Block Buster Indeed!

02-02-13 12:27 PM

Singelli is Offline

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| ID: 734184 | 3315 Words

Singelli

Level: 161

POSTS: 2852/8698
POST EXP: 1189395
LVL EXP: 53078200
CP: 67331.7
VIZ: 3147678

Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0

OVERALL: 7/ 10

I decided recently that I wanted to look up a childhood favorite of mine and set out to find it on vizzed. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that my search was rewarded rather quickly. However, I still experienced quite a shock.... such a classic with such a big name... and not ONE person has written a review for it! Gathering my jaw off the floor, I just knew I had to remedy this horrible oversight!

In case there is someone out there who miraculously does not know about this game, let me explain the basic gist of it. Arkanoid is a game in which you control a 'paddle' across the bottom of the screen with movement restricted to the horizontal axis. A ball bounces around the screen and you can not let it pass your paddle and hit the screen bottom at any time. Each stage is also filled with colored blocks, and they are destroyed upon contact with the ball. If you can destroy all the blocks without losing all your lives, you move on to the next stage. Along the way, you may be set back by bad guys which enter each stage, and you may be helped or hurt by 'pills' that may fall from the blocks.

A very fast paced and addictive game, it was actually created and designed after another game called Breakout. Although this may offer Breakout some claim to fame, I've always considered Arkanoid to be the better known and more successful game. It was so popular in fact, that seven games have been officially released as a part of the series over the past few decades: Tournament Arkanoid, Revenge of DOH, DOH it Again, Arkanoid Returns, Arkanoid DS, Arkanoid Live, and Arkanoid Plus (for WiiWare.) For true lovers, it should be no surprise that spin offs are STILL being made to this day. I see massive amounts of clones for this game and there aren't very many I would consider bad.

While I actually know of several clones I enjoy more than the original, I can't help but feel some nostalgia for this one. Without its potential and without its gripping play, the game never would have blown into what it is. If I were to rate this game purely off my own bias, I wouldn't hesitate to score it a 10/ 10. As it is, I want to be fair and rate this according to non- biased standards and thus my ratings might not reflect the true emotions I feel towards this masterpiece.

GRAPHICS: 7/ 10

With nothing other than bricks, a ball, and a paddle to work with, you'd think the designers of Arkanoid would either go overboard trying to spice the game up, or fail in lighting the imaginations of gamers. While I personally feel as though occasion falls towards the latter end of things, I also feel like this game was done extremely well considering the circumstances. Every stage is beyond colorful, with a wide variety of colors and textures... each distinct and separate of its own right. The pills have nice rounded looks thanks to the artificial lighting, and many animations are impressive as well.

Unlike many games with a tasteless color palette, one of the things I really appreciate about Arkanoid is that the colors go well together and create an inviting atmosphere that really draws the player in. Even each bad guy seems specifically tailored to his own stage. One stage has a blue honeycomb- like backdrop in which the enemies are a lighter shade of blue. These bad guys found in the first stage appear to be cones sliced in the middle, and the bottom slice swivels in small, flat circles below the top half. What's amazing to consider is that the game is well over 3 decades old, and yet the graphics are absolutely stunning. I'd never expect a 3- D nemesis to be so well designed, and so convincing.

The first bad guy isn't the only one, either. In round two, the background is a green swirls pattern (like a rake was dragged through green sand) and the enemy is a 3- D, lighter green pyramid that twists and turns around a small ball of the same color. The third round consists of an enemy which looks like three balls stuck to each other (molecule-esque) which spin round on a black and blue Matrix- like digital field. And finally, round four consists of a strange, blotchy red and gray wallpaper and plain red cubes. This backdrop and enemy are the least aesthetically pleasing, but the assault on the eyes is easy to overlook when the other rounds are considered.

Now, here's the absolutely awful thing which causes me to rate this category a bit lower: there are ONLY four types of background and four types of enemy in the WHOLE game. While this is common in many older games, I find it disappointing for such a widely proclaimed system of its day and time. I absolutely adore most of the game graphics, but it's a huge shame to see so much potential squandered. That being said, for once the lack of variety didn't bother me all that much. I enjoy the game and its cohesiveness enough to oversee the variation this one time. Each enemy seems made for its stage while not blending in to the point of difficult recognition, and each special type of block maintains its color throughout the entire game. Everything comes together nicely.

One aspect of graphics that -does- bother me is that of the final round. Not only is almost everything a garish shade of red, but the boss of the game (DOH), looks like a digital Easter Island head. Its un- inventive, ugly, and quite dull. This is only emphasized by the equally ugly background and the graphics here are almost a let down after everything else. Even the cut scene is not as bad as the game's final round, and the cut-scene only consists of a single image which reminds me of a Star Trek ship floating in an endless field of stars.

However, the good graphics in this game outweigh the bad, and I've saved the best for last. You see, each round is full of very colorful blocks. The rainbow of colors somehow manages to not be unbearably obnoxious and the developers used this aspect to create a fun token to engage and keep interest in playing. You see, every so many rounds, the tiles make -shapes-. There's one round where the tiles form an alien head, one that forms a badge looking design, and one that forms an umbrella. While these rounds are few and far between, they certainly are fun and I wish the designers had incorporated this fun into every stage. There are many knock offs which do have this feature and use it more frequently, but Arkanoid was the first which ventured into it. This and other things make Arkanoid easy on the eyes and a blast to play.

(Disclaimer: The alien level image is not mine because I realized I wanted to include it only after I had written the review, and I couldn't remember what level he was in.)

SOUND: 10/ 10

As far as I'm aware, this is the only time I have EVER given a game a perfect score in any category. I'm also willing to bet that most people would find my judgement a little shocking because anyone who has ever played the game should remember at least one thing: There are -maybe- seven sounds in the whole game. There are various pinging noises as the ball hits various surfaces, a few sounds that accommodate special pill effects (a bbzzt as the paddle stretches or the noise of shooting lasers from the paddle, for example), and perhaps a five second clip of music that plays at the beginning of each stage.

This simplicity in sound is the VERY reason it's perfect. As you play, there is no music to distract from that crisp ping of the ball.... and the effect is dazzling to the ears. Perhaps it's my nostalgia speaking up, but any sort of music or additional noise would totally destroy the game. I love that there is no tune to get dull, no annoying sound effects to irritate the ears, or no fuzzy static to lower the game's quality. There's simply the purity of the ball hitting various surfaces.... that well renowned ping! Everything fits together seamlessly thanks to this signature sound, and my Arkanoid world would be lost without it.

The only other noises are subtle, but like the ping they all have a clarity which leaves the player smiling. Even the five second clip is unforgettable, easily recalled after a decade or more of not playing the game. In short, the sounds are astonishing. However, since there are so few to be had, I can't stretch this category out any further. How much better can I describe the sound, than perfect in every way?

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/ 10

I'm sure it's no secret by now that I'm fond of this game. I would come back to play it again, and again, and again. I find it completely addicting, and it's one of the few games that I'm willing to bet I will NEVER get tired of. If that ever does somehow miraculously happen, the knockoffs will draw me in instead, and I haven't gotten tired of those yet. There's something about it's charm that I can't resist, and every time I work my way to level 33, I die a little inside over the fact that the game is over. I don't think this classic will ever fade and reflexes will be forever tested against unpredictable balls zipping around tiny screens.

STORY: 7/ 10

There really is not much to the game's story. When you first start the game, you're welcomed with a stationary image of a space ship floating in space, and text that scrolls across the screen which states the following:

THE TIME AND ERA OF THIS STORY IS UNKNOWN. AFTER THE MOTHERSHIP "ARKANOID" WAS DESTROYED, A SPACECRAFT "VAUS" SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT. BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE........

This is where the game commences and you gain control of that escaping pod, Vaus. I'm not sure that anyone (aside from die hard fans) are aware of the fact: that paddle is representative of a space ship. I know it doesn't LOOK like a space ship, which is slightly disappointing, but the fact remains that it is.

Now, for a game in which you try to destroy bricks by allowing a ball to bounce around? I've got to say I'm impressed with what little story line there is. Not only were the writers inventive enough to create a fun story which could explain the game's activities, but they also chose a subject that draws game players of all ages: vast space. I mean, the people who helped work on this game could have decided on any array of topics, but I sincerely think this would have been the best option.

I do have a beef with the game plot, however, and that is the lack of detail. As players of the game, we're never told, for example, why Arkanoid was out in space or why it as destroyed. We don't know why this entity DOH had something against it, where DOH came from, or what DOH's plans were. We don't even know what happens at the end, for upon beating the game, the player is left with the same image mentioned before and the following words:

DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT "DOH" HAS NOW BEEN DEMOLISHED, AND TIME STARTED FLOWING REVERSELY. "VAUS" MANAGED TO ESCAPE FROM THE DISTORTED SPACE. BUT THE REAL VOYAGE OF "ARKANOID" IN THE GALAXY HAS ONLY STARTED......

What a disappointment, right? You work through all these levels and you're left with no answers... only a sci- fi like ending that leaves you on the edge of your seat, panting from all the work you just did to save your little space ship butt.

On the other hand, I'm sort of glad the game ended this way. After all, doing so opened the door for all SORTS of fan made games, or games which continued the plot a little more effectively. I'm not sure whether to attribute this poor ending to geniuses that anticipated the game's potential, or lazy developers that lucked out.

Therefore, I really have to give this category a 7 /10. I'm still impressed with the space plot, even if it wasn't well done in my opinion.

DEPTH: 5/ 10

What this game lacks in story, it also lacks in game play. It never ceases to disappoint me: this game has ONLY 33 levels. This is especially shocking to consider that it was produced for an NES and thus there was no reason to cut it so short. As it is, the game only takes about an hour and a half to complete (assuming you don't die often and have to start over).... but I could have played the game for hours upon hours. Thankfully, most decent clones I know of have far more levels and are far more satisfying.

After all, space is supposed to be endless, and 33 rounds does not seem very endless to me. Now, I know it's bad taste to advertise other game sites on vizzed, but I will say that there's an online Arkanoid which seems to be in an endless void of space.... and it totally rocks. You move from coordinate to coordinate, beating stages as you traverse across the universe, and I have yet to see a border. THIS is how the original Arkanoid should have played. Although it would have been undoubtedly impossible to create an endless gaming planet, the game could have been made much, much larger.

DIFFICULTY: 6/ 10

Let's face it: in a game where nothing happens except for the fact that a ball bounces around the screen, the game can't really get all that difficult. There are four types of bad guys and less than ten types of pills. The bad guys and pills both help and hurt the game play, however, so I'm not comfortable with stating they create a huge increase in level of difficulty the player experiences.

Let's consider the enemies first. Their existence is almost pointless in terms of challenge because they don't take lives away. If they make their way past your paddle, no harm is done and the game continues. If you hit them with your paddle, you don't lose a life either. In essence, they seem simply as a way to increase high score, since each one you kills gives you points. The bad guys in this version don't even shoot at you or create more blocks or anything else that would hinder your play. There are really only two aspects that I appreciate about their existence. First, they spawn VERY frequently. Even if you haven't killed all the baddies on the screen they'll still slide in from a gate at the top every few seconds until so many are on the screen. Secondly, they serve as a ball deterrent, which makes the game even less predictable.

Once the ball hits and destroys one of the nemesis, it bounces in another direction. Since the bad guys make their way down the screen, this becomes really difficult to handle if they have made some progress, as it requires a dutiful eye and lightning reflexes to handle. Therefore, the enemy sprites can increase the difficulty a little in terms of play, but not in terms of scoring.

As for the pills, there are both good ones and bad ones. Unfortunately, there seem to be more pills which benefit the user than challenge the user. There are pills which slow down the ball, give your paddle laser guns, split your ball into three, skip the level, and extend your paddle. There are also pills which shorten the paddle and speed the ball up. You can only have one affect at a time, so once you get a debilitating pill, you're more than likely to only suffer it for a short time. Two of the beneficial pills in my opinion, do offer some challenge though I believe this aspect was inadvertent. (Also, if you have to replay a stage or start the game over, the same pills are -always- located in the same spot. I don't really like this characteristic of the game, but it does allow the player to form strategies if they've played the game enough to memorize certain pills' locations.)

For example, the laser gun is my favorite pill, but it has a set back. Whenever you shoot, the motions are quick just as the bouncing ball is, and both are white in color. Therefore, excessive shooting makes it extremely hard to follow the ball with your eyes and keep it from slipping past the paddle. The only way to avoid this is to shoot -infrequently-. But if you don't shoot as often, you won't have used the ability to its fullest potential and you could lose it if you accidentally catch another pill. The splitting pill faces the same problem: it becomes difficult to follow just one ball.

Your inclination will be to catch as many balls as possible, and yet they zip around in such crazy directions that you have to make split decisions on which ball to keep or let go.... but you have to make sure you catch at least ONE of them.That being said, the ball also speeds up as more time progresses in the level. This is truly the only genuine factor that makes game play more difficult. The longer it takes you to destroy all the blocks, the harder and harder it becomes to keep up with the ball. This especially has a profound effect on stages which contain 'traps' of unbreakable bricks. On some stages, the unbreakable bricks might fence in an area containing blocks you destroy, with only one or two openings. Not only do you have to strategize your initial angle in order to get into these spaces, but you must also be on constant alert for the ball to zip out unexpectedly.

Finally, there's DOH, the mastermind behind the ship Arkanoid's destruction. The Eastern Island head spits spinning gray squares towards your paddle which DO cause you to lose a life. You don't get any pills to benefit your play and you don't get any extra lives. The goal is to strike the head repetitively while dodging bullets, but I find this level VERY frustrating. Sometimes the ball hits DOH, but he doesn't seem to take any damage, and I have no idea why this is the case. The worst part however, is that DOH seems indestructible. If you've never played the game, strike after strike after strike, you start to wonder if you're doing something wrong. I think the last time I played the game, it took seven straight minutes of striking DOH to cause him to die... I must have struck him at LEAST 100 times. And since I know how the game ends and I'm not interested in high scores, what's the point? I usually cut the game off at this level and continue on my merry way.

Overall, this is NOT a game I would pass up. I adore the game, though there are -certainly- better ones out there. However, this was the original and the foundation for all the lovely clones floating out there. Don't miss out on the gaming opportunity of a lifetime, as I promise you will not regret it. Play Arkanoid through at least once so you can appreciate the spin offs, and I'm certain you will keep this in your collection.

OVERALL: 7/ 10

I decided recently that I wanted to look up a childhood favorite of mine and set out to find it on vizzed. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that my search was rewarded rather quickly. However, I still experienced quite a shock.... such a classic with such a big name... and not ONE person has written a review for it! Gathering my jaw off the floor, I just knew I had to remedy this horrible oversight!

In case there is someone out there who miraculously does not know about this game, let me explain the basic gist of it. Arkanoid is a game in which you control a 'paddle' across the bottom of the screen with movement restricted to the horizontal axis. A ball bounces around the screen and you can not let it pass your paddle and hit the screen bottom at any time. Each stage is also filled with colored blocks, and they are destroyed upon contact with the ball. If you can destroy all the blocks without losing all your lives, you move on to the next stage. Along the way, you may be set back by bad guys which enter each stage, and you may be helped or hurt by 'pills' that may fall from the blocks.

A very fast paced and addictive game, it was actually created and designed after another game called Breakout. Although this may offer Breakout some claim to fame, I've always considered Arkanoid to be the better known and more successful game. It was so popular in fact, that seven games have been officially released as a part of the series over the past few decades: Tournament Arkanoid, Revenge of DOH, DOH it Again, Arkanoid Returns, Arkanoid DS, Arkanoid Live, and Arkanoid Plus (for WiiWare.) For true lovers, it should be no surprise that spin offs are STILL being made to this day. I see massive amounts of clones for this game and there aren't very many I would consider bad.

While I actually know of several clones I enjoy more than the original, I can't help but feel some nostalgia for this one. Without its potential and without its gripping play, the game never would have blown into what it is. If I were to rate this game purely off my own bias, I wouldn't hesitate to score it a 10/ 10. As it is, I want to be fair and rate this according to non- biased standards and thus my ratings might not reflect the true emotions I feel towards this masterpiece.

GRAPHICS: 7/ 10

With nothing other than bricks, a ball, and a paddle to work with, you'd think the designers of Arkanoid would either go overboard trying to spice the game up, or fail in lighting the imaginations of gamers. While I personally feel as though occasion falls towards the latter end of things, I also feel like this game was done extremely well considering the circumstances. Every stage is beyond colorful, with a wide variety of colors and textures... each distinct and separate of its own right. The pills have nice rounded looks thanks to the artificial lighting, and many animations are impressive as well.

Unlike many games with a tasteless color palette, one of the things I really appreciate about Arkanoid is that the colors go well together and create an inviting atmosphere that really draws the player in. Even each bad guy seems specifically tailored to his own stage. One stage has a blue honeycomb- like backdrop in which the enemies are a lighter shade of blue. These bad guys found in the first stage appear to be cones sliced in the middle, and the bottom slice swivels in small, flat circles below the top half. What's amazing to consider is that the game is well over 3 decades old, and yet the graphics are absolutely stunning. I'd never expect a 3- D nemesis to be so well designed, and so convincing.

The first bad guy isn't the only one, either. In round two, the background is a green swirls pattern (like a rake was dragged through green sand) and the enemy is a 3- D, lighter green pyramid that twists and turns around a small ball of the same color. The third round consists of an enemy which looks like three balls stuck to each other (molecule-esque) which spin round on a black and blue Matrix- like digital field. And finally, round four consists of a strange, blotchy red and gray wallpaper and plain red cubes. This backdrop and enemy are the least aesthetically pleasing, but the assault on the eyes is easy to overlook when the other rounds are considered.

Now, here's the absolutely awful thing which causes me to rate this category a bit lower: there are ONLY four types of background and four types of enemy in the WHOLE game. While this is common in many older games, I find it disappointing for such a widely proclaimed system of its day and time. I absolutely adore most of the game graphics, but it's a huge shame to see so much potential squandered. That being said, for once the lack of variety didn't bother me all that much. I enjoy the game and its cohesiveness enough to oversee the variation this one time. Each enemy seems made for its stage while not blending in to the point of difficult recognition, and each special type of block maintains its color throughout the entire game. Everything comes together nicely.

One aspect of graphics that -does- bother me is that of the final round. Not only is almost everything a garish shade of red, but the boss of the game (DOH), looks like a digital Easter Island head. Its un- inventive, ugly, and quite dull. This is only emphasized by the equally ugly background and the graphics here are almost a let down after everything else. Even the cut scene is not as bad as the game's final round, and the cut-scene only consists of a single image which reminds me of a Star Trek ship floating in an endless field of stars.

However, the good graphics in this game outweigh the bad, and I've saved the best for last. You see, each round is full of very colorful blocks. The rainbow of colors somehow manages to not be unbearably obnoxious and the developers used this aspect to create a fun token to engage and keep interest in playing. You see, every so many rounds, the tiles make -shapes-. There's one round where the tiles form an alien head, one that forms a badge looking design, and one that forms an umbrella. While these rounds are few and far between, they certainly are fun and I wish the designers had incorporated this fun into every stage. There are many knock offs which do have this feature and use it more frequently, but Arkanoid was the first which ventured into it. This and other things make Arkanoid easy on the eyes and a blast to play.

(Disclaimer: The alien level image is not mine because I realized I wanted to include it only after I had written the review, and I couldn't remember what level he was in.)

SOUND: 10/ 10

As far as I'm aware, this is the only time I have EVER given a game a perfect score in any category. I'm also willing to bet that most people would find my judgement a little shocking because anyone who has ever played the game should remember at least one thing: There are -maybe- seven sounds in the whole game. There are various pinging noises as the ball hits various surfaces, a few sounds that accommodate special pill effects (a bbzzt as the paddle stretches or the noise of shooting lasers from the paddle, for example), and perhaps a five second clip of music that plays at the beginning of each stage.

This simplicity in sound is the VERY reason it's perfect. As you play, there is no music to distract from that crisp ping of the ball.... and the effect is dazzling to the ears. Perhaps it's my nostalgia speaking up, but any sort of music or additional noise would totally destroy the game. I love that there is no tune to get dull, no annoying sound effects to irritate the ears, or no fuzzy static to lower the game's quality. There's simply the purity of the ball hitting various surfaces.... that well renowned ping! Everything fits together seamlessly thanks to this signature sound, and my Arkanoid world would be lost without it.

The only other noises are subtle, but like the ping they all have a clarity which leaves the player smiling. Even the five second clip is unforgettable, easily recalled after a decade or more of not playing the game. In short, the sounds are astonishing. However, since there are so few to be had, I can't stretch this category out any further. How much better can I describe the sound, than perfect in every way?

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/ 10

I'm sure it's no secret by now that I'm fond of this game. I would come back to play it again, and again, and again. I find it completely addicting, and it's one of the few games that I'm willing to bet I will NEVER get tired of. If that ever does somehow miraculously happen, the knockoffs will draw me in instead, and I haven't gotten tired of those yet. There's something about it's charm that I can't resist, and every time I work my way to level 33, I die a little inside over the fact that the game is over. I don't think this classic will ever fade and reflexes will be forever tested against unpredictable balls zipping around tiny screens.

STORY: 7/ 10

There really is not much to the game's story. When you first start the game, you're welcomed with a stationary image of a space ship floating in space, and text that scrolls across the screen which states the following:

THE TIME AND ERA OF THIS STORY IS UNKNOWN. AFTER THE MOTHERSHIP "ARKANOID" WAS DESTROYED, A SPACECRAFT "VAUS" SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT. BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE........

This is where the game commences and you gain control of that escaping pod, Vaus. I'm not sure that anyone (aside from die hard fans) are aware of the fact: that paddle is representative of a space ship. I know it doesn't LOOK like a space ship, which is slightly disappointing, but the fact remains that it is.

Now, for a game in which you try to destroy bricks by allowing a ball to bounce around? I've got to say I'm impressed with what little story line there is. Not only were the writers inventive enough to create a fun story which could explain the game's activities, but they also chose a subject that draws game players of all ages: vast space. I mean, the people who helped work on this game could have decided on any array of topics, but I sincerely think this would have been the best option.

I do have a beef with the game plot, however, and that is the lack of detail. As players of the game, we're never told, for example, why Arkanoid was out in space or why it as destroyed. We don't know why this entity DOH had something against it, where DOH came from, or what DOH's plans were. We don't even know what happens at the end, for upon beating the game, the player is left with the same image mentioned before and the following words:

DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT "DOH" HAS NOW BEEN DEMOLISHED, AND TIME STARTED FLOWING REVERSELY. "VAUS" MANAGED TO ESCAPE FROM THE DISTORTED SPACE. BUT THE REAL VOYAGE OF "ARKANOID" IN THE GALAXY HAS ONLY STARTED......

What a disappointment, right? You work through all these levels and you're left with no answers... only a sci- fi like ending that leaves you on the edge of your seat, panting from all the work you just did to save your little space ship butt.

On the other hand, I'm sort of glad the game ended this way. After all, doing so opened the door for all SORTS of fan made games, or games which continued the plot a little more effectively. I'm not sure whether to attribute this poor ending to geniuses that anticipated the game's potential, or lazy developers that lucked out.

Therefore, I really have to give this category a 7 /10. I'm still impressed with the space plot, even if it wasn't well done in my opinion.

DEPTH: 5/ 10

What this game lacks in story, it also lacks in game play. It never ceases to disappoint me: this game has ONLY 33 levels. This is especially shocking to consider that it was produced for an NES and thus there was no reason to cut it so short. As it is, the game only takes about an hour and a half to complete (assuming you don't die often and have to start over).... but I could have played the game for hours upon hours. Thankfully, most decent clones I know of have far more levels and are far more satisfying.

After all, space is supposed to be endless, and 33 rounds does not seem very endless to me. Now, I know it's bad taste to advertise other game sites on vizzed, but I will say that there's an online Arkanoid which seems to be in an endless void of space.... and it totally rocks. You move from coordinate to coordinate, beating stages as you traverse across the universe, and I have yet to see a border. THIS is how the original Arkanoid should have played. Although it would have been undoubtedly impossible to create an endless gaming planet, the game could have been made much, much larger.

DIFFICULTY: 6/ 10

Let's face it: in a game where nothing happens except for the fact that a ball bounces around the screen, the game can't really get all that difficult. There are four types of bad guys and less than ten types of pills. The bad guys and pills both help and hurt the game play, however, so I'm not comfortable with stating they create a huge increase in level of difficulty the player experiences.

Let's consider the enemies first. Their existence is almost pointless in terms of challenge because they don't take lives away. If they make their way past your paddle, no harm is done and the game continues. If you hit them with your paddle, you don't lose a life either. In essence, they seem simply as a way to increase high score, since each one you kills gives you points. The bad guys in this version don't even shoot at you or create more blocks or anything else that would hinder your play. There are really only two aspects that I appreciate about their existence. First, they spawn VERY frequently. Even if you haven't killed all the baddies on the screen they'll still slide in from a gate at the top every few seconds until so many are on the screen. Secondly, they serve as a ball deterrent, which makes the game even less predictable.

Once the ball hits and destroys one of the nemesis, it bounces in another direction. Since the bad guys make their way down the screen, this becomes really difficult to handle if they have made some progress, as it requires a dutiful eye and lightning reflexes to handle. Therefore, the enemy sprites can increase the difficulty a little in terms of play, but not in terms of scoring.

As for the pills, there are both good ones and bad ones. Unfortunately, there seem to be more pills which benefit the user than challenge the user. There are pills which slow down the ball, give your paddle laser guns, split your ball into three, skip the level, and extend your paddle. There are also pills which shorten the paddle and speed the ball up. You can only have one affect at a time, so once you get a debilitating pill, you're more than likely to only suffer it for a short time. Two of the beneficial pills in my opinion, do offer some challenge though I believe this aspect was inadvertent. (Also, if you have to replay a stage or start the game over, the same pills are -always- located in the same spot. I don't really like this characteristic of the game, but it does allow the player to form strategies if they've played the game enough to memorize certain pills' locations.)

For example, the laser gun is my favorite pill, but it has a set back. Whenever you shoot, the motions are quick just as the bouncing ball is, and both are white in color. Therefore, excessive shooting makes it extremely hard to follow the ball with your eyes and keep it from slipping past the paddle. The only way to avoid this is to shoot -infrequently-. But if you don't shoot as often, you won't have used the ability to its fullest potential and you could lose it if you accidentally catch another pill. The splitting pill faces the same problem: it becomes difficult to follow just one ball.

Your inclination will be to catch as many balls as possible, and yet they zip around in such crazy directions that you have to make split decisions on which ball to keep or let go.... but you have to make sure you catch at least ONE of them.That being said, the ball also speeds up as more time progresses in the level. This is truly the only genuine factor that makes game play more difficult. The longer it takes you to destroy all the blocks, the harder and harder it becomes to keep up with the ball. This especially has a profound effect on stages which contain 'traps' of unbreakable bricks. On some stages, the unbreakable bricks might fence in an area containing blocks you destroy, with only one or two openings. Not only do you have to strategize your initial angle in order to get into these spaces, but you must also be on constant alert for the ball to zip out unexpectedly.

Finally, there's DOH, the mastermind behind the ship Arkanoid's destruction. The Eastern Island head spits spinning gray squares towards your paddle which DO cause you to lose a life. You don't get any pills to benefit your play and you don't get any extra lives. The goal is to strike the head repetitively while dodging bullets, but I find this level VERY frustrating. Sometimes the ball hits DOH, but he doesn't seem to take any damage, and I have no idea why this is the case. The worst part however, is that DOH seems indestructible. If you've never played the game, strike after strike after strike, you start to wonder if you're doing something wrong. I think the last time I played the game, it took seven straight minutes of striking DOH to cause him to die... I must have struck him at LEAST 100 times. And since I know how the game ends and I'm not interested in high scores, what's the point? I usually cut the game off at this level and continue on my merry way.

Overall, this is NOT a game I would pass up. I adore the game, though there are -certainly- better ones out there. However, this was the original and the foundation for all the lovely clones floating out there. Don't miss out on the gaming opportunity of a lifetime, as I promise you will not regret it. Play Arkanoid through at least once so you can appreciate the spin offs, and I'm certain you will keep this in your collection.

Vizzed Elite

Singelli

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02-02-13 10:37 PM

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earthwarrior

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Yes another Singelli review! You made the game round really really fun to play. I also liked that you said some of the bad things about this game and not just the good.

Vizzed Elite

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02-03-13 03:42 PM

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Great review! It had alot of depth to it, which is especially good because...are you ready? You may wish to sit down before I say this...I've never played Arkanoid. :o In fact, until maybe three years ago (odd that I remember) I had never even heard of it. Breakout was always a favorite of my family's, but I honestly don't remember that game either. I have however played an Arkanoid clone once, but had no idea what it was until now. Lol That said, great work. I may have to try this out sometime.

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02-03-13 03:48 PM

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Eirinn :
*gasps and promptly falls out of her chair*

You've never played it?!?!?! Go play it NAOW!

lol At least you played Breakout and a cone though.

As I stated in my review, most clones are better anyways.

Thanks for the comments, as usual! It's nice knowing someone read it!

Eirinn :
*gasps and promptly falls out of her chair*

You've never played it?!?!?! Go play it NAOW!

lol At least you played Breakout and a cone though.

As I stated in my review, most clones are better anyways.

Thanks for the comments, as usual! It's nice knowing someone read it!

Vizzed Elite

Singelli

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02-03-13 03:52 PM

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Beastmode64

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This game looks addictive and it sounds like it. This game reminds me of Atari break out. That game was ok. I liked your review a lot. Good job.

Trusted Member

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02-03-13 04:28 PM

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Eirinn

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Lol ouch. That looked painful. I tried to warn you...
And I've never played breakout either. *sigh* I guess if you're going to use THAT tone with me (I guess you can only have one tone in text though, eh?) I have no choice but to play. :p

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