It has been 45 years this year since Atari released an iconic video game: Breakout. Just four years before, Pong had come to the video screens. Breakout was like a one-person Pong game. A paddle appeared at the bottom of the screen. At the top were rows of bricks.
A ball was hit with the paddle, which would then hit a brick in the wall. The brick would crumble and disappear, and the ball would pounce back to the bottom of the screen. There, it either would be returned again to the wall, or missed – at which point the player would lose a life.
The game wouldn’t interest today’s young folks for more than a few minutes. But for nearly 50 years ago, Pong and Breakout were brilliant game designs.
Breakout’s playing field was like the board design for Tetris: Taller than it was wide. As such, it made for easy adaptation to the cellphone’s screen. Over the decades, it has evolved into dozens of variations.
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I stumbled on one of those a week or so ago. It has several twists on the old Breakout game. It’s easy to learn, simple to play, but difficult to master. It is a waste of time – in a good way, although I finally deleted it before it became too much of a distraction.
It’s called Brickies, by Noodlecake Studios Inc., and can be downloaded from both the Apple Store and Google Play. There are enough free levels so players will know if they’re interested enough to purchase additional levels.
One of the interesting changes from the old format used by Breakout: Paddles are at both the top and bottom of the screens. Another twist: If the ball is missed, it becomes inactive (it simply bounces off the bricks rather than breaking them) until hit again with a paddle.
An inactive ball is a bad thing, since there is an allotted period of time on each level to get rid of all the bricks. The time is represented by a large circle covering the background of the playing field. It slowly disappears as an visible second hand sweeps it away, cutting away sliver after sliver until the pie is all gone.
The ball can also gain superpowers by going through various power pills that randomly pop up on the screen.
Once activated, the ball can quickly dispense of a lot of brickies – an important feature since the allotted times are tight on most levels.
The game sounds are pleasing, the colors are nice, and the various “personalities” of the bricks all combine for an enjoyable waste of time.
Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.
