Breakers Collection

The controls of the game is similar to that of SNK's earlier installments in their Fatal Fury series (particularly Fatal Fury 2, Special and 3). The special actions are also similar to other fighting games from the same era, although the dashing and back-stepping techniques tend to differ between characters (some of them will roll on the floor for example). Additionally, the player can move while standing up after a fall. The game system emphasizes balance between characters by featuring an elaborate damage adjustment feature.

The player also can perform super moves by accumulating enough energy in their power gauge and performing the command (the power gauge can be filled up to three levels). To accumulate energy for the Power Gauge, the player must perform special actions such as taunting, dashing, back-stepping, rolling, etc. Like most fighting games, the player can cancel a regular move into a special move or special move into a super move, but the player can also connect one super move to another until their Power Gauge runs out, allowing the player to perform acrobatic combos. Because of its emphasis on damage adjustment, it is hard to spam the same attacks for great damage.

The following plot summary is translated from the home versions' manual:

Most characters in the game take inspiration from Street Fighter II. The original Breakers features a roster of eight playable characters and a single boss character who is playable only in the home versions. Additionally, each of the playable characters has a differently named palette-swapped alter-ego that each character face during the single-player mode instead of the usual clone. Breakers Revenge introduces one new character and turns the boss into a playable character as well.

Breakers was one of many video games that tried to copy the formula of Street Fighter II and achieve similar success. Breakers was originally announced in 1993 under the title of Crystal Legacy in English, or Tenrin no Syo Chicago (天麟の書　死嘩護) in Japanese. The game was first announced in the premiere issue of Game Hisshō Guide (ゲーム必勝ガイド) published by Byakuya Shobo in 1993, while the first issue of Game Center Tenkoku (ゲーセン天国) published by Tokuma Shoten during the same year revealed the first screenshot of the game. An issue of Geibunsha's Super Gamers magazine published a strategy guide for this prototype, which differs from the released version by having only a single-level special move gauge, different commands and move names for some of the characters, and having the same Super Move command (ABCD simultaneously) for all the characters.

Tenrin no Syo underwent location testing in June 1994 at the Famil game center near Shiinamachi Station and was later shown at the AM Show during the same year, before the game was revamped and retitled Breakers.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Breakers as the thirteenth most successful arcade game of January 1997.

The game is rather obscure in the arcade and Neo Geo scene, but it has gained something of a cult following. Along with no home ports of Breakers Revenge being released, the home ports of the original Breakers was never released outside Japan, pushing it deeper into obscurity. Due to its status and notoriety as a cult classic, it can still be seen being played in some modern Japanese fighting game tournaments. Even more so, the game is now more accessible due to the existence of emulators.