Every so often a game comes along that is so unenjoyable that you would rather set fire to your own testicles than play it. Well let my freshly charred giggle berries be the proof that EA's Facebreaker in such a game (please don't ask for photos).

Facebreaker is a novelty boxing game which in gaming terms is a niche of a niche genre. Traditionally, sport games generally sell well with at least fans of the sport but novelty sport games are designed to reach a broader market share than your ordinary sports fan. Some boxing games in the past have been quite good, but the fan base is relatively limited which is probably why Facebreaker was designed as a cartoonish novelty boxing game instead of a realistic sim. On paper Facebreaker should be a hit but in reality it lacks the one essential element needed in all games – fun.

Put simply, Facebreaker is just not any fun. I have never gotten so angry and disinterested in a game so quickly. I had barely scratched the surface before I notice that I had subconsciously turned the controller on its side and half inserted it into my ribcage as I struggled with the games controls and battled the building RSI in my wrist and fingers. I checked the difficulty setting multiple times as the learning curve seemed to dart upwards at right angles on only my third or fourth opponent.

Perhaps I had selected the hardest difficulty instead of the easiest? Is ‘Fierce' harder or easier than ‘Truculent', who knows? But I had selected the easiest difficulty setting and the game was still kicking my arse almost straight off the bat. Now I am willing to have my arse handed to me on a harder difficulty setting but this early and on the lowest setting just screams cheating AI. I tried changing characters and got a little further, but it wasn't long until I hit the wall again.

I would imagine that Facebreaker would appeal to younger audiences due to its wacky roster of caricatures and cartoon violence but the inherent difficulty renders the game unsuitable to younger gamers. Not to mention the overtly sexual ring girl with her poorly fitting clothes and massive, er...you get the picture right? Not something that I would call entirely suitable for young players and more likely to increase wrist injuries in early teen male gamers than anything else...Damn those controls!

The controls in Facebreaker are relatively straight forward but the finger gymnastics required to beat the AI boxers is the killer. The X and A Buttons perform high and low jabs respectively when tapped and hooks when held and released. Hold them when your opponent punches and high or low dodges are performed. Hold the Right Trigger at the same time and you will parry instead of dodge.

The Y Button performs slower strong attacks called ‘Breakers' and the B Button pushes or throws your opponent off balance. As you consecutively land punches and jabs, a metre fills which determines the power of your ‘Breakers'. Manage to fill the metre before pressing the Y Button and you can end the match with a ‘Facebreaker'. You can block with the Right Trigger and Taunt with the Left Trigger but these moves are not very effective or necessary.

A kind of Rock-Paper-Scissors system is implemented where jabs and hooks beat Breakers. Breakers beat blocks, dodges and parries; and blocks, dodges and parries beat jabs and hooks. But try and counter high when your opponent attacks low or vice versa and you are in trouble. To give the player a chance, visual warnings appear just before an opponent attacks to indicate an appropriate defence. This is a nice touch but when the AI boxer unleashes a furious and relentless barrage of punches after seemingly being all but defeated moments earlier, the warnings are of little consequence.

Bouts are won after three knockdowns or after performing a ‘Facebreaker'. If a bout makes it to three rounds then a Sudden Death round will decide the victor. Whoever is knocked to the canvas first in the Sudden Death round loses. The speed and ease in which an AI boxer can end you in a Sudden Death round is frustrating and feels cheap.

Different boxers have different strengths and weaknesses which can be exploited but they do not seem to make the game much easier. Couple this with the fact that during the championship type game mode called ‘Brawl for it All' it is entirely possible to go backwards if you lose too many fights in a row. This can be extremely frustrating when after what seems like hours you have finally beaten a tricky boxer only to have to fight them all over again when you lose three bouts in a row to the next.

The order of the opponents and the rings in which they fight are exactly the same no matter which boxer you choose to play as. You cannot help but feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again in this game mode. It is quite disappointing that other than a straight up single fight and multiplayer, ‘Brawl for it All' is all that Facebreaker has to offer in the way of game modes.

On the topic of multiplayer, Facebreaker can be played with other people in both online and offline modes. The game fares the best offline as you have the added entertainment of being in the same room as the other players. Games take on a round robin or winner stays on format with a few options available to modify game and winning conditions. Up to six people can play offline but only two at any one time.

On Xbox Live, finding a decent game can be difficult but not impossible. I found that my games felt a little fairer but the occasional connection glitch had dire consequences. In addition to fighting online, players can create and share their own boxers. The creation options are quite substantial cosmetically with face images being able to be downloaded from either the EA Sports World website or from an Xbox Live Vision camera. This gives players the option to create a boxer in any likeness they desire and then share them with the rest of the Xbox Live community. This feature works great and there are some fantastic celebrity likenesses already online such as Chuck Norris, Michael Jackson and Barack Obama.

Other than cosmetic changes, the boxer creation features are quite limited. You can only choose a body type and associated fighting style from any of the standard characters. You cannot customise the specific moves or behaviour of you boxer past that of the selected base character. This is a shame as it prevents players from creating a boxer that both looks and fights exactly how they want it to.

The sound design in Facebreaker is also a letdown. Sound effects are repetitive at best and the licensed music tracks rarely play for a more than a few seconds at a time which negates their inclusion in the first place. Graphically, the game characters designs look decent enough however the arenas and backgrounds are very bland and simplistic. The real time damage and face deformations can be entertaining but overall, the graphics of Facebreaker look no better than a high definition original Xbox game.