Arkanoid
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.