Arkanoid

Copyright : Imagine | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

The blockbuster! screen after screen of one of the most addictive arcade games ever! It?s true to the original with sharp graphics and play features such as lazers, catch and hold, elongator and much, much more. This is Arkanoid - the real thing.

Graphics

There is no doubt that Arkanoid is one of the best looking bat and ball arcade games ever and the conversion from the coin-op has been done to a great level of detail and attention. Each level has been recreated perfectly, a good and wide selection of colours have been used to make each one different to the last and the variation in bad guys, power-ups and level design is brilliant.

The game does suffer from the occasional slow-down though, which might be annoying to begin with but its very infrequent and considering there are power-ups that do this for you anyway you might even consider it a bonus.

Sound

At the start of the game we are treated to a very brief welcome musical score followed by a little piece of music when you select how many players, sounds very familiar to the music used in Star Wars movies too and as if that wasn?t enough, more music as the story scrolls past the screen. After which we are left with the usual sound effects used in bat and ball style games, the cling of the ball as it hits the bat and bricks, an echo sound as you miss and a musical score before each round. Pretty well done indeed!

Gameplay

Arkanoid is a great conversion from the coin-op to the CPC, the design and sound certainly shows how much effort went into the conversion and its highly unlikely to have disappointed very many fans of the original.

There?s a large variation between levels so you?re never doing the same sequence over and over again, loads of power-ups to help you along the way providing you can reach them in time and a large number of different enemies that appear on random levels to stop you from completing the game. Having said that, even without the enemies this game would take you a long time to complete and require a heft amount of skill and good reflexes, its incredibly tough in places and probably not best played in the wrong frame of mind.

Its certainly challenging and really does look great on the CPC, other reviews have possibly turned you away from even trying it. I say, you?ll never know for sure unless you give it a shot.