Facebreaker

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 10th September 2008
Comments (5) Stumble

Ninja!

If you’re of the thinking, as we were, that the whole boxing thing may make Facebreaker a little boring to play – limiting you to either dully-judged punches or too-simple controls – then you’d be wrong too.

The controls and basic gameplay of Facebreaker are surprisingly in-depth and well thought out when you get down to it, though the buttons themselves don’t actually sound all that complex.

There are four types of attack, one mapped to each button. You’ve got your high punches, your low punches, your throws and your breakers. The high and low attacks are pretty much self-explanatory and the only real thing of note here is that you can charge them up for extra-damage if you want.

The throws meanwhile aren’t what you might think as they don’t do any damage themselves. Mostly they’re used for putting an enemy in the corner, where you can corner them and put the hammer down. On their face.

Where the game gets a little more involved is with the breaker attacks, one of the key mechanics of the game. Where to begin?

Facebreaker Facebreaker - Gameplay

The breakers themselves are the signature moves of your character and they come in a few different flavours. The vanilla breaker, known as a haybreaker if it connects or a windbreaker if you get the timing wrong, is usually just a massive uppercut you can plant on your enemies jaw. It does some strong damage, but not massive.

If you’re searching to give your punch some extra kick then you’ll need to play a dangerous little waiting game and keep an eye on the counter in your corner of the screen, which gains a bar with every few successful punches you land. You can unleash a breaker at any time, but the more bars you’ve got filled on your breaker bar and the more powerful your final attack will be.

It’s the classic trade-off of risk versus reward. You can take no risk and swing your breaker early, but the reward will be minimal. Conversely, if you want to wait and unleash a more powerful skybreaker or groundbreaker attack then you’ll have to run some risks – one punch is enough to reset your breaker bar and if you miss the timing for the second punch stage of your attack then you don’t get a second chance.

Facebreaker Facebreaker - Gameplay

On the plus side, fill your breaker bar to the top and not only will you hear a charming little ‘PING!’ noise but you’ll also be able to unleash an awesome facebreaker attack. Facebreakers are the coup de grace of Facebreaker, able to finish your opponent in one move no matter how much health he has. Be warned though, you’ll need to land a string of super-fast attacks to even get a chance at it and if your opponent gets one hit in then it’ll all be for nothing.

Unbelievably though, that’s not all, and the game actually has some more complexities built in via the blocking system, which is controlled with the right trigger.

Basic blocks are simple. You hold the right trigger and a blue forcefield inexplicably pops up and shields your character like the mental projections of Jessica Alba in That Really Bad Film.

That isn’t the only way to defend yourself though – there are dodges and parries too. While blocking is a sure-fire way to defend, it isn’t really blocking out the damage you receive – just reducing it. If you want to totally avoid damage then you’d be best off dodging by holding either high or low punch. This’ll let you dodge any attacks at that height completely, but leave you vulnerable on the other end.

Parries are the ideal solution, able to turn an enemy attack around quickly and take you neatly from the defensive to the offensive side of things – but you’ll need impeccable timing and perception to note and tap the right attack and block buttons at the right time.

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