Block Breaker Deluxe
Gameplay
Block Breaker Deluxe is a clone of the ancient-but-popular
Breakout/Arkanoid genre, you move a bat at the bottom of the screen to
bounce a ball into bricks at the top of the screen. The goal of each
screen is to remove all the bricks by bouncing the ball into them, but
some bricks may take more than one hit to remove. If the ball hits the
bottom of the screen you lose a life.
As with most modern Breakout clones, many bonus items have been added
to spice things up, including a magnetic bat, fireballs (which destroy
blocks more quickly), shields at the bottom of the screen, multiple
balls, laser cannons etc. Some bonus items aren't beneficial, for
example one shrinks the bat and another makes the bat invisible (which
makes the game impossible to play).
Most of the items are recycled versions of bonuses in previous clones,
although there is one bonus which is particularly interesting: the
yo-yo, which lets you pull the ball straight back to your bat as if it
had a piece of string attached to it. If any bricks are in the way of
the ball when you pull it back, the ball tends to destroy them, even if
they're indestructible bricks such as those made of steel. Another
innovation is that the items can be bought separately and upgraded in
an in-game shop, so for example the magnet bonus just holds one ball on
the bat, but if you buy the first level upgrade it will hold two, and
further upgrades let it hold more.
Games are split into locations with many main levels each and a boss
level, after you defeat the boss you will see a new location unlocked.
If you lose against a boss, you're given the option of continuing in
exchange for a chunk of the cash you've earned so far. The boss levels
play slightly differently to the normal levels, and involve doing
things like hitting an ice cube, avoiding laser beams, or destroying an
advancing wall.
As with all N-Gage games, you can always exit the game and come back
where you left off, so you can play for very short bursts or long
playing sessions.
On a very few occasions the ball would get stuck behind a particular
group of bricks, but this was easily solved by exiting the game and
re-entering.
Graphics & Sound
As you would expect from the genre, the graphics are mostly the kind of
thing you'd have seen on a 16-bit system such as an Atari ST, Amiga,
Mega Drive or SNES. The visuals are perfectly competent and pleasant,
but there's nothing spectacular. The whole game has been done with a
1970s/1980s glamour feel, featuring bright neon colours, luxury yachts
and huge sunglasses. First gen N-Gage gamers may be slightly reminded
of Glimmerati in terms of the setting.
Sound is also very similar to the 16-bit era, with multi-channel
MIDI-style music. Again, the tracks are pleasant but there's nothing
here to amaze you. The music plays on menus and at the beginning of
games, but fades out once the action begins, so it doesn't outstay its
welcome.
N-Gage Arena
There's no online multiplayer, though you can play Bluetooth multiplayer. You can upload your score to an Arena scoreboard and there are also N-Gage achievements to unlock which earn you N-Gage Points. The achievements are rather dull and random though, and the game already has lots of very similar challenges and bonuses, so it sometimes feels like there's too much to aim for.
Overall
Block Breaker Deluxe is one of the cheaper games available on N-Gage,
and at 7 euros it's not going to break anyone's bank. If you enjoy Breakout/Arkanoid
then you will definitely enjoy Block Breaker Deluxe. It's also a very casual game, with a nice relaxing feel to it.
If you're looking for something new though, this probably isn't a good
place to start your N-Gage experience. The bonuses, bonus upgrade
system, unlockable locations and boss levels do greatly improve on the
original concept, but most of the time it's still the same gameplay
that has been in Breakout since the 1970s.
AAN Score: 78%
PS: Apologies for the lack of original screenshots, but our usual screenshot-taking software has had trouble capturing images from N-Gage games. We've taken the screens above from the official N-Gage site, and they differ slightly from the finished version of the game.
PPS: You can see a gameplay video of Block Breaker Deluxe over on the Unofficial Nokia Gaming Blog.