I am sure there are compliments you could offer Alleyway, like that it's a good time waster, or that it's a solid Breakout clone, or that the fact that you control Mario in a weird little ship is cute flavor, or that the bonus stages actually offer a bit of solid fun. None of that would distract from the fact that most Game & Watch titles require more player interaction and end up more engaging. The additions made to the Breakout formula only seem there to lengthen the game and test the technical capabilities of the Game Boy, with each stage having three variants - a static version, a version that screen wraps while scrolling, and a version that slowly encroaches on the player. You would think that the third of these would add some sort of time limit or pressure, but no, all blocks disappear within close enough proximity to the paddle, meaning that the levels sort of just double up on themselves to be slightly less than twice as long rather than any sort of "ramping up". Alleyway is a thoroughly mindless excursion that screams "Game Boy tech demo", carried by the fact that the bonus stages are cute and Breakout is inherently fun... to an extent. The amount of time Arkanoid-likes play themselves can get excruciating at times, and the different layouts of Alleyway love to present those possibilities. It is functional, I have gained nothing from it.