Also featuring online leaderboards, there’s much to admire here with Arkanoid on the DS, although there are some small drawbacks. The game is really at it’s best in multiplayer mode for up to four players, which is a sheer blast. Using the stylus as a paddle works surprisingly well (trying to use the D-pad surprisingly does not), and the game remains as simply addictive as ever. Featuring a bevy of visual upgrades, new power-up’s, multiplayer options, Quest and Clear modes, and unlockables this Arkanoid warrants a try at the very least. It goes to.Īrkanoid has pretty much always been good for a blast, and this new age Arkanoid for the DS is no different. I haven’t seen that capsule at all so far.I actually completed the game in shock because I thought I had long ways to go. I used to love the pink capsule for warping onto the next level. In this one, the capsules are small and almost hard to read the lettering but once you learn their colors & powers, you’ll be fine after that. If you are familar with the original, you know what I’m talking about. (at least not in the normal play, maybe in the hard setting, I haven’t tried the hard mode yet) There are falling capsules giving you “powers” of the ball, like “C” for catch, “E” for expanding your vaus and so forth. There are no falling objects to make the game hard at all like the original does.
The vaus is similar but not exactly the same. The graphics of the blocks are nice and colorful. The blocks are pretty much the same but much much less blocks. You also can choose your backgrounds and the style of the vaus I think, number of barriers (how many lives you get per round) and the music after you earn points for playing.Now for comparing the original to this one: The backgrounds are completely different. I chose normal hoping it’s like the original.
There is an option of easy, normal, or hard.
I’m sure it’s better with a paddle like the original but since the game didn’t come with one, the stylus works good.I enjoyed playing it with the stylus. I kept waiting for someone to go first but looks like I’ll be first…First of all, Arkanoid plays just fine with a stylus. On another note, in Japan this game was released with a paddle controller. For me the game seemed a little boring the first time I played it but then I found myself not wanting to put it down. Play the game and you will know what I mean. Some of them do more harm than good sometimes. Some are more helpful than others and you’ll learn the ones that will help you as you play. There are also assorted power ups you can collect throughout the levels as well. Oh, and you have to clear the level before you can unlock it’s respective level in Quest mode. There is a different goal for every level. However, there is another mode called Quest Mode which gives you certain goals to accomplish. If the game had just included this mode it would still have made me happy. The basic clear game consists of 28 stages each with 5 levels for a total of 140 levels altogether. As you progress through the different stages you find some that are amazingly simple and others that take you several run throughs to complete. It sounds simple and it is…in the beginning. The concept is simple move your paddle or vaus as it’s called (which is actually a spaceship) back and forth along the bottom of your screen while hitting a ball to destroy all blocks that are on the top screen.
The entry for the DS is an excellent entry in this long running series of games that have appeared on almost every console imaginable. Arkanoid is a game that is probably familiar to almost anyone.