Arqanoid
by Richard Eric M. Lope BSN RN
Could this be the Pong II: Corportate Empires of Arqanoid?!
| From days of long ago, from the uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend... the Legend of BALOTRON!(Yeah, right. sounds familiar) One day, while the people of BALOTLAND were living peacefully, ten long years after the victory of their Gredius, Goardic, and Buray missions, a Balotland shattering BALOTQUAKE occured! The inhabitants of BalotLand(Paddle-Like beings) panicked! And in the confusion the bacterial beings, imprisoned underground for ten years, led by the ever charming GIGA, seized control of the planet and imprisoned most of the BalotLings. While the others were forced to do mining at the Obsidian lake which has precious stones below it, including Balotron's love, Balotae! BTW, Balotron wasn't captured(He was taking a nap outside the city. Or else we won't have a story). Now armed w/ his trusty BALOTBALL, both embarked on a journey to save the people of Balotland. But before they could save them and face GIGA, they must defeat his governors of Pain, and his army of... well, what else... COLORFUL BLOCKS! |
|
| Arqanoid is a game where you bounce a ball up and try to destroy all the bricks above. In this game you have to watch out for bricks that do not get destroyed, but there are power-ups to help out. I found this game to be done fairly well. For one, it seems almost perfect, aside from a few bugs that are noted in the Readme.txt file. Another problem I found was something that exists in lots of games of this type: there are certain bricks that are not breakable, and if the ball hits them at the right angle, they bounce among themselves indefinitely. As unfortunate as that was, hopefully it is quite rare to see. I was not able to repeat the problem again. One undocumented "problem" involves the power ups. If they are falling and the ball hits the ground, the power up seems to disappear...but once the ball hits something, it appears where it was last seen. You can use this to your advantage of course, so that is why I don't really consider it a problem...it is more of a quirk of the game engine. B-) There are also bonus rounds where you try to beat the clock among other things. One thing I did find weird was how the ball would speed up for no apparant reason. It would make sense if it was after a minute or after so many bounces, but there is no indication in the game for why it happens. Still, the game doesn't let you think about it for too long and it just makes it more interesting. I didn't like how the game bounced you back to the OS once you lose...there is a menu, so it should use it. What made it worse was when you wanted to start the game again, you had to go through the introductory credits...there was no way to skip past them. Still, this seems to be a fully featured game. There was a cheat menu where you can power up or gain extra lives or even skip ahead to the boss stages, the more interesting of all of the levels. All in all, this game seems to have it all! |
|
| Basically, this game uses some good graphics...a lot of which has been ripped from other games. It is acknowledged, however, and so long as no one takes offence, it should be fine. The ball has some interesting color changes, and the blocks are simple yet colorful. I like how the unbreakable blocks all blink when you hit one of them. Interesting is the changing of the screens...there is this mosaic effect, which isn't done terribly well, but it isn't bad either. The bonus levels and the bosses also looked pretty cool, with the different sprites and animations helping this game tremendously. | |
| The movement was pretty smooth, and the only problem I ever had was pressing two keys at one time, and not letting go of one before pressing the other. The game still thinks you are pressing the old key when this happens, but for the most part this was only a problem if I pressed a key to go in one direction when I really wanted to go in the other so I press the other key quickly. This game was done really well in terms of controls. | |
| It uses the PC speaker, BUT it uses it very,very well! The sound effects were a myriad of bounces and hits, and greatly added to the enjoyment of the game. I didn't see an option to turn it off however, so late night sessions with this game might not be possible for some. | |
| The game itself is challenging, especially when the ball really speeds up! The fact that there were boss stages kept the game interesting, although the bosses themselves weren't the real enemies. The weird fly insects were the real problem in those stages. Basically the regular levels had those spikes and the indestructable blocks, and the bosses had those flying enemies. In the end it is really that speeding ball that can doom you. | |
| To be honest, I found the game way too hard at first. Then I found out about the cheat modes, and after awhile I really got into it. Arqanoid can be a simple game, but there were enough quirks and interesting details here to keep the game interesting. I found myself skipping levels as I played though because I the game gets kind of slow when you have only one brick left and you just can't hit it. The cheats also added great possibilities, as well as the power ups. | |
| In general, this game is great. There were plenty of features, nice graphics, and smooth controls. Once you are finished with the 50 levels, you can also start designing your own with the level editor provided. I would suggest this game to anyone, especially those who love Arqanoid! | |
| .zip file: 278KB download |