Subscribe to the Family Gamer column:
RSS or Newsletter.

---

Why not try our Blog, Radio or TV shows. Click for samples...

---

Facebreaker 360

Format:
360

Genre:
Fighting

Buy/Support:
Support Andy, click to buy via us...

---

Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Sports Gamer (360)
Teen Gamer (360)
Family Guide Gamer (Wii)

Facebreaker on 360 is spot on with EA's new Freestyle message for a broader range of gamers and delivers some impressive visuals and gameplay. However, its 'one size fits all' attempt to expand casual appeal while retaining the hardcore is in danger of falling between two stools.

Wii-Sports Boxing unavoidably comes to mind when you think of revolutionary boxing games, that and the recent Fight Night games. Whilst Wii-Sports introduced novel controls, EA's Fight Night focused on graphical fidelity and boxing realism.

Facebreaker is EA's attempt to create a casual boxing game without loosing some of the finer graphical features of their hardcore boxing simulation. As part of their new Freestyle range they are pinning much of their casual gaming hopes on titles such as this. Although only a subtitle this time around, you can expect a fully fledged Freestyle badged range of games hitting stores before too long. This approach mirrors their All Play series on the Wii, which also looks set to become a sub-brand in its own right.

But enough of the branding, what about the boxing? The game certainly delivers a control scheme that, while not as ambitious as Wii-Sports, is simple enough for most family members to pick up and play. You have a button for high and low punch that can be held down to power-up. When on the defence these same buttons double as dodging. Finally, combining them with the right-trigger provides a high or low block. Add to this the grab and smash buttons and you have the full set of controls.

While remaining simple enough for newcomers, more experienced players can take advantage of combination moves and super hits. It only takes a few rounds to realise that attention needs to be paid to your opponent's movement animations. With a bit of practice you can start to pull out some perfectly timed blocks and dodges. These are essential if you are to avoid being hit and thereby charge up your Facebreaker meter, which enables you to deliver the eponymous killer move.

Visually, Facebreaker is clearly on the 'Team Fortress 2' generation of games that echoes the silver screen Pixar animation first screen in The Incredibles. Much like Valve's multiplayer game, Facebreaker favours movement and characterisation over polygon count. Accordingly, the characters are impressively rendered and convincingly animated. Testament to this is the fact that it is hard not to flinch when one of them delivers a final face breaking blow.

Casual gamers may take more convincing and find the combination of cartoony graphics with such violence seems a little miss-matched. However, provided they view the game's violence as intentionally overblown (in a 'Tom and Jerry' sort of way) then they can theoretically revel in its sheer bone crunching nature. There will be plenty who decry such blatant violent - but this is something that would obviously apply to Boxing, itself the long time pursuit of juveniles.

While Facebreaker delivers in terms of its Freestyle moniker, it is less convincing as a full on boxing simulator. The simplicity demanded by their marketing means that the game has considerably less nuance and depth than Fight Night. This is a real shame as a simplified boxing game (retaining both depth and openness) would have been a welcome tangent for their franchise.

The game certainly achieves what you may imagine was the aim of the EA execs who commissioned the project. And as such it is likely to sell reasonably well - it is a marketing achievement. But as a game, it would have been much more interesting to see them play directly to the casual market. An 'All Play' Wii boxing game with its intuitive controls in a full game environment is still a mouth watering idea.

As it stand though the Freestyle badged Facebreaker is wonderfully equipped to deliver between two markets. Casual gamers may find it a little too violent whilst the hardcore are more likely to wait for Fight Night 09 - the next proper Boxing game from EA.

Written by Andy Robertson

You can support Andy by buying Facebreaker



Subscribe to this column:
RSS | Newsletter

Share this review:
Tweet

Andy Robertson writes the Family Gamer column.

"Videogame reviews for the whole family, not just the kids. I dig out videogame experiences to intrigue and interest grownups and children. This is post-hardcore gaming where accessibility, emotion and storytelling are as important as realism, explosions and bravado."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Skylanders Trap Team
• Let's Play Skylanders Swap Force
• Skylanders: Swap Force
• Skylanders: Swap Force
• Home