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Arkanoid

Get the game at Amazon.com!

Reviewed by Brian Mulholland Arkanoid is based off one of those early arcade games that just about every arcade had. It's a basic pong style 'blockbreaker' game where your pong paddle moves back and forth along the bottom and bounces a ball against blocks above you until they're all gone. The game throws about as much diversity as a pong game can into it, but this game (IMHO) lacks the addiction factor that simple block games like Tetris have. My mother would disagree since she became passionately addicted to the game, and later became equally addicted to a Tetris rip-off called Dr. Mario.

Graphics 8 out of 10

Hey, obviously when you're drawing blocks and balls you don't have much demand graphically, but the grade above is for what they did with the blocks. They're textures nicely with nice wallpaper backgrounds and such that keep the screen from being empty but don't make it busy either.

Game Challenge 6 out of 10

The game eventually gets tough by mixing unbreakable bricks in so that by the time you angle the ball into various crevices it's moving so fast as to be nearly uncontrollable. So while it becomes substantially challenging it does so in a way that is less of a real challenge so much as it becomes a test of random angles and luck.

Game Play-Fun 3 out of 10

If you can get over the boredom of blocks like my mother did (she likes pong-level simplicity in games), and you can stay interested without getting frustrated you can have a good enough time with this.

Frustration

HIGH! The first ten to fifteen levels are child's play but as the unbreakable blocks get arranged in ever more sadistic arrangements the game becomes more difficult at an exponential rate and quickly becomes harder than it is fun. Worse yet, the normal Nintendo controller is inefficient to use with the game because of how slowly the platform reacts to it. As a result you almost NEED the special controller that comes with it in order to be competitive. This controller is as prone to breakdown as a korean car. It's so shoddily constructed that after only a few jury-rig fixes you have to call Taito and order a new one.

Replayability 6 out of 10

My mother could play the same 20 levels over and over again without end, but unlike repetitive games like Tetris there is nothing to make the first level any more interesting the 20th time than the first. This is probably a matter of taste.

Game Value 1 out of 10

The big problem is the need to buy the cheap controllers. You can't legitimately compete at the higher levels when the ball is moving at maximum speed almost the whole level with the normal controllers. If you had a free unlimited supply of these or some kind of lifetime warranty it might be worth it to people who like the game, but the controllers are to feeble to last very long.

Overall 4 out of 10

Overall this game is moderately fun for awhile, but lacks the true addiction factor of a Tetris. If you're like my mother you can get properly addicted to the game, but you'll eventually get annoyed by having to re-order controllers as they break down.

Want this game? Find it on Amazon.com!!


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