FaceBreaker: K.O. Party

System: Wii
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA
Genre: Boxing
Players: 1-4

Party, party, party! Slapping this on the end of a Wii games’ title seems to be the new in-thing. Last month alone saw about five ‘___ Party’ games released. This uncreative naming trick isn’t very exciting compared to past generations. Super Nintendo games could get away with adding ‘Super’ in front of everything, it worked really well – merely looking at the box was an adrenaline rush. I heard some people even passed out. Why play boring old Tennis on Nintendo when you could play Super Tennis on Super Nintendo? Alternatively, ending everything with ‘64’ on the Nintendo 64 was great because it was so amusing. Hopefully those other 62 mysterious Pilotwings’ make it to the Virtual Console! But ‘Party’? It’s like an instant warning.

FaceBreaker K.O. Party is an incredibly well presented, arcade-style boxing game. Technically, this is one of the best Wii recreations of a 360/PS3 game yet. The cartoon style helps, but it's clear EA Canada put some real effort into the graphics here. If only they’d spent more of that time working on the actual gameplay – the Wii controls are very poorly implemented. The game encourages you to constantly spam your basic attack, which may leave your arms feeling like they’ve just juggled elephants after the very first round.

Swatting towards the screen with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck will jab at your opponent; pressing the A button whilst swinging will deliver a slightly more powerful Haybreaker punch. Likewise, holding the Wii Remote up in the air for a few seconds charges your attack to deliver a comical Mortal Kombat-style uppercut (complete with unwanted bullet time effects, as The Matrix is still very cool and fresh). Players are free to move around the ring with the Nunchuck’s analog stick, but the camera will always reposition itself to show the action from side-on. As a result, performing these – at times – mindless motion controls doesn’t feel quite right. There’s less connection than what was offered in Wii Sports' boxing.


As you constantly flail about to make sure your opponent can’t counter or even move, a power meter will start filling up, make it all the way (it resets if you get hit) and a match-ending ‘FaceBreaker’ attack can be unleashed. The characters sport real-time face destruction; by the end of some matches you’ll barely be able to recognise them. Not that they’re really worth caring about in the first place, they all seem to try a bit too hard at being caaarraaazzy. Considering this game is from the developer responsible for the original SSX games - which had some genuinely amusing characters - it’s a bit disappointing.

The main single player game – Brawl for it All - is fairly lengthy, but there’s a distinct lack of fun. The CPU difficulty quickly ramps up (as in, after the very first round) to the point of being completely unfair. I was reminded of early side scrolling beat ‘em ups where the enemies would slowly walk towards you whilst punching until they finally got close enough to actually hit you. Even when knocked down, they’ll continue to swat the air so you don’t get a chance to ever recover. Stand up and you’ll instantly be knocked back down. Fun!

The multiplayer mode fares a lot better, offering a Wii-exclusive ‘Punch-o-Matic’ option (I guess this is what warranted the ‘K.O. Party’ title) that randomises matches by mixing in power-ups or playing with the attack power and so forth. There’s a four-player option in the form of a tag battle, it could be a decent weekend rental if you and your mates want a reason to call in sick on Monday morning with broken arms. Amusingly, EA didn’t bother to include the online multiplayer in the Wii version.


As mentioned briefly somewhere towards the top of the page, the presentation is superb. Everything comes together nicely, with slick menu screens, cut scenes before and after each match and some great visual effects. The sound effects are quite possibly the best part of the game, with the FaceBreaker attack in particular sounding downright brutal, more so than it looks! There’s even a decent selection of licensed tunes from the likes of Wolfmother, The Go! Team and Dropkick Murphys to rock out to,

FaceBreaker: K.O Party has a few interesting ideas (if your character gets dizzy, you’ll need to shoot stars and birds circling above their head – light-gun style – to get them back on their feet) but the game is just far too light on the gameplay. It has the look of an enjoyable arcade boxing game, but the feel of an Atari 2600 boxing game. There’s no sense of rhythm whilst fighting, it’s just an all about barrage of controller shaking.


Score: 5.5/10 - "Try/Rent"
Everything’s there except the gameplay. I’d wish EA Canada the best of luck with a sequel, but it seems like the game sold horrendously on both the PS3 and 360. I really don’t see this version doing much, but who knows – it has party in its title!