Robot
05-22-2010, 03:31 AM
There is certainly no shortage of Breakout (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3147913) clones in this world. Going all the way back to Arkanoid (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=2008129) in 1986, developers have sought to improve on the brick-breaking formula, which itself was a spinoff of the original Pong.
So in that sense, Hyperballoid HD (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3172779) is definitely nothing new. That in itself would be just fine -- Breakout and Arkanoid remain retro favorites for a reason -- but it also whiffs on certain fundamental gameplay elements, which significantly detracts from the overall experience. It's at that point that we can call it "just another clone," and a flawed one at that.
In some ways, I would compare it to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3163289), better known as The Lost Levels here in North America. It's a lot like Arkanoid, down to the familiar power-ups like the cannon, sticky paddle and multiple balls. But it tries to ramp up the challenge by throwing in lots of individual quirks -- not unlike the poison mushrooms and negative warps of Lost Levels.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3775883&type=lg
In Hyperballoid, bricks often phase in and out or explode, or they are invincible unless blasted with the cannon. They also tend to pop out in unique formations that follow either an ancient or futuristic theme, such as a Trojan Horse. These twists accomplish their aim of making it somewhat more difficult to remove the bricks, but at the expense of making it take forever to complete a level.
The action is actually pretty entertaining in the early going, especially in some of the later levels. There are power-ups aplenty, and no shortage of targets. But as the stage wears on, you find yourself face-to-face with a situation that has aggravated players since the original Breakout -- the ball bouncing around the walls as you try and hit that one final brick.
That happens more often than not in Hyperballoid, given the special properties that the bricks tend to have. The result is that every level tends to end with a fizzle rather than a bang, making the whole experience rather tiresome.
For a more interesting updates to the Breakout/Arkanoid formula, I would like to direct your attention to Nervous Brickdown (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3159336). Developed back in 2007 for the Nintendo, Brickdown has this wonderful Space Invaders Extreme (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3163038) quality to it, adding a mess of interesting variations to the gameplay. There are only ten levels, but they are all clever takes on the original formula, from attempting to contain a richocheting laser beam to Mario-style platforming.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3775885&type=lg
Wild as some of the ideas gets though (popping ghosts in a haunted house? sharks?), they never compromise the fundamental gameplay. That's the problem facing any retro update -- adding so many bells and whistles that the qualities that made the original game so popular in the first place end up getting lost. That's pretty much what ends up happening to Hyperballoid, which pulls the neat trick of not innovating overmuch while fundamentally compromising the gameplay.
I get the impression that the designers wanted something more along the lines of Pac-Man Championship Edition (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3160060) or Space Invaders Extreme -- a wild update with great music and artistic backgrounds. Instead, they've created their own variation of The Lost Levels for Breakout, and update that looks much the same but ultimately misses the point
1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Hyperballoid HD: Breakout's Own Lost Levels (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031121)
So in that sense, Hyperballoid HD (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3172779) is definitely nothing new. That in itself would be just fine -- Breakout and Arkanoid remain retro favorites for a reason -- but it also whiffs on certain fundamental gameplay elements, which significantly detracts from the overall experience. It's at that point that we can call it "just another clone," and a flawed one at that.
In some ways, I would compare it to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3163289), better known as The Lost Levels here in North America. It's a lot like Arkanoid, down to the familiar power-ups like the cannon, sticky paddle and multiple balls. But it tries to ramp up the challenge by throwing in lots of individual quirks -- not unlike the poison mushrooms and negative warps of Lost Levels.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3775883&type=lg
In Hyperballoid, bricks often phase in and out or explode, or they are invincible unless blasted with the cannon. They also tend to pop out in unique formations that follow either an ancient or futuristic theme, such as a Trojan Horse. These twists accomplish their aim of making it somewhat more difficult to remove the bricks, but at the expense of making it take forever to complete a level.
The action is actually pretty entertaining in the early going, especially in some of the later levels. There are power-ups aplenty, and no shortage of targets. But as the stage wears on, you find yourself face-to-face with a situation that has aggravated players since the original Breakout -- the ball bouncing around the walls as you try and hit that one final brick.
That happens more often than not in Hyperballoid, given the special properties that the bricks tend to have. The result is that every level tends to end with a fizzle rather than a bang, making the whole experience rather tiresome.
For a more interesting updates to the Breakout/Arkanoid formula, I would like to direct your attention to Nervous Brickdown (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3159336). Developed back in 2007 for the Nintendo, Brickdown has this wonderful Space Invaders Extreme (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3163038) quality to it, adding a mess of interesting variations to the gameplay. There are only ten levels, but they are all clever takes on the original formula, from attempting to contain a richocheting laser beam to Mario-style platforming.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3775885&type=lg
Wild as some of the ideas gets though (popping ghosts in a haunted house? sharks?), they never compromise the fundamental gameplay. That's the problem facing any retro update -- adding so many bells and whistles that the qualities that made the original game so popular in the first place end up getting lost. That's pretty much what ends up happening to Hyperballoid, which pulls the neat trick of not innovating overmuch while fundamentally compromising the gameplay.
I get the impression that the designers wanted something more along the lines of Pac-Man Championship Edition (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3160060) or Space Invaders Extreme -- a wild update with great music and artistic backgrounds. Instead, they've created their own variation of The Lost Levels for Breakout, and update that looks much the same but ultimately misses the point
1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Hyperballoid HD: Breakout's Own Lost Levels (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031121)