Backbreaker is an American football video game, developed by British technology developer NaturalMotion, and released on 1 June 2010 in North America and on 25 June 2010 in Europe. One of its highlights is the use of Euphoria, a game animation engine that determines animations dynamically rather than depending on canned animations. Backbreaker does not use teams from the National Football League (NFL) because Electronic Arts has an exclusive license to produce NFL games in its Madden series. The game relies on an extensive logo editor and team builder that was called "one of its silver linings". NaturalMotion announced Backbreaker in August 2007, with a targeted release date of late 2008. The game ended up being delayed until mid-2010. Backbreaker received mixed reviews. While it was praised for the Euphoria animation system, realistic physical gameplay, and the logo editor, it was also criticized for its weak online play, poor passing game, and lack of depth in single-player modes. After the reviews, the passing game was adjusted by the greathouse patch. The Xbox 360 version of the game received an overall rating of 54% from review aggregator Metacritic, while the PlayStation 3 version received a 58%. The iOS and Android version was given a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars by Touch Arcade. A patch released on 6 August 2010, alleviated many of the issues critics had with the game upon release and included upgrades such as: improved AI, new play books and an enhanced replay feature.[1]
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On the field, Backbreaker's gameplay is messy. When controlling a receiver or defender, the camera switches to an over-the-shoulder view that obstructs your vision and makes it difficult to see incoming players. It makes the game feel more immersive, but results in a lot of frustrating play calls. Controls also feel very weighty and clunky; coupled with the obstructive camera, Backbreaker is often challenging to play.
Modes are pretty standard. Season mode allows for custom leagues, but lacks basic options like player trades and signing free agents. Road to Backbreaker, the Franchise Mode, plays as you expect as you take control of a low-rated team and develop your team into an all-star squad throughout a season.
The two best parts about Backbreaker are the team customization and the Tackle Alley mini-game. While Backbreaker is unlicensed and does not have real NFL players or teams, the game has a very detailed logo creator that allows players to create teams of interest along with the ability to name players. Quite cool to see people have created a full-on NFL League within Backbreaker. Tackle Alley (originally an iOS mobile game) is a 100 level wave-based arcade-like mini-game where you try to score from deep in your own territory all the way to the end-zone down field. Early waves are easy with few defenders, while higher waves get more challenging with more defenders, obstacles and out of bounds areas.
Backbreaker was truly something different and ahead of it's time. It's unfortunate that the game never lived up to its full potential and lacked a lot of features compared to EA and 2K's sports titles.