“What are you doing?!”

She was taken aback as she entered the room, watching my arms flail as wildly as a quivering flag clinging to its pole amidst a howling gale.

In a grueling battle, I couldn’t stop to provide much explanation.

“I’m playing a new game,” I told my girlfriend as she blankly stared and I ferociously swung. “I’m trying to dodge this guy’s punch.”

There was silence for a moment.

“You’re doing all that,” she said, “just to avoid a punch?”

It’s not that my nonsensical gyrations are the required gesture for a dodge. But a few minutes into FaceBreaker, the disparate waggling blended together into the sad display that left my girlfriend baffled.

The blandly subtitled K.O. Party is a Wii adaptation of FaceBreaker, Electronic Arts’ new fighter disguised as a boxing game. Don’t be fooled by the gloves; this is more a UFC event than a boxing match.

The premise is simple. Choose a fighter from a roster of zany stereotypical caricatures including a Latin romantic, a muscular dimwit named Brick, a loud-mouthed British hip-hopper and more. Then step into the ring and prepare for war; knock down your rival three times to win.

That’s about it. There’s really not much to it.

Other than style, that is, which FaceBreaker: K.O. Party drips like perspiration. The characters are well-designed, the menus are slick and the graphics are polished. Sharp models, impressive lighting and visual effects make FaceBreaker one of the better-looking games on Wii.

FaceBreaker draws style from more than graphics alone. It implements a brutally fast combat system focused on stringing together creative combos to eventually land a “facebreaker,” a match-ending special move that does precisely as advertised to a by-then listless opponent.

The matches not only look good because of the graphics, but because of the action itself, which is smooth, fast and appealing to watch.

Given the system’s inherent benefits and limitations, a quality Wii game necessitates style and originality. FaceBreaker has both, but unfortunately, it controls like a first-generation Wii title too focused on the novelty of motion and left me yearning for a GameCube controller.

To throw a punch, swing the remote and nunchuck. To recover from a daze, shake the remote and nunchuck. To dodge, pull back on the remote and nunchuck. An obvious pattern develops; FaceBreaker’s irritating control scheme is built around constant controller waggling.

There is a fundamental flaw with motion control as implemented in FaceBreaker. It’s just not necessary, immersive or beneficial.

Swinging the Wii remote like a baseball bat works so well in Wii Sports, for example, because it matches your motions, leaving you with an immersive gameplay experience. Conversely, FaceBreaker simply replaces button presses with excessive gestures, and it does so inefficiently.

This is hardly “revolutionary” game control, nor is it realistic in a game this fast-paced, requiring speed and efficiency simply unattainable with this kind of motion control.

When opponents are on the offensive, the constant waggling often causes unintended results. Shaking the remotes to charge punches and dodge blows, you’ll often blow your brief opportunity for a parry, which leaves you vulnerable to more pummeling. It can be frustrating.

I would’ve preferred jabs simply mapped to buttons. Controller swings could’ve been saved for only the most devastating moves, similar to the satisfying combat system in Ubisoft’s seminal No More Heroes.

Swinging for deathblows feels right. Constantly waving your arms doesn’t.

For players who can deal with mimicking Soul Train to engage an opponent, though, FaceBreaker is a no-brainer. Modes are thin and online multiplayer was skipped, but the game is much better with friends, and its irreverent humor will keep you smiling even between rounds.

I don’t mean to be too hard on EA. FaceBreaker is hardly the first Wii game to miss the point of the Wii remote. It’s telling of many developers’ apparent inability to grasp motion control that dodging a punch and chopping an onion require the same gestures on Wii.

But this casualty is perhaps more unfortunate than others. FaceBreaker’s ever-waggle ethos scars an otherwise solid Wii game.

A better control scheme might’ve crowned it one of the year’s best on the platform, but as it stands, FaceBreaker is a hapless reminder of the fragile balance between forcing and benefitting from motion control.

Gameplay: 4.5
Swing, waggle and flail wildly about to execute almost every move in the game, proof that sometimes a simple button press beats motion.

Graphics: 8.0
It may be mind-numbing to play, but at least FaceBreaker looks good. It oozes plenty of style, great lighting effects and character models.

Sound: 7.0
Over-the-top boxing sounds accompany licensed music from artists I imagine people somewhere care about. Dialogue is often funny.

Difficulty: Hard
FaceBreaker is one of those Wii games that is more difficult than it should be because the controls are so at odds with the player.

Concept: 8.0
EA has created a fresh take on the fighting genre with style and originality, and brawling with eccentric new characters beats playing a rehash. The game-ending “facebreaker” move also adds an explosive dynamic.

Multiplayer: 7.5
As with many shallow celebrations of Wii waggle, FaceBreaker is most enjoyable when played with a group of friends who don’t necessarily care.

Overall: 6.0
EA’s stylish brawler floats like a butterfly, but plays like a full-on seizure.