Facebreaker

Call me naïve, but I've always assumed that punching someone in the face repeatedly in order to win a belt so big you'd look ridiculous actually wearing it outside of your bedroom is a simple task.

However, judging by the amount of money that tends to get shoved into the victor's equally large shorts, I'm willing to admit I could be way off base. Boxing might actually be a more complex sport than I'd initially imagined.

That's unless you're playing Facebreaker, of course. Any hint of complexity would be treated as heresy here, those in the ranks at EA clearly subscribing to my view that your average knock around the bonce should be a straightforward task.

In fact, if you can imagine what the antithesis to Fight Night might play like, then you'd be close to realising just what Facebreaker offers here – a brilliantly simple, and occasionally surprising, 2D fighter.

Its simplicity is undoubtedly its strength, with EA stripping back any overcomplicated controls to serve up five key options: punching high, punching low, smacking straight with a jab, giving your opponent a push and blocking.

It's a beautifully restrained set-up that means every single move you make is mapped to the D-pad. The whole idea of play is to mix up your attacks, and the control set-up makes that not only possible but intrinsic.

Much success, at least initially, comes from giving your rival a shove - a double right tap on the D-pad enough to lower your opponent's defences - so you can then take them down with any variety of attacks. Indeed, far from trying to avoid the concept of button-bashing, it's actually encouraged.

Doing so fills your 'breaker meter', topping it up allowing you to unleash something of a special move - one, as you might expect, being the fabled 'facebreaker' - upon your rival when commanded.

Generally speaking, the more wild you make your assaults as a whole the more success you have. Still, it's entirely possible for contests to swing back and forth, with health - broken down into two set stages, green and red - recovering should you block and hold off your rival for long enough.

All the rest – including the line-up of crazy characters, albeit with their distinctive styles of play – is something approaching window dressing. As you might expect, Facebreaker has both a one-off best-of-three quick play option as well as a series of standard belt championships, each unlocked one at a time.

You can even give a friend a good pounding, if you so choose, the game letting you snap a pic with your camera and then smash it to oblivion in the appropriately titled 'Break a face' mode.

But though there's an inevitable focus on the lighthearted, Facebreaker represents an admirable and largely successful attempt to make boxing palatable to all, without making it condescending.