Breakeroids Review

Have you ever had the idea to take two games and mash them together? Well, Breakeroids is what happens when you do just that, as it is literally what you get when you combine Breakout and Asteroids. It plays like your typical Breakout or Arkanoid-type game, where you bounce a ball off of a paddle to destroy all the blocks above, without letting the ball get past. However, instead of a set formation of blocks to destroy, there are a bunch of asteroids floating around for you to destroy, that break into smaller asteroids as you destroy them. Each time you let a ball get past you or get hit by the UFO that flies by (another retro gaming reference!), it destroys one of your three shield layers, and if an asteroid gets past while your shield is down, it's game over, man, game over.

Breakeroids is really just ingenious in the way it takes these classic game concepts and combines them to make something new. The game also comes with one cool ability to help the game out, as you are trying to hit moving targets. By tapping on the paddle, you can curve the trajectory of the ball. This helps with either hitting asteroids just out of your way, or to get the ball to hit your paddle in a way that will cause it to bounce straighter up back onto the playing field. The game may be retro, but it thankfully comes with modern iOS features; it supports the Retina Display and is a universal app, which sounds silly for a game featuring vector-style graphics, but it looks really good on high-resolution screens. As well, the game supports OpenFeint and Game Center for achievements and online high scores. As well, the game features a neat little trick - notice how I said earlier that you only have 3 layers of shields, and if you let an asteroid get past, then it's game over? That doesn't mean the game is automatically over when you lose that last layer - if there's only an asteroid or two left, it is quite possible to wind up destroying it before going on to the next level without getting a game over, and your shields are restored at the beginning of each level. It's just a little touch that I appreciate.

Now, the game is a bit low-fi in the sound department; it's all bleeps and bloops, which is intentional considering the Asteroids influence, but you might want to consider bumping your own tunes instead. The controls work well on the iPad, but they are still 1:1 like they are on the iPhone/iPod touch, so you may need to play the game pointer-finger style; some sort of offset option on the iPad may make the game play easier on the iPad for thumb-based control. Also, there's just one little hole in the concept - what exactly are we defending? The asteroids bounce harmlessly off of the shields, so it just seems like we're just risking more than its worth to play the world's craziest game of Breakout. I suppose this is one of those things you just shouldn't think about.

Breakeroids is a simple little game, a great little co-opting of two classic game concepts mashed up into one. It's the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of games. If you're looking for a fresh take on the Breakout/Arkanoid concept, or just love these kinds of faux retro games (let's call them retraux), then definitely give Breakeroids a whirl.