My past self: ''Y'know, I think it's time I give Breakout a shot! It'll take me what, 10, 20 minutes to get something out of it? I'm sure I'll be done in a while...
My present self (2 hours later): ''Y'know, I used to be fucking stupid when I was younger!''
And you mean to tell me that founding Apple is Steve Wozniak's highest achievement? But... this shit is better than the MacBook!
Despite so many years of playing Breakout in different versions and in scattered moments, it never truly hit me till now how much fun of a game it actually is. You could have fun by yourself in Pong, it’s just like bashing your head against a wall: even if you end up enjoying, it’s not gonna last very long before something caves in.
Breakout answers to that idea by making that wall fun to bash against! It’s a back and forth against yourself that feels rewarding beyond the mere act of seeing the number score getting higher; dismantling that multicolored wall piece by piece is as simple as it is addicting, which it’s a lot.
Even tho Breakout’s pitch is pretty much ‘’Pong but singleplayer focused’’, I also like to think of it a sort of reinterpretation of pinball machines into videogame territory. A really simplistic one to be sure, but that lifts of elements from it that fit —like the strike system, with a certain number of balls given to you per coin to get a high score—, but also shifts away from the ‘’choose your own path/route’’ that the best machines make you feel and instead puts your objective in front of you. Am I overthinking things? Most likely! But it’s hard to not let your mind ponder over the little things as you break away and have a fun little time.
It’s one of those games that just works… except when it doesn’t. The rather clunky hit detection that was already present in Pong hasn’t gonna go anywhere, I would like to say that it’s just a matter that the paddle’s hitbox as the paddle itself, but it seems to depend more from where the ball is coming, sometimes making contact is enough, others you need to line up perfectly, and it can feel a little discouraging when it messes you up when you are having a good run. It does fix the speed of the ball on spawn tho, it makes it pretty much impossible to miss in your first throw and eases thing into getting as fast as hell, so ya win some ya keep some, I guess…
Breakout is still very much a win, and it doesn’t need dragons on the cover art to show that, it’s another piece of the massive domino that was the arcade industry of the 70’s, piece that would lead to amazing games like Space Invaders, but also a great piece on its own.
My present self (2 hours later): ''Y'know, I used to be fucking stupid when I was younger!''
And you mean to tell me that founding Apple is Steve Wozniak's highest achievement? But... this shit is better than the MacBook!
Despite so many years of playing Breakout in different versions and in scattered moments, it never truly hit me till now how much fun of a game it actually is. You could have fun by yourself in Pong, it’s just like bashing your head against a wall: even if you end up enjoying, it’s not gonna last very long before something caves in.
Breakout answers to that idea by making that wall fun to bash against! It’s a back and forth against yourself that feels rewarding beyond the mere act of seeing the number score getting higher; dismantling that multicolored wall piece by piece is as simple as it is addicting, which it’s a lot.
Even tho Breakout’s pitch is pretty much ‘’Pong but singleplayer focused’’, I also like to think of it a sort of reinterpretation of pinball machines into videogame territory. A really simplistic one to be sure, but that lifts of elements from it that fit —like the strike system, with a certain number of balls given to you per coin to get a high score—, but also shifts away from the ‘’choose your own path/route’’ that the best machines make you feel and instead puts your objective in front of you. Am I overthinking things? Most likely! But it’s hard to not let your mind ponder over the little things as you break away and have a fun little time.
It’s one of those games that just works… except when it doesn’t. The rather clunky hit detection that was already present in Pong hasn’t gonna go anywhere, I would like to say that it’s just a matter that the paddle’s hitbox as the paddle itself, but it seems to depend more from where the ball is coming, sometimes making contact is enough, others you need to line up perfectly, and it can feel a little discouraging when it messes you up when you are having a good run. It does fix the speed of the ball on spawn tho, it makes it pretty much impossible to miss in your first throw and eases thing into getting as fast as hell, so ya win some ya keep some, I guess…
Breakout is still very much a win, and it doesn’t need dragons on the cover art to show that, it’s another piece of the massive domino that was the arcade industry of the 70’s, piece that would lead to amazing games like Space Invaders, but also a great piece on its own.
outbreak of falling debris
Played as part of Atari 50. Arcade version.
Doesn't have ricochet so it's kinda busted. Has novelty value but don't expect to be able to clear it (even with mouse controls) due to that tiny paddle. Definitely worse purely by nature of other, better versions of this idea existing not very long after this one, but for the time it makes sense that it doesn't really have any real sort of collision system allowing for a ball to hit more than one brick each bounce. But playing this nowadays is like going back to old versions of Tetris and realizing they don't have hard drop, lol
Doesn't have ricochet so it's kinda busted. Has novelty value but don't expect to be able to clear it (even with mouse controls) due to that tiny paddle. Definitely worse purely by nature of other, better versions of this idea existing not very long after this one, but for the time it makes sense that it doesn't really have any real sort of collision system allowing for a ball to hit more than one brick each bounce. But playing this nowadays is like going back to old versions of Tetris and realizing they don't have hard drop, lol
hot take: better than pong 1
Finally. After all these years...
Pong 2: Electric Boogaloo
Pong 2: Electric Boogaloo
Not much to say, refer to pong review.
It's singleplayer Pong. Simple and fun for a brief period.
Retro Yearly List #2 [1976: Breakout]
Breakout, right? Pretty ahead of its time, inspired a lot of newer games, nice game to spend some time on, they really improved from Pong's idea, and I personally found it far better (and more challenging). Game has a lot of different modes to ty out like turn the bricks into invisible, catch the ball mode and Breaktrhu mode, pretty fun I'd say
Breakout, right? Pretty ahead of its time, inspired a lot of newer games, nice game to spend some time on, they really improved from Pong's idea, and I personally found it far better (and more challenging). Game has a lot of different modes to ty out like turn the bricks into invisible, catch the ball mode and Breaktrhu mode, pretty fun I'd say
I didn't have a bad time playing this game. I like this type of game a decent amount and this version of it isn't terrible. I like the different colors used and I thought the controls were pretty responsive.
Bring on the wall.
(Atari 50)
Once again I feel this is too simple to rate compared to a modern game, I enjoy arkanoid type games a lot. This one doesn't compare to those but it does lay an important groundwork so I definitely appreciate it
Once again I feel this is too simple to rate compared to a modern game, I enjoy arkanoid type games a lot. This one doesn't compare to those but it does lay an important groundwork so I definitely appreciate it
Gotta admit, there's certainly something humbling about being able to play and easily complete plenty of games on modern consoles with incredibly deep and complex systems and mechanics layered over painstakingly crafted visuals yet get absolutely smacked the fuck down from a 1976 arcade game made out of a bunch of squares and rectangles. This shit is merciless and demands an incredible amount of focus, precision, and pattern recognition if you want to even come close to clearing the board, even with precise analogue controls. You are only granted 3-5 misses to clear 112 blocks where hitting the back 3 rows automatically boosts the ball to fuck-you levels of speed, and somehow surviving long enough to hit the top of the screen shrinks your paddle to nearly the size of the ball. Good luck. It's still certainly addicting to get in a good block-breaking rhythm if you can take the heat, and its really not like theres any real reward or ending for clearing the screen (except for the next screen loading in, which if you manage to end the game on an upwards rebound essentially gives you a free second clear thanks to the ball getting trapped in the top). I def get why this became such a popular title, though i also think i understand why space invaders ended up usurping the block breaker genre (let me shoot these stupid blocks dammit)
Played as part of Atari 50. 2600 version.
Thought this was worse than the arcade version due to the control scheme, but I stand corrected, the 2600 did have a paddle controller. Even though it wasn't used for much, it was used here, so my opinion on it is basically the same as the arcade version. No ricochet still sucks and you gotta play a few levels of the new Neo Breakout first to unlock this version and, wow it is night and day seeing what would normally be a middle-of-the-road modern brick breaker right next to this.
Thought this was worse than the arcade version due to the control scheme, but I stand corrected, the 2600 did have a paddle controller. Even though it wasn't used for much, it was used here, so my opinion on it is basically the same as the arcade version. No ricochet still sucks and you gotta play a few levels of the new Neo Breakout first to unlock this version and, wow it is night and day seeing what would normally be a middle-of-the-road modern brick breaker right next to this.
its breakout, everyone played breakout, your mom played breakout.
For some reason there's like huge input lag so I cant really play it properly. I don't know if its my Flashback 6's fault, the joystick's fault, or if the game is just Like That. Makes it basically unplayable for me.
For some reason there's like huge input lag so I cant really play it properly. I don't know if its my Flashback 6's fault, the joystick's fault, or if the game is just Like That. Makes it basically unplayable for me.
Yet another Pong variant, but the dopamine hit from clearing the brick layers just hits right.
I hate the controller with a burning passion but the game isn't that bad
BREAKING NEWS:
World famous Left Pong Paddle from the hit title Pong is currently on a rampage, slaughtering hundreds of young Paddles in cold blood. Mr Paddle is currently being taken in for questioning, more at 11.
World famous Left Pong Paddle from the hit title Pong is currently on a rampage, slaughtering hundreds of young Paddles in cold blood. Mr Paddle is currently being taken in for questioning, more at 11.
A natural improvement on Pong, challenging and fun at the same time.
A nice little time-waster, even if it might be slightly primitive by today's standards. Just hit bricks and win!!
As most 1970's classics, incredibly simple, but fun! I would go ahead and say this is the best of the popular "timey 70's" games, and oddly satisfying.
It has to be said that this game was one of the first things you could own in your home that was genuinely fun to play by yourself.
This game has been remade across almost every era of gaming and remains decently fun.
This game has been remade across almost every era of gaming and remains decently fun.