GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
 |
|
||||
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
How Metascores Are Calculated
69
1942: Joint Strike
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games. |
Created by the same team that developed Fight Night Round 3, FaceBreaker offers irreverent fun, immersive gameplay and eye-popping stylized graphics. In this in-your-face, arcade world full of ego-wielding characters, each boxer comes to life with unique attributes and distinct personal style, including Romeo, a Latin lover known for his pelvic thrusts, and Molotov, an oversized Russian demolitions expert with a penchant for fighting dirty. Add a little personal motivation to your fight by uploading a photo of your face to create a realistic likeness using Photo Game Face, and go toe-to-toe with a real-life friend or foe. Laugh out loud as you pummel your opponent with a barrage of blows to the face and watch in satisfaction as your progress is illustrated by real-time facial deformation. With haymakers, face shots and body blows, wait for the right moment to drop a super punch to make your presence known. Taunt your adversaries and flaunt your talent, by tying one hand behind your back to add ultimate humiliation to your bout. In FaceBreaker, it just feels good to rearrange your opponent's face. [Electronic Arts]
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more... 80
Playstation Universe
As a multiplayer experience both online or off, however, you’d be hard pressed to find something better.
 80
Maxi Consolas (Portugal)
It has charisma and it’s quite fun. Despite the arcade style, its combat mechanic is very technical and rewarding, although the difficulty could be more balanced. One final word for the character creator, that allows for the most bizarre creations. [Sept 2008]
78
Game Informer
Whatever critical punishment you can level at the game, its gameplay core packs enough punch to survive your flurry.
72
GameZone
A button masher with the graphical appeal of messing up your opponent’s face in predetermined ways, FaceBreaker is entertaining for a while, definitely fast paced and brimming with solid graphical elements.
72
GameFocus
While there’s a new Fight Night down the pipes, EA is shining the spotlight on Facebreaker, their latest title in a new line of ‘EA Freestyle’ sports games. It’s a solid brawler that’s easy to get in to, but ultimately it’s only as well-known as it is because of its budget – not its quality.
71
3DJuegos
Arcade boxing is coming to the next-gen in order to break faces in a very original and artistic way. Smashing buttons is the key in Facebreaker to punch rivals and perform acrobatics over a good but incomplete videogame. It could have been better if EA Canada had added more length and game modes to the punching pack, but it's still a great opportunity to get funny and easy gameplay.
70
Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)
It may look harmless enough, but that colorful candy shell - which, admittedly, is delightfully goofy - disguises the ashen heart of a hardcore fighting game that, while occasionally quite frustrating, offers a satisfying challenge and an unexpectedly deep and demanding combat system. [Oct 2008, p.84]
70
GamePro
I have to admit FaceBreaker does have a lot of potential. But as hard as I tried to like the game, I just couldn't get into it that much. [Oct 2008, p.96]
69
PSX Extreme
Overall, I found myself liking FaceBreaker more than disliking it. But it does have a lot of things wrong with it, specifically the horribly cheap and cheesy A.I., which is God-like no matter which difficulty setting you pick. Playing through the game on the easiest difficulty is challenging.
65
MEGamers
We were really looking forward to this one, but many problems however force us to put this game down sooner than expected.
62
NZGamer
Your thumbs will ache in the morning and you may need to fork out a hundred dollars on a new controller but sometimes we all need a bit of cartoonish mayhem in our lives.
61
GamingXP
Facebreaker takes itself not very seriously, and so do we. For the most fans of the boxing-genre, the game’s focus is too much on the arcade mode and graphics are too colourful.
60
GameDaily
It's not bad, although the game is plagued by severe balancing issues. Some boxers are more talented than others, and online match-ups are unfair, resulting in a Facebreaker finisher and a quick end to the match.
60
Gameplanet
It has a refreshing visual style and looks fun to start with, but FaceBreaker is let down by frustrating and shallow gameplay.
55
Jolt Online Gaming UK
The idea behind it is good and there’s a lot of polish in the presentation, but the gameplay is just so shallow and unevolving that it’s really hard to recommend as a full-price purchase.
55
Play UK
It’s so well-presented that you’ll want to like it, but there’s no disguising the fact that this is one of the most annoying games ever made. It’s impossible to find printable words to describe how much it upset us.
50
IGN
It’s designed to provide a rock-paper-scissor style gameplay experience, but players will likely end up feeling cheated and overly frustrated by the core gameplay. There are too many balancing issues and cheap moves given to some characters to keep players around for more than a couple of hours.
50
GameSpy
It remains bogged down with completely unbalanced gameplay, maddeningly difficult AI, and online gameplay that has the longevity of a stick of Big Red. That being so, there's nothing worthwhile in the final product that you can't get in the demo.
50
PTGamers
FaceBreaker is extremely simple and straight to the point, but not exactly fun, mostly due to the frustration that derives from the fighting.
50
VideoGamer
It has a lot going for it, from its superb visuals and style to the rather excellent character creation tool, but the button-mashing gameplay and easy exploits ruin all the good work.
48
PSM3 Magazine UK
There's some fun to be had with friends, but none without them. [Oct 2008, p.72]
42
1UP
FaceBreaker is fine if you want to mindlessly mash buttons and beat the hell out of friends, but if you want a deep, balanced boxing game, look elsewhere.
42
Gaming Age
Easily not enough fun and gameplay potential to suffice for a 50-60 dollar purchase, that's for sure.
40
Gamer 2.0
So as you can tell, we really enjoyed this game. All it lacks is a major amount of quality and inspiration. We beg you, for the love of gaming, do what you can to spend your time on something more worthwhile.
40
Level7.nu
As a production this is definitely a slick piece of work. The graphics look good and there is a generally good sense of humour and atmosphere in the game. Unfortunately, the actual boxing mechanics of the game doesn't work well at all. It's not broken per se, it's just simple to the point where you know the game inside and out after only a couple of matches.
40
Console Monster
Despite the great looks and fantastic “Create-a-fighter” ability, FaceBreaker is a pretty shallow experience that comes across as more frustrating than fun.
40
Playstation Official Magazine UK
A shallow package that you might buy as a PSN download: there's fun here, but only the sort of amount you'd pay two pints'-worth of money for. [Oct 2008, p.102]
40
Meristation
Facebreaker is an arcade boxing game with low aims, highly improvable playability, stylized graphics though lacking in personality and quite short in game modes. The most notable part is the ability to create our own boxer but due to the shortage of customization ends up by being all the same. Moreover, the small quantity of combos and available moves gives a sensation of complete recurrence even within the first few hours of play.
38
Cheat Code Central
The real crime of FaceBreaker is that its gameplay is so bad and the A.I. is so cheap that the game's excellent create-a-player feature can't really be enjoyed. Who cares how many cool characters are available in a game that is insanely frustrating to play?
35
GameSpot
FaceBreaker's impressive boxer-customization options are overshadowed by terrible gameplay.
33
GameShark
No-brainer button mashing boxing.
30
Edge Magazine
Facebreaker is vacuous, its interface without flair and its novelties without purpose beyond littering the boards at Gamefaqs. [Oct 2008, p.95]
30
DarkZero
It’s just a really bad game, in places unapologetically bad.
20
G4 TV
The controls aren't nuanced enough to please hardcore fighting or boxing fans. The frenetic pace and cheap shots will clearly alienate the more casual gamer. If your sole reason for getting this game is to enjoy multiplayer with your friends, it might be worth a look. Otherwise, stay away from this stinker.
15
Destructoid
It’s annoying, frustrating, and those hand cramps are all for naught. I was actually surprised to see that a game as brutally simple and dreadfully mundane as Facebreaker dared to have an online component.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL
About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise
© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
