0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Arkanoid Returns

     

Developed and published by Taito, Arkanoid Returns is a port of the arcade game of the same title, the game is part of the breakout or block breaker genre of games, it is the fourth entry in the Arkanoid series which dates back to 1986 the series was created by Akira Fujita.

The arcade version of the game was released worldwide however the Playstation release of Arkanoid Returns was a Japanese exclusive title, releasing on the 7^th of August 1997 and would be the only Arkanoid game released in the next 10 years, an updated version called Arkanoid R 2000 was released afterwards however this is very hard to find outside of Japan.

The gameplay is very similar to the previous entry in the series Arkanoid Doh It Again, the player controls a ship using the Playstation controller shooting at various coloured blocks as well as using a paddle and ball to also destroy the blocks.

Various power ups drop down and can be picked up by the paddle including a multi ball which can be seen in the gameplay footage above. In the event of the ball being missed by the player then the players ship Is destroyed a ship counter on the left of the screen below the players score shows however many ships the player has available.

The game with the exception of the Giga-Ball power up uses the same power ups as the previous games as well as the same board size, with some levels from the previous game reused in this release in total the game has 50 levels with the theme changing every 9 levels.

Unlike the arcade version which requires a code to be entered to access the additional levels and bosses in the game, the Playstation release has a mode called extra mode with the game carrying on from level 51 ending with a confrontation with Doh, the game also features a two player squash game.

Carrying on the story from its predecessor Arkanoid Doh It Again, the enemy known as the DOH didn't get the message last time and after a long period of silence they once again are trying to invade. The 'Vaus' space vessel better be ready to face new, yet familiar challenges, in order to stop 'DOH' once again.

Critic reviews are next to impossible to find with just the one currently available from Intensepsx.com who had plenty of praise for the game and had the following to say in their 80 rated review.

"If you like classic games, you will love it." Arkanoid fans the world over will be sure to love Arkanoid Returns. It sports an all-new 2 player simultaneous mode, a 2 player squash game, a complete arcade game, an extra game complete with bosses, and even a level editor.

For additional data we head over to GameFAQs, where we find a total of four users have rated Arkanoid Returns, averaging out at a user rating of 3.38/5 with two users rating the game at a 4/5, while the remaining two users rated the game either a 3/5 or a 2.5/5.

The games difficulty up next with just two users rating the game one each rating the game as either easy or simple. On to the games lifespan which probably does not give a good indicator on the games lifespan, with just the one user rating this at 2 hours.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who no surprise do not stock this Japanese only release, same goes for Retrogames.co.uk and eStarland.com who do stock other Arkanoid games for other systems but none for the Playstation.

So we head over to Amazon.com who do stock the game, the Japanese import has a fair stock available at the time of writing this with a used very good quality copy available for $11.42 this also comes with free shipping like many Japanese imports.

With the exception of one acceptable quality copy, good quality used copies are the lowest quality currently on the market for this game, with very good quality being the best quality on the market so no like new or new copies are available. As a result the prices for these used copies reach a considerable high mark, with prices as of the 28^th of Novermber 2017 reaching $166.30.

Written by

P J Gibbon