Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds

 Xbox 360
Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. X-ONE Magazine UK
    Apr 23, 2013
    70
    Under that pixelated good is a deviously complex fighting engine. This means it's not for everyone, thought. [Issue#97, p.71]
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  2. DarkStation
    Mar 21, 2013
    70
    In the end, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds does not feature the seminal, tightly-crafted fighting mechanics of Street Fighter or the spectacular boss fights from Castle Crashers, but it does provide a handful of hours of side-scrolling, 2D-beat-em-up glee. In spite of a few crippling issues and ham-fisted mechanics, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds still outweighs its flaws with a competent throwback look and feel, gratifying gameplay flow and a strong selection of modes that, all things considered, justifies the asking price of merely $10.
  3. Official Xbox Magazine
    Mar 7, 2013
    65
    If you can get some pals together, have a stable connection, and don’t mind interrupting your game for a level-up session, you’ll have some fun here, but Battle Grounds still falls short of being the sleeper hit it could have been.
  5. Worth Playing
    Jul 8, 2013
    60
    Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds is a serviceable beat-'em-up, which is always welcome. However, it bears the cruel irony of being far more fun in single-player than multiplayer — a backward design for its chosen genre.
  6. Eurogamer Germany
    Mar 15, 2013
    50
    All things considered after a promising start, this title leads into an ultimately disappointing experience. If you like the design and also have a soft spot for games like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, you might find an afternoon's worth of decent entertainment with this.

Awards & Rankings

76
#76 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2013

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. BloodwCinnamon
    Mar 2, 2013
    8
    Phantom Breaker was a fighting game that came out a couple years back in Japan, and pretty much gave western civilization the finger in termsPhantom Breaker was a fighting game that came out a couple years back in Japan, and pretty much gave western civilization the finger in terms of coming over to play. Now we've been deemed worthy of the spin-off. While the first game was straight up one versus one, Battle Grounds goes the 2D beat-em-up route of Streets of Rage and Scott Pilgrim (more so Scott Pilgrim), with a focus on co-op and combos over weapons.

    Graphics consist of cutesy pixel-art recreations of what it would look like if a cosplay convention exploded all over itself in and around such gamer-hip Japanese locations as Akihabara. Whether or not you've grown tired of pixelated graphics, there's no denying the ones here being beautifully done, with stellar animation that's fast and clean. It's been a trend lately to go this route, but believe me when I say the art here is no imitation of facsimile. It's the real deal, and looks like it was made by veterans of the field. There would truly be times I would look past the chaos in the foreground to marvel over a particularly detailed backdrop, only to look back to see my character moving faster than I could process, with score multipliers firing numbers out of her skull with the ferocity of a mathematician's acid trip. As the wide-eyed anime girls kick the ever-loving out of monsters, androids and Harajuku girls alike, you may notice that not only is the whole thing nice to look at, it's rather fun as well.

    Controls are set up to prefer d-pad and face buttons over precision stick swipes, and combos are often nothing more than pressing a couple buttons in tandem with a single direction. Not only does this let you fire off chained attacks at machine gun pace, it provides the button-mashers out there with an optimal set-up for freeform brutalizing without ever having to learn much beyond "panic fingers". It feels like playing at an old arcade machine, where any strategy from careful timing to sheer madness works fine. A power-up gauge provides a nice incentive to hold off stronger powers until you can chain together super combos, which can rack up insane numbers and damage when deployed correctly. An even nicer touch is how they break up the 2D plane into two layers, allowing you to hop back and forth between separate paths. Works well for strategic jumping and dodging.

    Of course, this is all better with a friend (or three), as the AI can get downright mean in later stages, where devastating chain attacks can be deployed on you with only the tiniest windows of escape. Co-op here is either on or offline, with online having the benefit of not restricting all players to the same frame space. In other words, freedom to splinter off from the group, spreading the enemies out. Still, you can stick together and bounce enemies around between you, as it's possible to pull off team-up attacks. As a team, battles get frantic quickly, as the speed of the game tends to run high, and if one person is deploying an overdrive combo, everyone else slows down to what is essentially bullet time. It can be distracting or unfavorable in many instances, but it's still kind of cool to fight in slow motion as your friend tears through enemies at multiplied speed, or vice versa. Ah, who am I kidding? It's more trouble than it's worth...

    Full review at http://www.bloodwcinnamon.com/rev/phantombr.html    … Full Review »
  2. Xplocion
    Mar 13, 2021
    8
    The good:
    Another game with the Phantom Breaker characters. Beat'em Up competent and a lot of fun. Up to four players can play    The good:
    Another game with the Phantom Breaker characters. Beat'em Up competent and a lot of fun. Up to four players can play simultaneously. Includes a confrontation mode for up to four players. Very funny. Good challenge. Various characters to unlock (including L and White Mikoto re-colored versions). Comic situations. The plot is an excuse to go out in search of the captor of your sister / sister of your friend with trips to strange dimensions and personal revenge of things that happened in other games. It feels like chapters from some Random anime. Backward compatible with Xbox One / Series (With Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility to Xbox One there is no need to buy the game again). 700G easy achievements

    The bad:
    Watching the Phantom Breaker fighting games makes you think that this game is a wasted opportunity. It started as a 500G Arcade game to which two costly character expansions were added to reach 1000G. If you want to play with Kurisu Makise from Steins; Gate you have to pay. if you want to play with Frau you have to pay for the DLC. These DLCs may no longer be for sale on the Xbox Live Store.

    What Meh:
    There are those who say that this game is a plagiarism of Scott Pilgrim's game for coming out three years later, but the truth is that it is one more beat'em up and adds elements of history to the Phantom Breakers saga. If you have visited Japan you will be able to identify the references to many of the scenarios set in the game such as cities, buildings, train stations and temples. If you don’t like graphics "chibi" or Super Deformed graphics, this game may not hook you    … Full Review »
  3. shootingstars99
    Sep 16, 2019
    10
    For the price, this excellent beat-em-up is a steal! The progression is awesome and gives replay ability to the game in spades, maxing out allFor the price, this excellent beat-em-up is a steal! The progression is awesome and gives replay ability to the game in spades, maxing out all of the base and unlock-able characters in the game. Co-op is awesome, and really brings the game together, because we all know one of the highlights of any stellar beat-em-up title is playing with your friends and getting into it. The sprite art is gorgeous, and the fighting game-esque combo system is a joy to play! It's got a lot of charm to it, and actually takes a little bit to see progression in your game play, but after a few runs, you see your improvement right before your eyes. This is one arcade style game that just doesn't get old!… Full Review »
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