Backbreaker's full-priced 2010 debut consisted of a fun minigame that propped up a fully-fledged game of football too broken to recommend, writes Billy O'Keefe.
Backbreaker Vengeance
For: Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade)
Coming soon to: Playstation 3 (via Playstation Network)
From: NaturalMotion/505 Games
Rating: Everyone
Price: $US15
As such, Backbreaker Vengeance - which cuts the price, strips out the traditional football and trains all its focus on a suite of minigames - makes all the sense in the world.
Like its predecessor, Vengeance kicks off with Tackle Alley, in which you're the ball-carrier and you need to obey the laws of physics and momentum while using jukes, spins, hurdles and other evasive tactics to dodge tacklers and string together a stylish touchdown.
But the new Vengeance mode flips the script by making you a tackler who has to dodge blockers and catch the ball-carrier, while Supremacy mode is a five-round, four-man race to the end zone in which the worst rusher becomes the tackler in each subsequent round.
Vengeance doesn't get a whole lot more intricate than that, but it complements each mode with five tiers of increasingly elaborate configurations of obstacles and opponents.
It also smartly focuses on high scores and online leaderboards, using a risk-versus-reward scoring system to encourage total, creative mastery of each tier.
The competition extends beyond scores, too: Each mode supports two-player local/online multiplayer, though the Supremacy mode's inability to accommodate four human players is disappointing.
