Arkanoid is the grand daddy of every “brick and paddle” game ever made. I’m not sure if it was the first to do it (Breakout might have been the first) but without a doubt it is the best. And Arkanoid 2 is even better.
The concept of the sequel is exactly the same as the first Arkanoid, use a paddle (or “spaceship” as this game calls it) to bounce a ball against bricks (or randomly moving enemies) to make them disappear.
Once you’ve cleared all of the bricks on a level you go onto the next which is usually a little bit harder. Sounds simple? It is, but somehow it’s hard and super addictive. I lost countless hours of my youth with this game.
Along the way some blocks will release goodies (in the form of falling colored capsules) to make your job easier (or harder). You can only use one capsule at a time though so if you accidentally run into one it will replace whatever you’ve currently got. My personal favourites are the “Laser” (good for quickly blasting away whole chunks of the map), “Disrupt” which is always fun for the frantic destruction it brings, and of course the “Break”
which automatically opens up the next level even if you still have more bricks left to destroy. Here is a list of all the power ups (or downs) and what they do:
“Break” (pink) ends the level for you.
“Catch” (dark green) will make the ball stick to your paddle allowing you to fire it again someplace else. This one is good but can get annoying.
“Disrupt” (light blue) will split your one ball into 8! Try to keep up!
“Extend” (dark blue) will make you paddle bigger, always welcome.
“Incandescence” (dark green) will make a shadow paddle follow you as you move. This shadow can keep the ball in play.
“Laser” (red) allows you to shoot lasers which will destroy blocks and enemies.
“Megaball” (purple) will change your ball to a light purple color and allow it to pass through all bricks on the map without bouncing, EVEN the gold unbreakable bricks!
“New” (white) is like Disrupt except it only splits into 3.
“Player” (gray) gives you an extra life.
“Reduce” (black) will shrink the size of your paddle. Avoid this one if you can!
“Speed Down” (peach) will slow down the ball.
“Twin” (dark blue) will create a copy of your paddle next to it. This sounds good but it leaves a hole in the middle which your ball usually passes through.
To sum it up in a nutshell, Arkanoid 2 has basically the same gameplay as the original Arkanoid but with improved graphics, sound, and level design. This game can’t be compared to today’s games as far as graphics and technology go but in its day this game would easily have scored a 9 (out of 10). Respect gaming roots and download this today, you won’t be sorry.
