Facebreaker Hands-on Preview

Gameplay Actually

Of course, making faces that are so obscene that they are undoubtedly headed for a speedy deletion is fun, but what about when you actually get around to playing the game instead?

Well, the gameplay itself is pretty much what you’d expect. Not what you’d expect of a boxing game perhaps, but definitely what you’d expect of a beat-em-up.

For the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions the controls are simple. You have one button for light punches and jabs and one button for heavy punches. Light jabs are quicker but do less damage, whereas heavy jabs can be powered up but are slower.

One important thing to note, especially about the Wii version, is that the heavy attack button can also be used defensively and when you’re powering up that super-punch you’ll be immune to some forms of attack. Unless your opponent counters your dodge that is, in which case you can block and parry their counter of your dodge…

Yeah, the dodging and blocking mechanics are pretty involved. Let’s just leave it at that for now.


The question is then, if the heavy attacks are more powerful and can be used to dodge the more powerful attacks, then why would anyone ever bother with the light attacks?

The answer is simple – it all helps build towards a facebreaker of a massively muffin mashing magnitude. The facebreaker is the ultimate move in, uh, Facebreaker and is powered up by landing chained attacks that fill up your break meter in the corner of the screen.

The break meter is levelled too, which creates a nice little risk versus reward mechanic. Every punch you throw helps to fill the break meter a little – but getting punched just once will bring the combo back to zero and you’ll have to start blocking and jabbing to build it up again.

Fortunately, if you don’t want to push your combo meter all the way to the top then you can still unleash some rather awesome moves to damage your opponent if you don’t fancy your chances.

Most of the smaller moves which are available at these lower stages, like the Skybreaker move which will fling your opponent into the air so you can leap atop them Keanu Reeves style and give them a sucker punch, require careful timing as well. Hitting that second punch isn’t automatic – you have to get it just right to deliver the maximum bonus damage.


Each character, or character type if you’re using a custom boxer, has their own set of moves too. Our personal favourite was Voodoo, one of the larger and slower characters who delivers a special move where he punches the enemy into the ground before arse-planting on their face.

The move itself isn’t that great – we just really like the way that the enemies face will stick between Voodoo’s ass cheeks when he gets up and starts to waddle away with that awkward fat-man waddle.

If there’s a problem with this facebreaker mechanic then it’s purely that the first person to land a facebreaker will instantly win that round and, since building a full break meter takes only a dozen or so punches to do, experienced players and fast characters may be a pretty deadly combination.

That last point is definitely true when it comes to the Wii version of the game too. We played a few rounds against one of the lead designers of Facebreaker: KO Party – so named because the Wii version has a few extra party type modes, naturally – and though the controls were smooth and precise it was evident that the game still needed some balancing.

That or we just really rule at that waggle-fest of a game, whichever you find the most believable.