are genuinely brilliantly conceived - particularly the boss battles, where the context-sensitive controls might let you rip off someone's gas mask or throw your girlfriend at the bad guy.

Back to master Funakoshi for a second, "Chinese kung-fu emphasises well-being", he muses, post-scrap (it's a draw). "The best way to defeat your opponent is to use a gun." Too right. Rise To Honour's shooting sections are gems - surprisingly fantastic bits that break up what might otherwise be a thumb-fatiguing knuckle-fest. Aiming is on the right analogue with quick flicks letting you draw a bead on two mooks at once, Chow Yun Fat-style. Without the fixed rear camera of Max Payne or True Crime, Jet's free to stroll across the screen casually blowing away goons to either side of him. occasionally sticking in a slow-mo dive or clicking L2 to aim at a barrel. It feels like a faster-paced, nicer-looking version of Dead To Rights, where you never run out of ammo. And one particular gun duel provides one of the standout moments of the entire game. Top stuff.

So: hitting - good. Shooting - even better. Running away - tolerable. Rise To Honour's looking all right... And then you play the first of the stealth missions. Note to programmers: stealth missions aren't an afterthought, like bundling in some concept art or getting Michael Ironside in to do one of the voices. They're incredibly hard to get right, and if you get them wrong they ruin your game. Case in point point: Rise To Honour. For instance, there's a bit where one of the guards goes "Hwuh?" and turns around. Nothing strange there, except that after a couple of goes you realise that this isn't because Jet's making a noise, it's just part of this guard's movement pattern.

Later, you stand right in front of another guard but he doesn't notice you because his torch isn't working. This isn't hide 'n seek because the guards never go searching for Jet, it's just a trial and error memory test with ill-defined pools of light. And it's all pointless anyway 'cos every stealth section ends with Jet strolling into a well-lit area and beating the crap out of the guards he's just been laboriously avoiding! Mercy. Fortunately, there are only four stealth missions to endure out of the 63 scenes in the game.

As he's walking away, Funakoshi delivers the clincher: "Kid, fights are for animals - the point of martial arts is to maximise one's energy," and it's here that the old man is wrong. The point of martial arts, especially in films, is to look cool and have fun. It's entirely possible to slog through Rise To Honour in seven hours, never straying far from the counter button, but why bother? Play it properly and you'll get days of chair-slinging, crate-hurdling, arse-kicking, nine-millimetre-brandishing fun out of a movement system that seems more instinctive every time you use it. Like we said, it's all about control.

Graphics 70%
Smoother than Li himself. Bit glitchy, though.

Sound 60%
Repetitive quotes, but the jazzy music is nice.

Gameplay 70%
Ace fighting, great gunplay, terrible stealth.

Lifespan 70%
Not too lengthy, but good replay value.

Overall 70%
Let down by a few poor set-pieces and a ropey plot but brilliant whenever the fighting kicks off. Just like most of Jet's films, in fact.