Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"All flash, no substance"

FaceBreaker is EA Sports arcade style boxing game which throws realism out of the window and tries to focus more on fun. While the game offers some interesting features, the unfair A.I and frustrating game play hinder it from being the champ in this genre.

Compared to simulation boxing games, FaceBreaker focuses less on strategic boxing and more on button mashing. There is so much button mashing in the game that your hands will begin to ache a couple minutes into your first match. There are both offensive and defensive attacks which include: the high and low punch, haymaker, throw, parry, dodge and block. 'Breakers' are the special attacks that each boxer executes once the combo meter begins to fill up. The higher the meter goes the more damage your opponent will take. The highest 'Breaker' is the Face Breaker which will instantly end the fight granting you the win. In order to win a match you must knockout your opponent three times within a total of three rounds. If this doesn't happen the final round is Sudden Death and the boxer that gets knocked out loses. The Sudden Death round is a rip off since you could be dominating your opponent the entire fight and then you end up losing from one knockout.

While the controls where intended to be simple they end up being frustrating since they aren't responsive. The A.I tends to feel cheap because they constantly will throw you in a corner and unleash crucial combos on you. When this happens it's nearly impossible to pull off an offensive or defensive attack. Because of this the game ends up being harder and more frustrating than what it should be even on the easy difficulty level. Since the game play is so quick most of the time you won't even realize what is going on.

FaceBreaker doesn't offer much when it comes to content. There are a few game modes but none of them are entirely satisfying. There is the fight mode which is just the standard one on one fight. 'Brawl for it All' is the campaign mode in which you work your way up in rank by defeating boxers in different arenas for belts. The Practice mode gives you the chance to practice the basics. The 'Couch Royale' mode puts you against one boxer after another in tournament style. Each boxer that you defeat will grant you their head to be placed in the Trophy Room. Online matches are offered through Xbox Live. Other than the online leagues and Fight mode there aren't any other modes available online. Since you aren't playing against the A.I online the game is more enjoyable and is better balanced.

The Create a Boxer feature is surprisingly in depth and fun to mess around with. If you own an Xbox Live Vision camera you'll be able to take a picture of yourself to create yourself in the game. The uploading process takes almost fifteen minutes and the results are well worth the wait. There is also the option of going onto the EA website to upload pictures of random people so that players will be able to download it into their games. There are all types of downloadable characters ranging from Michael Jackson to The Joker.

There isn't too much to say about the sound in the game. Each character has something to say before and after each match. Besides that and the hip-hop music in the menu and loading screens there are only punch sounds. There isn't a variety of them and they quickly become repetitive.

When it comes to presentation FaceBreaker shines. The cartoony art style suits the game very well. The characters facial animations are on point and being able to how much damage you've done to your opponents face never gets old. There is a wide variety of characters to choose from and each of them has their own unique fighting style. While these characters might seem a little generic they are rather funny. The rings don't look that great and the ropes don't always respond and move when a boxer is knocked into them.

While FaceBreaker makes good with its presentation and 'Create a Boxer' feature it still has a lot of issues that makes the game much too frustrating to play. Unfortunately this just goes to show that just because a game looks great doesn't mean it's going to play great. You're honestly better off going into your closet and digging out your old Ready 2 Rumble games.