Block Breaker Deluxe - WiiWare review

Full marks to whoever came up with the title. “We’re ripping off Arkanoid, guys. What shall we call it?” There’s a bit more to Block Breakers Deluxe than just borrowing a concept from a decades-old game, though, and it’s a decent effort at revitalising one of the old favourites. At heart, this is about the age-old struggle of ball versus brick: you bounce your ball off various bricks and a level ends when the blocks have all been destroyed. The paddle’s controlled with the remote, as is a floating star that can be used to pick up the items that drift down from certain destroyed blocks.

It’s here that Block Breaker Deluxe shines: there are loads of powerups and, though more than a few are inspired by similar efforts, here they’re used so unsparingly that they turn an occasionally dry game into great knockabout fun. Trigger a few multiballs, for example, and you might have nine balls bouncing around the screen to keep in play. Or combine that with some gigaballs (they plough through steel) and you’ve pretty much got any stage licked in just a few seconds. There are a lot of levels, and some fairly well thought out bosses that pop up, as well as some decent multiplayer modes. There’s also a thoroughly daft Miami Vice-themed story going on about underground block-breaking clubs and passwords, but it’s easily ignored.

Despite the boring title, Block Breaker Deluxe is a good bit of throwaway fun, and for this price there are certainly worse things to spend those Wii points on. Ignore all the neon ’80s nonsense going on around it and this is a solid game. There’s plenty of it, and it gets tough as old boots as well.

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Jul 18, 2008