Steam Punk Inspired Brick Breaking

For as long as there have been such a thing as video games, brick breakers have existed in one way or another. And as long as they’re someone bored on the train, in school, or taking their time back from the bathroom on a bad date, they’ll continue to exist.

Call them whatever you want, Breakout, Arkanoid, Alleyway, it doesn’t matter. The overall premise is always the same.

Break bricks with a ball and hit them with a paddle.

At first glance, ArkanoArena seems to be just another brickbuster clone, but after a few plays, it becomes something more. Although it’s not a complete breakthrough of any sort, it’s a deep, polished and difficult title for the iPod Touch and iPhone that cost only $1.99. With a myriad of crappy titles on those systems, ArkanoArena is a cost-effective solution to boredom.

In the end, as far as mobile brick-type games go, this isn’t a bad option.

The 50 levels and various power-ups and obstacles do a heck of a lot to spice up the overall gameplay. Between that and the steam punk-esque design, you’re not going to find a game in this genre with this much polish. Aside from that, the game tries to have a “Twisted Metal” type of story, but fails to deliver the goods. Ultimately, it doesn’t mean much. The actual gameplay is the reason why people enjoy these types of games.

Overall, everything works the way it should. Because of that, it’s hard to put down at times. The only thing that holds it back is the staggering difficulty, which will draw dedicated gamers even more into its web, it can frighten casual ones.

Because of this, for as many solid attributes the game has, especially the solid graphics and simple touch controls, the game loses some its overall luster.

It should be said as well that the game is compatible on the iPad, but controls much better on a smaller screen. On the iPhone, the paddle is roughly the size of your finger, which makes controlling it incredibly easy. On the iPad, however, you may often find yourself unable to control your paddle, making the game annoyingly difficult and tedious. These concerns should be addressed once the game is ported to the iPad, but for now, it’s best played on the smaller screen.

Regardless of this, if brick-breaking is your thing, ArkanoAreno is a more than viable option.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14268 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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