FaceBreaker Preview

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Being a heavily-stylised cartoon boxing game, the team has spent a lot of time creating a line-up of distinctive characters it reckons could stand alone as "action figures". (You can check out a video montage on EGTV.) We're treated to tasting menu of pop-eyed pugilists, including: a raver who dances on opponents' heads; Romeo the dancing matador, whose back-handed slaps are accompanied by a shower of roses; Ice, who's a "bus driver by day, radio DJ by night"; Red Army demolitions expert Molotov; a spell-casting witch doctor called - wait for it! - Voodoo; and Steve, who's a bit like Jack Black. And in case you were wondering: "We do have a monkey in the game," adds Richards.

Each character has their own fighting style and moves, including a unique FaceBreaker. Ice, for instance, upon the game's charming instruction to "BREAK HIS FACE!", does one-armed press-ups on his foe's mug. As demonstrated by Rangers fans in Manchester city centre last week, FaceBreaker also uses real-time deformation for its scraps, and as a bonus you get to keep the brutalised bonce of your vanquished opponent mounted on a shield to store in your personal trophy room.

So far, so straightforward. And while we remember with fondness picking up Ready 2 Rumble on Dreamcast launch day, that was rather a long time ago and one suspects many now demand more than simply an accessible arcade boxer. So, EA is embracing the current trend for user-generated content in what could prove to be the game's knockout blow.

Judging by the grenades on his utility belt, you wouldn't want to heckle this one.

Going back to where we started, Boxer Factory is where you can put the great unmutilated into the ring for a thorough pasting. You can turn anybody you like into a fighter just by uploading a front and side-on pic of their chops. The game generates this as a 3D head in the art style of the game and plonks it on the fighter's body of your choosing. Use a USB cam for yourself and chums, or simply grab some snaps off the web of anyone you particularly want to smash the teeth out of. (Hello, Ashley Cole!)

For his here's-one-we-prepared-earlier moment, Richards uses ubiquitous EA Sports pres Peter Moore. "I love doing this to Peter," he confides. "See what he looks like as a female!" Ooh. "What does he look like as a big, fat guy?" Uh-huh. And then on the monkey. "He loves that one." We don't doubt it for a second.

What's more, this feature will be thrown open to the entire FaceBreaker community online. Using a "YouTube-like interface" you can upload your creations to EA's servers and download everyone else's. And you can also do this on a PC, checking out thumbnails and bookmarking your favourites so you can download them onto your console later.

Romeo's face is finally broken.

"Think of the presidential campaign: you could have Barack Obama versus Hillary Clinton," Richards muses. "Or you could have the cast of Lost - you can have up to 30 boxers in your game." Or Cheryl Cole versus Gemma Atkinson. In short, even if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, someone else probably will be, so you can still download and disfigure at your leisure.

And, as with the main game, you'll get to keep the crumpled remains of all beaten heads in your trophy room. For added bragging rights, the game automatically records highlight of your bouts, which can also be uploaded to the community for posterity. It's like happy slapping without the Asbo.

Other stuff? Well there is a Wii version in the works, but that's still hiding in the dressing room. "The Wii will have differences obviously," Richards states. "It's more pick-up-and-punch, so you've got the controllers and it's very intuitive. You're out there and you're throwing rights and lefts and uppercuts." And there's also a licensed soundtrack; the only thing we picked out from the demo session was Wolfmother.