Consolation Prize

It’s been a bit quiet on the demo front on Xbox Live Marketplace recently but some playable titles have started to trickle onto the service once more. One which I thought looked quite interesting was Facebreaker, a tongue in cheek fighting game from Fight Night developers EA Canada.

Whereas with most fighting games character move-sets can number into the hundreds, Facebreaker instead employs a more streamlined approach to the art of pugilism ensuring you don’t have to memorise unfeasibly long move combinations. In fact only a few types of attacks are used, low and high punches are mapped to the “A” and “X” buttons respectively which can be strung together with “breakers” (using the “Y” button) to unleash more devastating attacks. In addition the triggers are used to alter your characters stance between blocking and dodging, and when used in combination with the punch buttons, and with the correct timing, allow you to parry and counter punch quite easily before going on the offensive.

As the name of the game suggest the aim is simply to beat your opponent to a pulp. The game promotes an aggressive strategy as each successful hit fills the “breaker” gauge which when full allows the player to perform a, you guessed it, “facebreaker” which enacts a brutal finishing move on the opponent. Thankfully because of the cartoon style of the game this isn’t a gruesome experience, and in actuality is more like the stylised violence you’d expect to see in a “Tom & Jerry” cartoon.

The demo only gives you a short burst of gameplay, one round in fact before throwing you back to the menu screen, but at least you can sample three different characters including the chisel jawed Ice, The voluptuous Sparrow, and the overweight Ninja wannabe Steve. However if you’re not happy with the main character roster you can try your hand with the “Boxer Factory” which includes comprehensive character customisation options so you can create the boxing abomination of your dreams. The factory does however demonstrate what can be achieved with a little bit of time and patience as can be witnessed from the included representation of ex-Microsoft Corporate Vice President, now EA Sports head honcho, Peter Moore.

Facebreaker feels quite fun to play, it’s fast and furious, and if you’re not hitting the opponent then you’re sure to be hit in return. There’s no dilly-dallying about the ring as you try and find weaknesses, this is an all out, testosterone fueled, aggressive fighter which gives you no time for respite. In fact that’s my only real complaint as bouts with the AI tend to turn into an RSI inducing button mashing fests.

As an alternative to games such as Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, or Tekken, which are generally acknowledged as purist fighting games, Facebreaker is sure to appeal to those gamers who just want a quick and simple down to earth fighter which has an emphasis on fun rather than technical prowess.

The Facebreaker demo is 955MB to download from Xbox Live Marketplace and is due to be released in September.

I played the demo for a while and after playing SoulCalibur IV beforehand I just could not get into it. Generally I would prefer a simple fighting game, but SC4 is really working for me right now so I quit the demo and went back to it.