Occasionally EA takes a break from playing it safe with titles and tries something a little different. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. The refreshing aspect is that there was the attempt.

So it goes with FaceBreaker, a very stylized boxing title that allows players to create a character – and even use the PlayStation 3 Eye to image their own heads as models – and then pummel the heck out of the face. The game title is very apropos. The art direction is pseudo-comic book meets Saturday morning cartoon with over-the-top animations, piledrivers with names like Groundbreaker and Skybreaker, and action that is heavy on the button mashing with a side of reflexive gaming.

EA has dubbed this as a ‘renaissance of the arcade boxing genre,’ and in many regards, FaceBreaker is certainly that. The stylized graphics provide a real sense of fun, with the power-ups providing oomph to the already frenetic pace of the boxing matches.

There are a variety of ways to play the game, but you will have to get past the visual assault of the main menu – which does not exactly explain the different modes very well – in order to appreciate what lays beneath.

This game does have a bit of reflexive strategy but you have to be fast on the button and mash ‘em until your fingers bleed. Any hesitation will usually result in having it handed to you.

The control scheme is laid out with ease of understanding in mind. The X is a low punch, the square is a high punch, circle is a grab and throw technique and the triangle is a power punch. But you won’t always have time to load up that power punch. You have to catch your opponent walking into it just right. You can always set it up through a barrage of punches that target the low areas, around the groin (actually), and the high areas (the face). Once you have them a wee bit weakened, you have time to load up and throw that power punch, which can have devastating results if the timing is right.

The AI is fairly good in the game, and even in the single-player modes, you will have a fight on your hands.

There are several modes of play: Fight (think of it as play now), Brawl for All (the career mode, akin to toughest man wherein you take on all comers to level up your fighter), Online (you can enter a league or create one), Couch Royale (for 3-6 players offline on the same machine, winner stays in the ring), and then there is the Boxer Factory where you can create your own fighter.

Graphically the game does a fairly nice, albeit cartoonish, job of bringing the violence to life. As you fight, you will take damage. Between rounds, and after the fight, that damage shows up visibly on your fighter. You can go from decent looking to a bruised, swollen mess quickly. The sound features characterizations of the boxers, spouting their rhetoric, as well as EA Trax (songs by bands you may never have heard of). The musical score is repetitive but decent.

FaceBreaker, though, occasionally falls prey to targeting issues. Using the left thumbstick to dive forward or back, in a couple of instances the controlled character was not squared up to the opponent. This was not a special effect of a fighter (one can teleport a bit), but rather just game AI stumbling a bit.

And if you are more of a cerebral gamer, the button mashing of this game will wear you to a frazzle. On the verge of losing one fight, a new strategy was employed – the controller was turned sideways and the high/low punches were tapped as quickly as possible. The result? Victory plucked from the jaws of defeat. But this game is advertised as the next step of arcade gaming, so button mashing was to be expected.

FaceBreaker is a fun title, but hardly a great one. It is extremely violent, full of fun moves and finishers, but repetitive. You finish a fight, you start another one. The lure is that each of the computer characters have different weaknesses, and you can ramp up the difficulty levels. But that will only give the game limited replay value.

Gameplay: 7.0
It’s a button masher. The AI is good and tough, but you need to have the fastest finger. The controls are easy to understand, giving players lots of room to fight, recognize their opponent’s weakness and then exploiting it.  

Graphics: 8.0
Slightly cartoonish, very stylized and vibrant – this game does a very nice job visually.

Sound: 7.8
The musical score is decent, and the fighting sound effects are what was expected.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.5
Nice to see EA do something a little different. This could have been fleshed out much more to offer a more diverse and entertaining experience. As it is now, it is slightly repetitive.

Multiplayer: 7.8
The single-player experience can get a little stagnant, but the multiplayer just begs for trash talking.  

Overall: 7.2
A button masher with the graphical appeal of messing up your opponent’s face in predetermined ways, FaceBreaker is entertaining for a while, definitely fast paced and brimming with solid graphical elements.