Remakes
Information
- Author: Yodajr
Pros
- Top-notch conversion
- All the original's features
- Two difficulty levels
Cons
- A mite frustrating
Links
Arkanoid Advance
Taito's update to the ancient Breakout arrived in arcades in the mid 1980s, soon making the transition to practically every home computer platform in fine style. Despite its aging gameplay dynamics, it remained a playable game. For the uninitiated, the aim of the game is to use your bat to smack the constantly moving ball at the various bricks on-screen. Clear the screen of bricks and you move to the next level (of which there are more than 20). Let the ball sneak past your bat and you lose a life.
Arkanoid brought with it a few minor upgrades to the basic Breakout gameplay, all of which are present in this Game Boy Advance remake: meandering aliens that wander aimlessly round the screen, deflecting the ball should they hit it; a few run-of-the-mill power-ups, including a sticky bat, an expanding bat (complete with comical expanding noise), a laser gun, and a multi-ball); and bricks of varying types, including ones that need to be hit numerous times, and those that are indestructible.
As far as conversions go, Arkanoid Advance seems flawless on the surface. The controls work well, even if you don't get the precision you'd enjoy from a paddle or mouse, and the in-game options usefully enable you to switch the bat's movement controls from the d-pad to the shoulder buttons. The graphics and sound are pretty much arcade-perfect (at least within the limitations of the hardware), and the latter has actually been augmented with a couple of tunes (one of which, bizarrely, is a remix of the Game Boy Tetris tune). They are a welcome addition, but if you find them annoying, the music can be turned off. Usefully, the game also includes an easy ('facile'—most of the options are in French) mode, for those players who are hopeless at Arkanoid and want to see more of the game.
Most problems with the game stem from niggles with the original. Some screens take an age to clear, with the last few bricks being annoyingly difficult to hit; this is especially true on later levels, when silver bricks require five hits to destroy. Also, collision detection is a mite suspect at times—it's not entirely uncommon for the ball to sail through your bat, causing the loss of life and a little sanity. Oddly, the aliens seem immune to the bat in this version, too—only the ball can destroy them.
Overall, then, this is a very good conversion of a so-so original, and one that should have Breakout and Arkanoid fans alike glued to their screens, getting hypnotised by the classic 'spang' noises 1980s gamers know so well.
CG
