Backbreaker Demo Impressions

Backbreaker is the new game from the people over at 505 Games working with the Euphoria physics engine by Natural Motion it strives to redefine the American football genre which for many years has had only one real contender in the mix which has been the long running Madden series.

I was interested in the demo as I have had an interest in some of the previous Madden games and the NFL in general, and with the touted new gameplay on offer and Euphoria it was worth trying out and from the short time playing the game i am shockingly
surprised at what they have produced the core gameplay is terrific.

The demo includes the standard exhibition which allows you to play one half of a game, a training mode which is essential to get the most out of the game without it the game can feel a little overwhelming on a first impression.
A nice little feature they added is a tackle alley mode which has you running from one end of the field to the other dodging your way through an ever increasing variety of defenders, it plays like an arcade game in principal with a set number of lives and a scoring system which rewards you for dodging consecutive tackles and also taunting, the mode includes a massive 100 different challenges though the demo is limited to i believe 5 in total.

For me the best way to describe the game is that this is the Skate of the American Football genre because it uses a similar control mechanics to interact with the game this coming from the unique use of the analog controls.
The controls essentially work as follows, for passing pushing back on the right stick then pushing forward will vary the strength of the pass another option is a quick pass which is simply flicking on the right stick forwards. With the running game the right stick can be flicked left and right to make quick dodge or a half circle motion to perform a spin, both of these are very intuitive and certainly beats pressing a button it makes you feel more involved in the game and when you succeed in a certain situations be a it a first down or a late touchdown it is because of your skill you pulled it off and less down to chance, it feels very rewarding.

The game has a fresh feeling much like what Skate was to the long running Tony Hawk series, it has sort of an anything can happen vibe, and well just feels more alive and intuitive when your making a crunching tackle or a long pass when your the quarter back, overall it feels and looks amazing. Making a long run from a pass running down the wing with defenders trying to take you down left and right and finally making a dive to get the touchdown its very much down to you and your skill if you succeed. If you mess up it does not feel cheap in anyway and makes you change up your game and the way you may approach the same situation a second time overall the more you play you will learn to play better to overcome obstacles.

Simply put its just a fun game to play, i can see this being a great game to play with a few mates or online the only downside is the lack of licensed teams but seeing as I'm not a loyal NFL fan which wont effect me too much but some NFL fans may be iffy about picking it up given the option of Madden later in the year.
I would recommend this to any sports fan who likes gaming its a fun rewarding game and personally i cant wait for the full release later this month.

The demo is currently up on Xbox Live and i believe should be on PSN now so go and check it out.