User Reviews

This Nintendo game was equal parts compelling and maddening. Coming of as a rendition of the classic game "Brakeout" on massive steroids. It was simple enough to make you think you COULD beat it, but the game lulled you into a false sense of security. It was so much harder than you first thought it would be. But still you can not seem to put it down. It didn't matter how many times that damn ball slipped past your paddle, you will one day triumph, you WILL show this game who's boss. Oh yes it will happen. But no, the jokes on you, the game will beat you down. But you always ALWAY come back for me, you little misogamist. There's no other way to describe it. This game simply is... Araknoid.

My Grade: A

What can we say about one of the most addictive computer games of history? Many things, but the main is that this little piece of computer art maintained us literally glued to the screen of our PCs. Lots of hours of joy and thrill put this title in the computer games' Olympus. Maybe Tetris is the only one more addictive than this... ¡a real pleasure!

This is another of my favorite video games of all time, it's also one of my favorites one in the paddle/brick breaker genre that is rarely touched upon. But to me what makes this game very special is that it was one of the very first video games I've ever played when I was six years old, seeing this arcade cabinet and the screen and the others beside it really blew my mind because I've never seen anything like them before, let alone never seen a game like this.

The game's format is simple as you're a giant start ship paddle that must constantly knock a ball to knock down a wall to get to the next level. That's it in a nutshell, I know not much in plot, but these kinds of games were never known for plot, let alone but that's fine by me as you really don't need one as your just paddling a ball against a wall, that's all you need to know and do.

I really like the whole sci-fi setting which makes sense as the sci-fi genre was really big in the 80's, but it really fits the game. You pretty much simply just knock the ball on the wall till there are no more bricks. I just love the paddle controller because it's such a unique control as it's one that just based on sheer simplicity. I personally like that because it's a nice break from a lot of games right now that have slight complications and rely too much on multiple buttons to do the fanciest moves, this game you make fancy moves but only by the turn of a knob.

Or course it's not so simple like with Pinball you must keep the ball in play by constantly hitting the ball and paying attention to where it's going, and its momentum can verry and change by just a mere second so keep your eye on the ball.

But you also have some obstacles like the blockers which consist of alien triangles, evil Jell-O Cubes, and other weird space stuff coming at you, their easy to destroy by just simply hitting them with the ball or the blaster weapons.

I really like that the bricks are all different colors. Each of them is sort of by their nature mystery boxes and some of them provide power ups when you hit certain specific ones. Each of the power ups up your game and could help you clear the level faster. From the multi balls where you can paddle three balls at once, an extender which stretches the width of your paddle. But of course, my favorite one is the blaster, where your paddle suddenly turns into a star fighter and you just blast away at the wall and anything else in your way, with this your almost unstoppable if you keep your ball in play that is.

However, there are a couple of bricks that are another added obstacle, two of these are silver and gold. The silver ones you can knock down, but they take a lot more hits, the gold ones you can't knock down at all. One other thing I really love about the game is how each of the levels are different challenges, some of them by their nature are puzzles. Just like in Pinball and Billiards, despite a simple concept there is some technique involved, where you must hit the ball at just the right angle at just the right time.

There is even a bit of geometry if you can believe that as you must somehow get the ball to bank on the bricks so it can bounce of and take down more or even bank on the silver and gold bricks so it can go the desired direction you want it to go.

And yes, this game is on the difficult end of things, I'll admit I still have a hard time getting further in this game. But that just makes the game even more fun and addictive because the difficulty believe or not is fair, sometimes when you lose it's not so much just the speed and direction of the ball but most of the time it's yourself because you moved the wrong direction, didn't move fast enough, or on time.

But I'm fine with that because it made me realize it was just an error of my own, and I needed to keep plugging away till I got it right or simply my skill was sharper than before; and that's what's going to make you win this game with your own skill.

This vintage classic is a knockout.

Rating: 4 stars.

Great graphics, control, and neat power-ups to help through the levels. Then, rinse and repeat repeat repeat. Sound got very annoying after a while, stuck ball syndrome happens periodically until enemies get in the way. There's a 'boss fight' of sorts after 20-something levels, so thank goodness for endings. Mini-hoorah at the end gives little satisfaction. Glad that's over, moving on.