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Oktoberfest Awards: Recalling the Debacle That Was Facebreaker

03:52 PM - October 8, 2013 by 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

Game: FaceBreakerReader Score: 3/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 7 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 believeinnow @ 10/08/13 05:59 PM

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.

# 2 SHAKYR @ 10/08/13 06:14 PM

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.

# 3 Storm12 @ 10/08/13 06:18 PM

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.

# 4 Yung AJ24 @ 10/09/13 06:41 AM

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

# 5 pietasterp @ 10/09/13 02:15 PM

"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).

# 6 Storm12 @ 10/09/13 04:24 PM

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...).

# 7 pietasterp @ 10/09/13 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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...).

Agreed. Arcade sports games are a ton of fun in short, bite-sized periods of play, and playing with friends is virtually a requirement. No one will have a lot of fun playing an arcade sports game by themselves for very long...the experiences are simply too shallow for that. Midway perfected the arcade sports game with "NBA Jam" in my opinion, and I actually also really liked "High Impact Football" and the subseqent "NFL Blitz". But without a beer on the high-top next to you and a buddy to talk trash to, both games are not particularly worthwhile.

I actually really liked the arcade "Punch-Out!!", where your guy was that green grid and there was the big orange KO punch button...to me, that was the pinnacle of boxing games. I liked "Ring King" as well, and there were some other good arcade boxing games (the Konami one in the arcades in the early '90s was good), but all in all, boxing games - sim or arcade - are just tough to pull off.

# 8 SHAKYR @ 10/10/13 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pietasterp


	Agreed. Arcade sports games are a ton of fun in short, bite-sized periods of play, and playing with friends is virtually a requirement. No one will have a lot of fun playing an arcade sports game by themselves for very long...the experiences are simply too shallow for that. Midway perfected the arcade sports game with "NBA Jam" in my opinion, and I actually also really liked "High Impact Football" and the subseqent "NFL Blitz". But without a beer on the high-top next to you and a buddy to talk trash to, both games are not particularly worthwhile. I actually really liked the arcade "Punch-Out!!", where your guy was that green grid and there was the big orange KO punch button...to me, that was the pinnacle of boxing games. I liked "Ring King" as well, and there were some other good arcade boxing games (the Konami one in the arcades in the early '90s was good), but all in all, boxing games - sim or arcade - are just tough to pull off.

Boxing games are not tough to pull off games like Fight Night were made that way intentially to catch a wider audience but it backfired and EA lost fans who wanted a sim/realistic experience. The producers said in countless interviews that the game they made was on purpose and not because they couldn't do something. I even asked them why no clinching? They didn't want it. They made themselves virtual boxing commissioners. We give companies too many excuses and don't want to say anything is wrong until it's too late.

# 9 allBthere @ 10/10/13 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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).

R2R was great dreamcast game, but was 7 years (or more probably) removed from face-breaker. I remember Facebreaker clearly because everyone thought the demo sucked and was no fun and one of the producers or developers was actually posting here on OS saying WE didn't get it!!!!! LOL

Ready to Rumble was fluid and fun and you could throw combinations, even legit boxing combo's like a 1-2-3 or mix in body head and even throw hooks from different angles on the downslope or "hooker-cut" style.

EA kept saying "name one character besides afro-thunder... see!!! you can't" saying that it's characters were forgettable.

That's TOTAL BS because I can STILL remember Afro, Tyson-esque guy from DC lol, the 1920's looking Irish working man type, the Drago-esque steroid blonde guy, and the bruce-lee type or rather jet li, hmmm ... the names don't matter as much as me clearly remembering how they look and their style - R2R dID have lasting and memorable characters, my limited memory above is a huge accomplishment given it was released in 1999!!!!!! that's 14 YEARS AGO!!

if I were to youtube it I'm sure many more memories would flood back.

Can I tell you ANYTHING about facebreakers characters? Nope, because none were memorable (something they claimed was BETTER than r2r) AND the gameplay SUCKED THE BIG ONE.

# 10 pietasterp @ 10/17/13 04:52 PM

Yeah, I remember that when one of the Facebreaker dev's was griefing us here on OS...I think that was in the halcyon days where big companies didn't really keep tabs on their employees' postings on other forums, before they realized they can do a lot of damage and started putting the clamps down on their interaction with us common rabble....

I remember all the guys you did from R2R, and come to think of it, that was a pretty good "boxing" game, in that you could throw combos and there was some semblance of strategy, as you pointed out. It was arcadey, but still had enough depth to be fun beyond the first few bouts. And it had Michael Buffer, so there was that....

# 11 RACZILLA @ 10/18/13 11:25 AM

The one thing I remember thinking about this game is that it was too damn hard for an arcade title. I'd get whooped by the computer and I think on the highest levels it was super difficult, almost how Punch Out was back in the day.

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Oktoberfest Awards: Recalling the Debacle That Was Facebreaker