Gameplay.
There are 6 worlds (forest, sea, cloud etc.); each of which have 9 levels
plus a boss level. You may play the worlds in any order you like except
for the last world (the castle world) which is available when all the others
are complete. You select which world to play from a game map. Each level
is completed by destroying all of the blocks which appear in different arrangements
at the top half of the screen. The player moves a 'bat' left and right at
the bottom of the screen to deflect the ball back up towards the blocks.
If the player misses the ball a life is lost. Some blocks release power-up
icons when destroyed which become effective if the player's bat makes contact
with them. Some of these icons have a similar effect to that of the ones
on Arkanoid - they may increase or decrease the size of your bat or speed
of the ball for example. But there are a lot of these icons - far more than
in Arkanoid; some are really wacky. For instance - one inflates the ball
to a enormous size; almost taking up the whole screen. Other examples are
steerable balls, exploding balls and an Arkanoid-like shield which appears
behind your bat (the difference here is that it grows stronger with each
shield icon collected and weakens if a ball hits it). The real innovation
is linked to what the game calls combos. A combo is basically the number
of bricks destroyed by the ball before you have to deflect it again. The
ball get faster the higher your combo gets. Combos get you points but they
also give you magic points. At the start of each level you can 'buy' power-ups
before beginning play. These power-ups are the same as the icon power-ups.
This introduces a bit of strategy into the game. Some of the level layouts
are quite innovative. One has bricks to be destroyed BELOW THE BAT. This
means you have to be really good at judging where the ball is going so that
you can deliberately let the ball go past you to take out these blocks.
The boss encounters are innovative as well. Instead of just firing missiles
at you (which is quite cheap), they instead create areas on the screen that
for example subtlety affect the path of the ball, or decrease the size of
your bat. Excellent stuff.
Replay Value The one player game has only 60 levels; for a game of
this type that's not much as some can be over very quickly - BUT there is
no game save - so it will take a while to finish. There is also an excellent
2 player split screen battle mode. Unfortunately the game is a great hi-score
chaser - lots of bonuses to go for - BUT the hi-scores aren't saved !
Control Control is good - BUT there is no analogue support. Each
player can set the bat speed in the options mode.
Graphics Swish visuals are not necessary for this type of game, but
they are quite nice. The blocks are themed to the world and the backgrounds
are Manga-esque and don't get in way of the action. The overall theme is
fantasy-type look and its quite well done. There are plenty of cute touches
in the brick breaking and life-loss animations.
Sound Again not a big sound genre; but I like the music and the spot
effects are very good.
STOP PRESS: The Japanese version supports memory card and analogue
control which is the icing on the cake.
Overall 8/10 - Excellent playability and good enough graphics and
sound. I would give 9/10 for the Japanese version. |
