Oktoberfest Awards: Recalling the Debacle That Was Facebreaker

[RaychelSnr]

Leading up to the release, Facebreaker was getting immense amounts of hype behind the new EA Sports Freestyle Brand, which was in and of itself a brief existing label -- replacing the oft-use EA Sports Big label from the previous eight years or so.

I remember Facebreaker and the promise behind it as if it were yesterday, it was going to be the modern day replacement to Mike Tyson's Punch-Out -- with over the top characters and boxing action. Coincidentally, a year later the actual Punch-Out franchise made a brief return on the Wii to critical success.

What happened is we got a game with questionable gameplay mechanics and almost no depth to it.

Read More - Oktoberfest Awards: Recalling the Debacle that Was Facebreaker

[believeinnow]

I always viewed Facebreaker as EA's attempt at continuing the success that the original Ready 2 Rumble amassed when it was released for Dreamcast back in 1999. It could have been a really fun game if the focus was on fun, which it was not. Facebreaker's release, around the same time EA released a number of "weird" arcade sports titles on Nintendo Wii are best left in the past.

But it would be cool for someone to make an arcade boxing fighting game. We're probably not going to see another Street Fighter, Tekken or Mortal Kombat for at least 2-3 years, so this could be perfect time for any developer (hint to indie devs) to do something that could appeal to the niche fan base.

[SHAKYR]

I definitely want EA to try at Facebreaker again because it would put them producers back in that game and free up room for the Fight Night franchise to hire producers with a great understanding of sim and realism of the sport of boxing.
I feel the casual fans should have their game and the sim sports gamers should have theirs. Facebreaker had massive potential but they drop the ball. It was way too over the top in a bad way.

[Storm12]

Quote: Originally Posted by believeinnow

I always viewed Facebreaker as EA's attempt at continuing the success that the original Ready 2 Rumble amassed when it was released for Dreamcast back in 1999. It could have been a really fun game if the focus was on fun, which it was not. Facebreaker's release, around the same time EA released a number of "weird" arcade sports titles on Nintendo Wii are best left in the past. But it would be cool for someone to make an arcade boxing fighting game. We're probably not going to see another Street Fighter, Tekken or Mortal Kombat for at least 2-3 years, so this could be perfect time for any developer (hint to indie devs) to do something that could appeal to the niche fan base.

I thought the same thing! Sadly the game wasn't executed well... And it just wasn't as you said, any fun to play. I wonder if they got any people from midway to help when they made the game... Since EA got part of midway when midway folded.

[Yung AJ24]

I thought this was good. I thought about getting it back when it first came out, good thing i didn't lol.

[rtkiii]

I always get Facebreaker and Ready2Rumble mixed up. R2R was fun and I never played Facebreaker...seemed like a dumb concept form the get go to me

[pietasterp]

"Ready 2 Rumble" was a great game on Dreamcast. The thing is, there's really only room for 1 of those games, and R2R was already in existence. What was the impetus to even try "Facebreaker"? I never even considered trying it for a second. I mean, do you really need 2 cartoony, over-the-top versions of any sport? If "NBA Jam" is already out there, where is the need for "NBA Ballers" or whatever? I'm all for competition, but the arcade sports game genre is pretty thin as it is, and downright shallow as an experience (nothing like the sim sports genre where there is endless room for improvement).

[Storm12]

It seems like arcade games always suffer with trying to make things too over the top, it happened to NBA Street (Homecourt was ridiculous!), NFL Street (NFL Street 3 tried way too much with the crazy gamebreakers, etc), and NFL Blitz (NFL Blitz Pro anyone? This actually suffered the inverse of trying to be realistic...). Arcade games are one shot things, and it's best if they are kept the same gameplay wise and only slightly updated from time to time (roster updates, etc...).