I have always loved to sit around with friends, maybe share a few beverages and duel to the death.
All styles of fighting game had their own unique appeal; Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Def Jam Vendetta or Ready to Rumble Boxing - all these fighting games have been successful in one thing, bringing people together to gloat, battle and ridicule each other all in the name of good fun.
EA’s newest arcade-style boxing game, FaceBreaker, capitalises on the essence of a fighting game in a number of ways and runs with it, adding more dimension though increased interactivity. From the use of fun characters, a simple yet skillful control system, to the addition of customisable play, FaceBreaker is set to make an impact when it hits kiwi shelves on September 5th.
I confess I went into the demonstration not really knowing much about Facebreaker. What makes this game extra special is the fact that this is one of the first original intellectual properties (read: not a sequel) in the sports genre in five years. Its supercool, over the top, “cartoonesque” characters drew me in to go and find more, and being one who loves a good beat-em-up but less of a hard core sports game fan, my hopes were high that something this good looking would play well too. And it really did feel like it had achieved what it set out to - a good, fun, fast paced game that you can enjoy with your mates.
I pulled up a seat next to the lead designer Todd Batty, picked up a pad and got set for a bit of the old biffo. Todd was enthusiastic about this title, and he had every right to be as this game looks set to wile away many an hour.
He gave me a brief overview of each of the highly stylized characters and their back stories, and there really are some fun, funky, over the top ones. There is "Socks", a twisted schizophrenic who fights with hands clad in socks over boxing gloves - he sports an evil black sock on one and a “good” white one on the other. Each hand acts differently to the other, making Socks fun and unpredictable in his play style. Another is Romeo, the Latin lover, who can best be described as a bullfighting salsa dancer. His arrogant (bordering on camp) appearance makes you just want to beat the crap out of him, and you’d really feel ashamed to lose to this guy.
All the characters were pretty cool in one way or another, but what really opens up the game is the "build your own character" mode.
Using the same face mapping technology as Tiger Woods golf, you can map your own or anyone else’s face onto any of the characters. All you need is a capture from a web cam/i-toy/digital camera/whatever as long as it’s digital. Completely customizable, you can tweak your skin colour, hair, face and body dimensions. Todd showed me one he’d made previously of EA Sports president Peter Moore, and I couldn’t believe how realistic it rendered the face from just a picture…oh the possibilities! This element put the game on my “to buy” rather than just rent list.
At the moment the demo allows you to make your character and upload it to EA’s website, and once you buy the game you have access to fight with your character. EA expects the viral aspects of the Game Face Technology to be a big feature.
Personal user faces aren’t the only thing to be found in the Game Face gallery - users have started uploading images of popular figures as well such as Dave Chapelle or Little Mac from Punch Out. In conjunction with EA’s highlight sharing feature, I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon see fights between Mike Tyson vs Paul McCartney.
On to the actual game play. Much of the development team had previously worked on Fight Night Round 3, a realistic boxing game. I think it is for this reason they managed to get the characters to move with such flawless fluidity. You also have a pretty good range of attacks: your standard high punch, low punch, chained combo attacks, a signature and a finishing (or “facebreaker”) move. The ability to dash in and out quickly at super speed made this game feel really exciting and intense.
Actually all of the moves are fast! Blocks and reversals also felt pretty easy to execute. The battles feel pretty heated. The combat is rather whimsical so its big strength is party oriented play, smash up your mates over a few brews…and don’t forget you can actually use your own faces on the characters!
Todd didn’t beat me up too badly, but I’ll definitely have to get my revenge!
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Want more? Check out the E3 FaceBreaker trailer at GP Downloads!
