EA Sports Big has been rebranded EA Sports Freestyle and its first game under the new moniker is Facebreaker, a game that puts a serious cramp on believing this newly rechristened group can find the glory days of SSX and NBA Street ever again. Instead of going the way of the superior Fight Night games where strategy is involved, they have created a fast-paced – almost frenetic – button mashing boxing game. This is all well and good for casual gamers, right? Wrong.

The graphics are actually not that bad, although the over-the-top face effects we’ve seen in videos such as a character’s mouth being stretched wide is rarely seen because the game moves so fast. The pounding the characters take is really only shown in-between rounds or when there is a powerful knockdown. The sounds are also not too bad and some of the music, both original and remixed, is good. The announcer is easily the best part of the game when he announces the competitors at the beginning of the fight, which says quite a bit about the gameplay.

The actual gameplay is built upon a Rock/Paper/Scissors type of dynamic (jabs beat haymakers, haymakers beat throws, throws beat jabs) and the controls are simplistic in nature. The A button does low jabs when tapped, a low hook when held and released and a low dodge when held. The X button does the same things, except that it is a high jab/hook/dodge. The Y button unleashes the haymakers that take a little extra time to windup and deliver. Finally the B button is used to throw your opponent. Along with these buttons you can block with the right trigger and use it in combination with the X and A buttons to parry strikes high and low. The controls are simple, but then you get into the game and it moves so incredibly fast that you are literally unable to set up a strategy to beat your opponent and are left to just start wailing away at them while also attempting to block, dodge and parry as best you can. The block, dodge and parries are important because it allows you to counter-attack and take a lot less damage than if you sat there and took all the hits. These become especially important to you in the Brawl for It All mode.

The Brawl for It All mode is basically the career portion of the game. The computer AI is absolutely relentless in this mode as soon as you get into the second of four belt classes. The first couple fights are pretty easy, but as you continue on the fights become far too difficult to win. You have to use dodge and parry in order to have any chance against them, but the game moves so quickly that you’re just trying to beat the computer literally to the punch. Luckily you have three rematch opportunities to beat each opponent, but frustration is sure to set in due to the difficulty even on the easy setting.

Outside of that mode you have a basic fight mode where you can fight against any of the included characters or boxers you create yourself. You can also play online which can be quite fun even though it is just beating the crap out of each other. The included characters in the game are an odd lineup. First off, just like in the demo, you have Peter Moore, president of the EA Sports group. It is undeniably fun to beat the crap out of him over making this game! Then we have such reality TV luminaries as Kim Kardashian (Keeping up with the Kardashians) and the Heidi Montag/Spencer Pratt (The Hills) combination. Why these people are in the game outside of getting to beat the crap out of them no one knows.