The best Arcanoid-clone I’ve met.
I remember playing Arcanoid a lot in the late mid-80s on the C64. One of my first meeting with “hacking” a computer game was when me and my brother got the ball stuck bouncing between two point-giving thingys in this game. The “extra bat every 10000 points (or so)” really hit the sweet spot after we had left the game in this state while having a relaxed sunday dinner. Afterwards we really were ready to beat the crap out of the game. :) Well; this genre hasn’t really evolved much since these days - untill now, that is.
What first strikes one about BreakQuest is it’s physics engine. That’s basicly what the game adds gameplaywise to the classic bat’n'ball arcanoid game; “realistic” physics. And that’s fun! The ball’s trajectory is influenced by all kinds of gadget’s on each level. Even the bat’s and the ball’s shapes can be modified in a classical power-”up” fashion. The other powerups are the classical classics; health, speed, rockets, guns, multiball, etc.
Sometimes the blocks you are to break are hanging by elastic treads. One of my favourite levels, early on, is nothing but 24 or so vertically aligned wireframe blocks on two such strings. Each block makes an out of tune note when the ball (or your bullets, rockets etc) hits it which adds to the atmosphere of the level. Apart from some clever use of sounds like this, there’s nothing very spectacular soundwise, but the sounds are good and the soundtrack is varied enough.
The graphic of the game is also good and the design changes drasticly from level to level - from wireframe boxes or circles to colurful kid’s figures.
The games storyline is centered on how big corporations have placed “brain controlling devices” (TVs) around the world - in peoples houses, and how you, the hero in the game, have a plan to stop this…