Facebreaker review (Xbox 360)

Stay clear of Facebreaker if you love boxing. EA's attempt at creating an arcade boxing game might not be as bad as its reputation, but it's definately not something that resembles boxing as you know it. I'll try to break it gently on you: It's boxing as a Japanese Manga cartoon artist would see it.

That being said, the game does have charm and can be fun - if you got the reaction time of a teenager.

Four buttons for a belt

Facebreaker doesn't resemble Fight Night at all - but it does remind me loosely of Ready 2 Rumble. You have four attacks mapped out on the four coloured buttons on your Xbox controller. You can hit low and high, you can hit hard (the so-called breakers) and you can throw. You dodge hits by holding down the "hit low" or "hit high" buttons when your opponent attacks and you can parry by simultaniously holding the RT button. Finally you can also charge attacks to do more damage.

Thus the strategy is simple - react faster than your opponent and figure out his specific weakness. The game brings you a number of colourful and quite funny boxers, who all have some special moves that you need to figure out counters for. One can become invisible - but if you use "throw" at the right moment, he can be defeated easily. You win by knocking down your opponent three times in the three rounds a match lasts - or by getting the first knockdown in the final and fourth "sudden death" round.

Difficult as in the 1980's

The thing is Facebreaker is incredibly difficult. For instance I haven't been able to complete the tournament mode yet - on the lowest setting. But that is not a bad thing at all in my book. I think it's refreshing to play a game that demands everything from you. It's just like in the 1980s, where learning curve and save games were uknown entities. Facebreaker is all about becoming good and then even better, but many won't have the patience for honing reactions that make you avoid hits in milliseconds. My only real complaint is that you only have three attempts to beat an opponent before you get demoted and have to win over the previous boxer again. That's a really bad decision when the game is really about fighting over and over again until you figure the right strategy out.

However, there's a catch. The AI is very uneven and it almost feels like it's cheating. With practice you can get the first two knockdowns done pretty easy - but after that the AI speeds noticably up and you have to fight like a madman. If you get cornered, you'll hit the floor faster than Mike Tyson can bite an ear off.

LOLergonomics

On the other hand the multiplayer portion is pretty good, because there's no way a human player can be as fast as the AI. You will have to learn every boxer's skills though, because many players tend to just use the same killer tactics over and over again. Plus you will lose if you get tired - and I did that several times. Ergonomics didn't play a factor in the creation of Facebreaker's controls.

The presentation is Facebreaker's strong point. It's a funny and very colourful universe that is full of crazy boxers, lots of personality and not least humour. Do remember to read the manual - for once a console game comes with a good manual that provides usuable info. The sound is boring and during the fights nearly non-existant. I miss a crazy commentator who could liven up the fights, though I guess they couldn't find anyone with the talking skills to meet the insane speed of the boxing going on. Oh but the number girl has the cutest ass in the history of games, 10 out of 10 for her!

Boxing image

As a special feature you can take your own picture (or that of a friend/foe) and get the game to create a boxer with that face. It works surprisingly well and the likeliness is actually a bit scary. You can also upload a boxer, so that other players can use him/her. It takes about 10 minutes for the console to create a face based on pictures taken with the Xbox Vision camera, but the result is worth waiting for.

So while the technical part of Facebreaker is good, the gameplay is uneven. As I said, a tough difficulty is not a bad thing, as it's good to get challenged. But in the end the boxing action itself is not as fun as it should be, because it's all about being fastest, and the AI does tend to cheat. I miss the intense and genious matches in Fight Night 3. If you're looking for a great arcade fighting game, go buy Soul Calibur IV - or at least wait until Facebreaker gets into the budget bin. That won't take too long.