I have not played the retailed version of backbreaker but i did spend quite a few hours with the demo and my impressions are as follows:

1. When i first fired up the game I, prolly like most ppl, was not to thrilled with the camera angle. My intial response was to write the game off as a piece of garbage. However a small tweek in my perspective allowed me to be able to look past many of the flaws I personally feel the game has (many of which I do feel are correctable) and see how Backbreaker could possibly secure its own solid fanbase and push all other football games to greater heights in the future.

Before I get into exactly what I think Backbreakers potential niche in the football genre could be; let me state that I dont think that Backbreaker will ever be a "serious" threat to Madden. I compare it to the way that the more healthier options on a menu are not a "serious" threat to the specialty dishes a particular resturant maybe known for, albeit less heathier choices.

Backbreaker is just to different of an experience from Madden in its core approach to the game of football to ever really be a direct threat to the franchise. Whereas a title like All-Pro football could be considered more of a direct threat to Madden, if say the NFL license were available to both parties.


To me Backbreaker is potentially what Madden's Superstar mode or Ncaa football's RTG mode are supposed to look and feel like. That is to say, imagine if Madden's Superstar mode was a title all to itself sold completely seperate from all other components of the overall Madden experience. Enter Backbreaker; because essentially this is what you have.

Now I do agree (and dont feel sorry for EA) that people's disdain with the slow evolution of Madden on the 360 platform has lead to people being more willing to overlook some of Backbreaker's many basically gameplay ommissions (such as injuries and fatigue, etc). In the hope that another company comes along and knocks Madden off its high horse for buying off the competetion and then sitting on their a$$es knowing that it was the only option NFL lovers had.

Meaning if you wanted to virutally scratch your inner desires of being an NFL quarterback, like it or not you had to come see big daddy, in this case Madden or go without fullfilling said desires! And as sales would indicate, in too many cases people for whatever reason could not go without scratching that inch. Which ironically could have forced Madden to get up off their butts all the same.

So i can understand where the reviewers are coming from accross the board, you cant give a game thats not executed as effectively as it could have been a high score based on potential. All that means is that if next year Backbreaker sures up some of its problems it should receive a higher grade. I also can see why so many gamers are mad as well, feeling like the reviews will crush any chance that another company could come along and atleast make Madden step its product up to a level where many people feel it should already be at 5 years into the "next generation". Maybe all the reviews should have ended with: this game has potential and some fun elements, if your willing to go outside the box of what your used to, purchase at own risk.

As far as reviewers knocking the game for presentation elements, the game is designed to simulate being actually in the thick of the action, so element like commentary and tv-style replays to me really have know place in backbreaker. I mean not saying it could add to the overall package, just saying if you ever actually played football especially at the college of pro level then you would know that once that ball goes into play you really dont hear anything except what you need to hear to execute said gameplan effectively. So outside of crowd noises, stadium noise (music, jumbotron) and a PA announcer I dont think Backbreaker owes us anything else beside getting the core game of football right.

The good news in all this is that I think that the NaturalMotion engine will push all sports games from here on foward towards more physics-based gameplay and less canned animations.

So in the future you'll see a game like Madden move towards more physics based gameplay while still being able to offer fans more of a televison style presentation, with real-time commentary and replays.

So in the end while I dont think that Backbreaker will ever be a direct threat to Madden, I do think that it will play a significant roll in speeding up the evolution of what will come to be considered the norm in the coming future - gameplay without predetermined outcomes.

Whether or not Backbreak goes on to find its own niche in the football gaming market or fades away completely within a few years; one could make the case that Backbreakers greatest contribution to the gaming community is in the fact that competition breeds innovation and innovation brings about the changes necessary to challenge the boundries of what was thought to be possible yesterday. So if its credited with nothing else, maybe 10 years from now we'll look back and say that Backbreaker, a game that got terrible reviews, got the ball rolling on the future.

MMChris,

It was not my intentions upon responding to your post, but just for fun does this qualify at the level of stringing sentences together that OS is looking for or is this not up to snuff...obvious if i were to try and undertake such a challenge I would write something else for my sample writing but i just spent the last 30 minutes of my life writing so thought i'd ask.

ps, leave that answer as a private message