Review by Goodbye Galaxy
"Pong with no opponent"
Arkanoid, also known as Breakout, is one of the very first video games I ever played. Back in the late 80's my dad bought the very first black and white Macintosh computer. It was an ugly grey box with a small little screen and no hard drive....and I loved it to death.
Back when I was a wee lad, one of my favourite things to do would be to grab the disk labeled “GAMES”, pop it in, and start playing Arkanoid. The game is essentially Pong with no opponent. Each level has an interesting arrangement of bricks. Some can be destroyed with one hit, some take two hits, and some can't be destroyed at all. The object of each level is to destroy each brick (well, all of the ones that can be destroyed). How do you go about this? By flinging around a little ball with a paddle. The skill comes with know how the ball will fly depending on where you hit it with the paddle.
There are also a bunch of power-ups hidden in a few blocks. Some of these make your paddle bigger, let you shoot lasers (awesome), or unleash three balls at once...which can be really useful, but tricky to control. There are times when the gameplay becomes really about what power-ups you can nab, instead of your skills with the paddle, and this can be a good thing or a bad thing.
The tempo of the game is really crucial to the design, but it can be a bit frustrating. At the beginning of each level, the ball moves pretty slowly. This can be boring, but it makes the beginning pretty easy. As time goes by, the ball begins to speed up, to the point where it can become pretty difficult to keep up with.
As you progress, the levels get more and more complex and challenging, but never insanely difficult. There's even a boss! I was shocked when I finally made it to the last level, to find a giant floating head shooting little bricks at me. Ah, memories.
The Good:
-Interesting levels
-Simple, addicting gameplay
The Bad:
-It can be boring when it's slow
-It can be frustrating when it's fast
Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/06
Recommend This Review
Liked this review? Thought it was well-written and other users need to know about it? Just click to recommend it to other GameFAQs users.
Got Your Own Opinion?
You can submit your own review for this game using our Review Submission Form.
