Brick Breaker Revolution 2

We’ve all played a brick-breaker game at one stage or another, so what makes Brick Breaker Revolution 2 worthwhile? Well, actually, quite a lot!

To no great surprise you have various blocks at the top half of the screen in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. Some are able to be demolished in one hit, some take quite a few more and others are impenetrable. As per usual, you have the paddle and ball which you control by using the left and right button on the d-pad or keypad which you must use to clear the level of all the blocks possible. And should you fail to keep the ball in play, you lose a life.

OK, all that in itself isn’t re-writing the books, but what takes this game to the next level is the great power-ups and power-downs. Naturally when you hit some blocks you are rewarded by falling collectable objects which give you either a good or bad result as a reward. Although they haven’t managed to eliminate the guesswork of what each symbol means they’ve simplified it a little by colour coding them – green for good, and red for bad. So, why would someone want to pick up a bad one? Well, some aren’t all bad, like the fast ball, speeds up the ball and can actually help you clear the level with some ease – just so long as your reactions are up to the task. The main obstacle comes from when a number of these collectable objects fall at one time – making it nearly impossible to miss one, any or all in one go – which makes for some pretty interesting side-effects. For example, I managed to get the deflector, fast ball, homing ball, laser and bigger paddle in one go – and cleared the level in just seconds!

This is possibly the only bad thing that I can say about the game, some levels are a little laborious to get through, meanwhile others are very quick to complete and it doesn’t really flow as you may expect. I usually expect a game to get gradually more difficult as you go along, but in fairness this flips between the two as well as somewhere in-between.

You’ve got two versions of the game to challenge you - Classic and Revolution. In classic, you have the standard three lives and have to keep them for as long as you can whilst clearing as many levels as possible. In revolution mode, you have a bit of a story to follow but you can play the game in quite a free-flowing way. Whenever you win a level you get to pick one of the adjoining squares which represents the next level. Some will give you a bit of a journal from a space experiment (and more importantly saves your progress should you have to quit or lose all your lives at any point). Similarly, when you lose the game, you get to play from the last restore point. For an additional challenge, you also must defeat the end of level bosses before you get to progress to the next stage.

Overall then, this offers a fantastic twist on the original game and gives you some fresh challenges as well as some beautifully animated action. The game is addictive as ever and the two modes complement each other perfectly.

Rating 93%

Positives

Very addictive

Great colours and animation

Fun power-ups

Negatives

Quite similar levels at some points

The scrolling screen can make judging the ball bounce difficult