Mini Review – Backbreaker: Vengeance

Sports/Arcade

Twenty and downs!?

Rich

Admit it, you saw this come up on Game Marketplace and went ‘yeah fuck that’ because, like all sane people, you don’t know anything about American Football, right?  Well, that’s fair enough, I would have done the same but, for reasons unknown, I downloaded the demo, liked it and then snagged a review copy after baulking at the price.

The reason is because Backbreaker: Vengeance is as immediate a game as anything you’ve seen on XBLA.  Forget all that bollocks about picking plays, switching between all those players and knowing what the fuck you are doing, BB:V strips all of that out and puts you in the unfortunate boots of a single player who has to run, dodge, spin, jump and dive past various opponents and obstacles in order to rack up the points and score the touchdown.  The more elaborate your route the better as avoiding tackles increases your multiplier and showboating your way to the endzone gets you the big points.

With its easy to get into, risk vs. reward gameplay and big ‘n’ bold presentation, BB:V feels like something special.  Graphically, it punches above its XBLA weight and is bright and cheery, giving everything a Dreamcast-esque feel and the sound is full of suitably harsh-sounding thumps and cracks and with minimal menu options to worry about, BB:V feels like a coin-op game.  The urge to go for that extra, risky multiplier delights during early play as you try, fail, fail, fail, fail and eventually succeed with every failed run feeling like a punishment for your greed rather than unfairness on the part of the game.

Fucking pointless promo screenshot bollocks.

That is until roughly halfway through the game at which point the gentle difficulty curve becomes a wall.  That falls on your house.  Killing everyone you love.  It’s at this point that BB:V becomes an entirely different game.  The instinct to finish a stage as safely and cheaply as possible overwhelms the previously enjoyable risk vs reward mechanic.  This is a real shame and unfortunately will be a game killer for many.  It’s not unsurmountable by any means, but it’s not fun either.

The other main concern with that game is that there isn’t much gameplay on offer for your 1200M$P.  You get twenty levels (or 100 waves if you will) of the main mode and also you get to turn the tables in Vengeance Mode which puts you on the defence.  This works reasonably well but is a little less fun than Tackle Alley (the first mode).  Last up is Supremacy which sees you racing three other AI to the endzone and is rather less enjoyable than sticking your tongue in the disc tray and shutting it.

Backbreaker: Vengeance is so close to being utterly brilliant but pisses away its potential so completely that you are better off playing the demo as it represents all the fun you can have in the game but without the silly price tag.  You’ll probably love it but should resist the urge to unlock the full game.  It’s a shoe-in for ‘deal of the week’ treatment sooner rather than later anyway.

Rating: 5/10