Backbreaker Review
Short Version: Backbreaker is like David to EA’s Goliath with its Madden NFL franchise. Powered by Natural Motion technology Backbreaker without a doubt has superior on field physics. However ackward controls and a restrictive camera guarantee’s that this title will only be enjoyed as a fun alternative for hardcore football fans. As for the mainstream – several missteps leave the game feeling closer to lifeless tech demo rather than the full experience we have all been waiting for. Ultimately, Backbreaker has a solid foundation with which to build on, if it gets the chance.
What you’ll Like:
• The Natural Motion Engine allows for the BEST Physics in a football game to date!
• Tackle Alley was surprisingly fun!
• The Running game is rewarding! Never has Stiff-arming, Juking and spinning ever been so fun!
• Offering us an alternative to the Illegal and Anti-competition MONOPOLY that is Madden NFL.
• Excellent Team Creator with Custom logo creation offers limitless possibilities including recreating the NFL.
What you’ll Hate:
• Solid foundation & physics, but lacking in just about every other area.
• A completely unforgivable replay system in a game that’s designed to show off its realistic motion.
• The game feels lifeless and empty with faceless clones playing football.
• Your game is called “Backbreaker” and there’s not a SINGLE Injury in the game? WTF?!?!
• The Create-A-Player only allows an existing character name change and skin tone selection.
Final Verdict:
AVERAGE
5/10
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68 thoughts on “Backbreaker Review”
When you tacked about the QB just switch the controls to alternate B or X to switch your reciever (without focus mode) and A to pas for running B to spin, X to dive,A to juke or right stick. Pretty easy dude but I totally agree with you on the camera my averge is 8/10, if they do everything right in backbreaker 2 and what you said at every point it will be 10/10. thanks Joe but i disagree with your final vertict. but i just want to tell every body to buy it amazing game. (10 years old)
hmm just think of a first person football game you running and tackling people but maybe not ass a QB and being able to switch views like racing games instead of just always first person
when i saw the “you and the law” book, i was just laughing my ass off because I HAVE THAT BOOK! epicness.
I hate football but I’ll play this game for two reasons….1. Looks actually kind of Epic. 2. TO FIGHT COPRATE!!!!!!
I agree mostly with this review. A lot of qwerky bullcrap happens, even with the amazing physics.
But I disagree with the overall scor”e.
All things considered, this game has sparked my interest for americain football ( something Madden never did).
I think this game would deserve AT LEAST 6.0. I myself would give it 7.0.
Being more English than tea and scones, I must confess, I’ve never had much of an interest in American ‘Football’ (seriously, at least what we call football uses your FEET a bit more). However, I must say this has got me interested in American Football games. I may just check it out, if only to rent.
Also: Holy frak Corporate Commander’s got a superior RUN FOR THE HILLS! Or alternately, enlist in the Resistance, I guess.
Jim Carrey just scarred my dreams for life.
On a positive note, I’m glad someone has finally stepped up and made a non-Madden football game. It’s a shame that it doesn’t live up to its full potential, but that’s something you’d expect from the first try. And I think the over-the-shoulder camera style and the physics engine adds some action to the game, unlike Madden which feels too much like a board game for me to get hooked to it.
Funny. I never knew this game existed until today, and this show came out a month ago. You just never see it around.
Euphoria isn’t the only physics engine in Red Dead Redemption…
HOW ‘BOUT THEM COWBOYS?????!!!!!! Awesome!
Totally agree with the review. I picked this up and I’m loving the physics engine but… man, fuckin’ Madden…
They need to give another company a license.
WOW I just recently started watching you Joe but your stuff is quite on the spot. *Sniff I miss NFL 2K games so much they were fun simple and had everything you wanted from a football game. I even loved the quarterback cam mode for its unique difficulty. Hmmm I still play all my 2K games including my fav NFL 2K1. I have played every madden game that has come out but I feel a kind of tear for that series sir. I salute you!!! I know you have alot of people that reply but I figure whats one more comment? Keep it up dude I love it when you do cameos also
you make me laugh as well as inform me.
-New Fan
FIGHT THE TYRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe, I’m loving the new format, but you gotta get a curtain or something for Corporate’s scenes. Seeing the whole apartment reflected in his mask is distracting.
hmm…since i don’t like american football at all and very few who aren’t from usa or uk (where i think rugby is preferred??) too..how about a review of a soccer game for your non american fans..world cup is near even if you haven’t heard!!! One of the biggest sports events of the world you know? Even the USA is participating
I’m not much for football video games, but it’s great to see another developer try their hand at the monopolized genre. EA may have the NFL license in a solid kung fu grip, but that doesn’t mean they control the entire sport. Frankly, the idea of making my own teams intrigues me even more than playing as any NFL team. I may even give this one a try.
Now, I’m not saying Madden is a bad series, but when you don’t have any competition, it’s far too easy to settle into a groove and never get out. If other developers take the risk and make football games that do things Madden doesn’t, they won’t even need the NFL license. They’ll force EA to get off their asses and do new things with the franchise. And we’ll be the ones who benefit.
Like I said, I’m not a big football gamer, but I will gladly support the underdog and give Backbreaker a try. It may even convert me over time.
Love the review. I think I’m going to buy Backbreaker, because I like the option of having non-NFL teams in a league. In a earlier version of Madden I created a custom league with all sorts of teams, some fictional, some from the XFL, so I thought it was pretty cool. (like the Chicago Enforcers uniform there Joe.)
I liked Blitz – The League, and I hope this could be the successor to it, with great tackles, leagues and INJURIES! *Backbreaker and no injuries? Is that a joke?
I’m out.
Good first new Joe Show review but i dont see myself playing this game because i like madden so much. The Madden series just does a lot of things right but my favorite football game of all tim is NFL fever 2003 for the Xbox
You left out the most important detail that will spell the downfall of this game. It was published by 505 Games. In the 3 years that they have been around 90% of the games they have released have been obscure garbage for the Wii and DS, along with a bunch of movie licensed games based on movies that should not have had games made out of them (‘Hotel for Dogs: The Game’? Really?). Pretty much all games released by this publisher have sketchy street dates that move around constantly until the games actually hit store shelved, if they ever do.
Using Backbreaker as an example, the store I work for was unable to get it from any of our distributors because NONE of them were carrying it. We ended up paying retail to order a few copies from Amazon and then sell them at a loss in order to fill the 4 or so pre-orders we got. Hopefully the publisher will get their act together with promising games like Backbreaker as well as the upcoming ‘Naughty Bear’ (360 & PS3) and ‘Morphx’ (360 exclusive), though with both of those games having already had their dates pushed multiple times, I wouldn’t count on it.
As for Backbreaker itself, I was actually looking forward to it when I first heard about it because it looked like an arcade style football game that might act as a successor to the Blitz series, but now that I know that it’s just a mediocre sim I honestly have no interest in it at all. I’m assuming that this game is going to be below the radar for most people, and that most stores won’t be carrying it at all, so don’t hold your breath for a sequel.
I think Euphoria was one of the physics engines in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. If at first you don’t succeed, right?
It seems that we are very lucky in Europe with how our football (soccer) is set up. EA get exclusive rights to the FIFA licence but that is not the only football (soccer) licence out there, as its main competitor Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) uses a different licence which allows it to field official leagues as well as official likeness for players as long as they play in those leagues, also the players themselves have a say in whether their likeness can be used in a game though they generally can’t opt-out of an officially licensed game due to contract.
This setup really works and creates the title comparativeness that you champion and there has been a great tug of war between EA and Knonami (owners of PES) as well as a secondary competition between EA, SEGA and Eidos for the best manager sim game (we love the sport so much we have full retail priced Fantasy League games) over being the BEST football (soccer) game and thats not just in units sold but in quality. A few years back EA was resting on their exclusive licence agreement with just tweaks instead of innovation which let Pro Evo into the game and was seriously affecting EAs sales and with a management change EA did the unthinkable, they fucking innovated, over the past few years they’ve brought improvements to the table nobody was expecting such as free control whereby the player has an almost 1:1 directional movement with the analogue stick, prior to that both companies used a more axis style which gave the players very angular movements. EA had pumped so much into the series that the reviews jumped from am average of 7/10 in 2007 to 9/10 in 2010 with many sites and gamers regarding the 2010 version to be perhaps the best football game ever released.
damn spell checker, should be competitiveness not comparativeness
not just there in Europe, in south america its the same. i think people stopped buying FIFA games as soon as Winning Eleven started appearing
If I remember correctly Pro Evolution Soccer/Football is the European name for Winning Eleven.
i really really want to support back breaker, but i dont own a ps3 or a xbox 360. this game does have potential to face against EA. They need to try to make the sequel, it deserves to make a revolution on unlicensed football games. i saw comments on gametrailers.com that people wont buy it simply because they dont have the nfl teams. -.- thats just stupid, u can create a team, so u can try to make an identical design, like how joe made an similar dallas cowboys team. EA or the NFL cant sue backbreaker or joe because its not the real team, its just a team that LOOKS like the team but isnt. (loophole suckas
).
Quite the bone chilling ending to a not-so backbreaking game.
Job well done Joe! Keep up the grand work in beating the shithe out of bad games and fighting for what we want! Your army salutes you, sir! *salutes*
Except this isn’t a bad game, lacking in areas such as presentation and content yes, but not a bad game. What people seem to confuse difficulty nowadays is poor game design and mediocrity. There was a time when people would welcome challenging games like Backbreaker, but now with all of these simple games that are flooding the market, anything that takes longer then 5 minutes to learn is automatically labeled as bad. Sure, the controls are hard to learn and the camera takes some getting used to, but once you do, you’ll find out that Backbreaker is actually more of a sim to REAL football than Madden is.
Just because Madden has better presentation, the NFL license, and more detail in things like players on the sideline etc. doesn’t make it better Joe, it just makes it prettier. All of the bells and whistles are things you pay attention to for the first hour or two playing the game, but once you start really playing Madden, you realize it isn’t that realistic with morphing, no acceleration, stats put in the game that don’t affect gameplay whatsoever, balls constantly going through players, suction blocking just to name a few bugs and glitches with the game that haven’t been resolved in years. And while the players do at least look like tight ends in size, they still look more realistic than those in Madden purely because you feel their size, while in Madden it feels like you are controlling little figurines on a board, rather than a human being.
Oh, and a last note about the camera, its not punishing us by not including the God camera, its rewarding us with a whole new play style than, once worked with and accustomed to, works better than Madden’s view. Just because you are used to playing a certain way doesn’t make it the best way to play, it just makes it something you are used to. Please play the game more, learn the nuances and watch what you can of what happens in the game to Madden and you’ll see that, while there isn’t the big NFL license and presentation of Madden, the actual part that matters, the game play, is light years ahead of what EA has been working on for 20 years.
I want this to do well so they can also start making games for other sports. For my own selfish needs, hockey.
When the price drops on this game I might give it a try. EA sports sucks baaaallllllss!
Maybe in the US but they definitely don’t suck balls over here in the UK. They have turned themselves into a high quality publisher and developer recently and have regained a huge following among the core gamers. I’d blame the NFL more than EA as with any other licence where competition is allowed EA are fighting for their top spot.
Great job!
It rules
Where can i donwload the theme song?
I love your game reviews Angry Joe. I appreciate your insight on popular and underground games.
Joe is great for that, he got me into King Arthur.
By same music did you mean when ever you have to kick, it ALWAYS plays here comes the boom. It was really piss me off after a little while, But it’s still an average game. It seems like they were trying to be too different but also missed out on alot of makes football games, football games. Like sidelines and mascots and injuries, all the little things that add up to being a big thing in football. Also I can’t stand the camera it’s really annoying when passing and running cause I can hardly see anything.
Also ESPN 2K5 FOR THE WIN
ok, joe i have a question. WHY ARE YOU MESSING AROUND WITH GAMES THAT GAMERS CAN DECIDE ON BUYING OR NOT THEIR OWN, WHILE LETTING GAMES LIKE TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON SLIDE PAST YOU AND YOUR FANS? AT LEAST GIVE IT A LIKE 1 SENTENCE POST FOR IT SAYING, “PRE-ORDER NOW” OR “DON’T PREORDER” HECK, I WOULD EVEN TAKE A “THIS GAME YOU SHOULD AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE” JUST GIVE YOUR ARMY SOME ORDERS ALREADY!
translation from angry to english: why has there been no remarks on the new transformers game? (note:the fourms are not coming up for me, not sure if that’s just me or not.) your fans, we know you can’t do every game that comes up, but don’t you think this game is important? this game is already set to be sold out within 24 hours at all the stores i have been to. just look at the Gametrailers.com footage if you haven’t already and just say something. your fans would really like to know. as for the Madden NFL rights thing, it might not be a bad thing. don’t get me wrong, i want to kill bad games as much as you, but if the NFL games are done right, then why have an alternative? like the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (the Madden games need to be simplified though.) that’s just me here.
i think i know who the overlord is
Chuck Norris?
Review Tecmo Bowl DLC…now thats a football game
I’m from England and this game looks really fun, I’ll probably give it a try. Oh btw, FUCK CORPORATES CANCEROUS TITS.
Finally got myself signed onto here and am glad to finally do so.
Your review for the game definitely kicks rocks, and am really grateful.
I actually work at a Gamestop, and to hear reviews like this truly helps me out to let others know whether or not this is a worthwhile game. Kind of surprised to hear about no injuries…despite the title being “Backbreaker” which in turn is kind of “false advertising”. :p
Anyways, definitely enjoying the new format and am looking forward to hear what else is under wraps for the upcoming reviews.
People need to stop blaming EA for the licensing problems.
The NFL picked them, not the other way around. So go scream at the NFL for not sharing the license, EA is just trying to make a game.
With that said, I agree on Backbreaker.
I’m well aware of that rumor as well, which is addressed in the ending bit – but thats just hearsay you werent at the behind the doors closed meetings when this deal FIRST arose.
If we’re going to assume anything (because what you’re doing is assuming that EA bought the rights), then take this into consideration: the NFL picked Madden for its namesake and sales figures. The NFL also chose DirecTV, Reebok and Sprint as their “official partners” for the same reasons as well.
dude the new videos kick ass. i love your reviews. dont stop.
Totally agree with you Joe. Madden is bettter than backbreaker, but althought backbreaker has some faults. You must agree with me on this. MADDEN IS THE SAME GAME EVERY YEAR, and sometimes its worse than the year previous. What Im saying is that every year when I buy the new madden….I cant see anything different. Sure maybe a few new “cool” options or interface….reward system or crib add-ons but the gameplay is the same everytime. It reminds me of gameday for the playstation. EA needs to get someone new on the project. lol imagine a football game by DICE! now that would be some badassness. =P Anyway, your doing great Joe. Have a good weekend.
awwww someone looks adorable in their football gear! ^_^
The two player part looks like a lot of fun. I’m not a big football fan [more an ice hockey one], I might rent it just for that.
I seem to recall that there’s a couple anti-trust cases circulating through the court system in regards to exclusive NFL licenses. This is the latest I could find on Gamepolitics.com: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/05/24/scotus-sacks-nfl%E2%80%99s-claims-antitrust-immunity
Although it’s actually more specifically about a case involving NFL sportswear, it is of course relevant to the Madden exclusivity deal as well.
I believe there was a case specifically in regards to Madden, but I can’t remember what it was and I haven’t exactly been following it all the way through.
I wrote a blog a ways back about how a better strategy for releasing sports games would be to release a “new title” every two to three years and in-between simply release roster updates and maybe a few upgrades for a nominal fee. That would be much more sensible for consumers than paying $60 every year for a game they basically already bought the year before-and with “new features” which are mostly just re-implementations of features from the previous generation titles-such as the ability to create custom teams and so on.
While it is missing a lot of things related to football, the whole presentation aspect, gameplay, and camera view are all things we have taken for granted and are so accustomed to. If you watch some videos on YouTube by guys like versuz2, apexisfree, or RyanMoody21, you can see all of the realistic things in Backbreaker that happen and of what you can do. Also, on the bit about the camera, at first it is very awkward as again, we are used to Madden and the games that have copied the formula, but once you get used to it and learn to use the focus mode, it becomes a lot less frustrating and more intuitive than even Madden’s “God” camera. Finally, on your passing critique, again it all comes down to using focus mode and the skill of your quarterback. One of the things that people don’t seem to realize is that the precision passing in Backbreaker is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Maddens as you can place the ball essentially anywhere you want to once you learn how to pass properly. The passing in the game is very similar to that in real life and just goes to show you how even the crappiest QB’s in the NFL still do something that is extremely hard to do even in a video game. Just as a point to the passing aspect, I have uploaded a video of my dropping in a pass over defenders in a way that you can never do in Madden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0pdiCRtvfI Love the reviews as always and keep on being angry!
Hey Joe you talked about slightly different rules, do you know if they were CFL rules? Or are they just odd? Also I <3 the new fomat of the show, no matter what anyone else says.
You know, in REAL foot ball the player’s playing REAL foot ball, do not get a “Bird’s Eye View”. 3rd Person or 1st Person with sound alerts when some one is open for a pass.
But Joe has a point. You aren’t playing real football. You are playing a video game that should sacrifice realism in terms of enjoyment and fun.
In this case you’re not a player in the team, you’re the whole team, you have to have a more ‘ubiquitous’ vision of the game.
Iam so sorry to say this to you but its a GAME if you like to play REAL foodball you need to get your ASS outside. A game is make tho have fun not to roll eyes on the players. got it good.
Lookin’ good, Joe, haha.
I’m not huge on football, but I am impressed at the cojones displayed by this game. I’d like to see it get another chance, so I’ll definitely support it.
I agree with on the tech demo aspect. When I was playing the demo for the game, I felt like it should have been a beta. With a new concept/idea like that, I felt that they should have sent something out for consumer review.
I hate this new stuff man, I’m sorry. I miss the old show with just you. I think the corporate guy is kinda funny, but that girl just threw me off the first time I saw her…I’m not here for some kind of real life fan-service/cosplay army girl…there are alot of girl video game reviewers who dont need to get dressed up like that, and its obvious she’s been fed the script, its insulting to us guys as well. I came for your review, dude. If I wanted to see that, believe me, I have other ways. Get rid of her, dude it ruins the entire atmosphere…or at least make her look more normal. My gf and I watched have watched your reviews for sometime (we both use TGWTG often) and she saw her “freak out/lets take off my clothes” scene the first day, and hasnt watched you since. I still watch, and I really wanted to see this review, because I’m so sick of my brother, and friends only wanting to come over to play either Madden or GTA, I’m sick of those. Too bad this one didnt hit the mark so well, I kind of didnt think it was going to do so hot, especially when you know the only question is “Is it like Madden?” or just flat out “Maddens better” without even a pickup of the cartridge. We’ve been spoon fed Madden, Halo, and GTA games like crazy the past few years, especially Madden….I feel I’m buying the same game over and over and over every year. Anyway, good review, and I do have to say I do like the RRoD symbol, its clever, and I hope you take what I said just out of my opinion.
Take this only as my opinioin too, the new characters and features in the show make it funnier and i like the idea of a humoristic background storyline as lots of people do, angry joe show as always cool, and i doubt these changes can ever come for the worse, angry joe is most of the times at its best when he invite someone in the show, it’s like he always says:
“it’s always best with coop”, that’s the case for the show too.
I enjoy the new setup myself, but yeah, the sexy girl thing, I’m not sure I dig. It’s not really needed.
Not that I’m saying get rid of her, just maybe put her into something less revealing.
WHAT? Cover the girl?
She’s funny and hot, why would you take away one thing or the other?
Besides, she was there for like 15 seconds, it’s not like she’s distracting you from the review, it certainly didn’t distract Joe at all…
Why would anyone want to get rid of her, IDK. It’s a plus of the Show, it’s diversity, it’s a hot chick FFS!
Don’t take this the wrong way dude but I’m glad your girl stopped watching, if she’s going to get so butt-hurt over that bit (which was purely designed to be funny) then BUH-bye, as you should have seen by now were all about being goofy and outrageous.
I don’t feed her scripts either, that bit was completely written by her – your girlfriend has a massive stick up her butt with regards to accepting other women.
Pay close attention to the people that find girls with curves offensive – they are suspect and not to be trusted.
Anyway, in case you dont know, im a fan of cheesy FMV’s expecially military ones like in Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Wing Commander and Final Liberation – Lisa’s costume isn’t revealing trust me, there were far more revealing costumes I could have choose – I choose a costume that fits right in with the universe i’ve created, if you cant see that and want to focus on her body instead of her personality thats your malfunction not mine.
I’d say it steams from either jealousy or insecurity.
That makes sense, I thought some of it looked pretty familiar, though the last C&C I played was the 3rd one. They all had some pretty cool and goofy scenes.
I hope you didn’t think I was putting down Lisa with that comment, I think she works well.
“Pay close attention to the people that find girls with curves offensive – they are suspect and not to be trusted.”
I agree with you 100% Joe. I really have to cry foul when people have to looks to pass judgement. Keep her the way she is (like I really need to tell you that).
Ok I didn’t just want to reply to that. To the game.
I’m glad there is another football game out there. A bit rough around the edges, but those can be smoothed out over time. Though what I hope for is that the NFL doesn’t resign with EA.
yeah, i agree with joe on that one, this is not some religious shit you know? this are game reviews….some of the games joe review are classified mature by ESRB and have gore and nudity you know? like joe says, if your girl got scared with something as ridiculous as an outfit, its definitely better that way……
and about the girl in the show, i gotta say i love her, i mean, shes beautiful and sexy, has a nice voice, i see nothing wrong with her, she played her part in the show in an awesome way also, so, dont you dare remove her from the show joee !!!! :@ lol
if i were you, i would tell my girlfriend to go and watch some PIMP Daily Dose on youtube and then i would dare her to say those things about the girl on joes show again LOL
…..You in.. your football attire…
Ah, I better wipe away the nosebleed.
cough.
Interesting though, seems like its not so bad. And to be honest, I’d probably like the zoom in on the player more than the overview. But that’s just me.
Nice review Joe!
I’m not really into football\football games to be honest, but I enjoyed it anyway,
Ace Ventura was MANDATORY at that point lol !!!
btw you forgot one thing to add to the game… CHEERLEADERS !!!!
I think it would help to improve the atmosphere if you had some actually objects in the foreground of the green screen to add some actual depth. Personally i think whatever money you spent on the special effects should have been spent trying to find a way or get the proper equipment to remove the green screen showing on the edges of you when you move around.
I like that you stated that you’d like to tell everyone to buy the game to ensure that another one was made, but couldn’t do it on character. It adds some respect and trust to the review that will carry on to other videos.
I was very worried about the new setup and story stuff you added after the last video, I’m genuinely glad that you toned it way down for the actual reviews because i do not think i could handle wading through that material on a regular basis just to see the actual review parts.
I agree about NFL2k5. I never was a big sports guy, but that kinda switch around when I play the game for the first time. So much trash talking, many awesome moments, and alot of fun. A shame about the exclusivity of the NFL to EA. Then again, THQ did get exclusivity of the UFC, which is making it hard for EA to make their MMA game…so maybe they’re in the same shoes now as other developers, but in the world of mixed martial arts.
Anywho, hopefully the crew behind Backbreaker will learn from their mistakes and make a better product, if they get a green light. We’ll see.
actually thats EA’s fault. the Fertitta brothers(founders of Zuffa. LLC) asked EA if they wanted to make a UFC game and they said no they didnt want anything to do with MMA. then they got an offer from THQ and did real well.
Fuckin’ Madden, man. My best friends brother, Sam (who is a douche), always, ALWAYS buys the Madden Updates for that full fucking $60, which could be much better spent on actual, y’know, GAMES. Not the same fucking game over and over with one or two little graphical updates and stats. I quote Dena. EA stands for “Everything Assinine”