0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Breakout
The game released for
Playstation in North America and in Europe, with a September 23rd 2000 release date
in North America. With the European release of the game coming the following
month on the 6th of October 2000.
In addition to the
Playstation release the game was also ported to Mac and Windows, the Windows
release also coming in 2000, with the Mac release not coming until the 18th of July 2001,
MacSoft would publish this release of the game. Also in 2011 the game received
an updated release for mobile platforms, called Breakout Boost, this game
features improved graphics and expanded gameplay features over the 2000
original.
Notable People who
worked on the game, James Allison also known as Jim Allison worked as Designer
and Developer on the game. He went to work on the 2003 Starsky & Hutch
video game as a Senior Programmer. More recently from 2010 he was worked on the
Formula One series of game as either a Lead Programmer, Senior Programmer or
provided Additional Programming.
Gerard Gourley who
worked created the games music, he has had a long career in the music and audio
side of the games industry dating all the way back to 1990 when he created the
music for Kick Box Vigilante. He has also worked on Stuntman Seymour. Steg the
Slug, Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament, Big Red Racing, Test Drive Le Mans and
a few Tennis games as well.
Kevin Mullard who
worked as Producer on Breakout, a role he also held for 2000s Frogger 2
Swampy’s Revenge and 1999s Pong The Next Level. Since the release of Breakout
in 2000 he worked on Bionicle in 2003 as Executive Producer before moving on to
the Overlord series from 2007 to 2009.
Unlike a large number of previous Breakout
titles, this 2000 release switches to a 3D perspective, this latest release
also changes the paddle that the player controls. Rather than being a solid
paddle that can only bounce the ball depending on which direction the hits the
paddle, the player is now able to angle and curve the paddle to provide even
more accuracy for hitting objects.
Movement of the paddle is done with either the
D-Pad or left analogue stick moving left or right on the bottom of the screen.
As mentioned above the player has much more control over the paddle with the
shoulder buttons.
Using either the L1 or R1 shoulder buttons will
tilt the paddle slightly in those respective directions, pressing the L2 or R2
shoulder button will tilt the paddle either right or left. If you are wanting
to heavily tilt the paddle either right or left then pressing both L1 and L2 or
R1 and R2 together will heavily tilt the paddle in that direction.
The game also supports a mouse, with movement
of the mouse controlling the paddle, the left mouse pad will activate your
power up while the right mouse pad allows you to choose the power up you want
to use, pressing both mouse pads together will pause the game.
In addition to the player paddle Bouncer you
will also gain access to additional paddle friends, each of these paddle
friends will have their own unique skill to add to your Breakout arsenal. The
player is able to call on these paddle friends at any time to take Bouncers
place to access the Paddle selection the Select button is used.
In addition to extra paddles that you can gain
access to there are a variety of power ups that the player can pick up during
the course of a level. These include Extra Lives, Big Paddle and Grab Ball, the
latter which allows to catch the ball instead of having to bounce the ball off
of the paddle, this allows for much more accurate aiming and positioning prior
to shooting at an object. Power ups that the player has can be scrolled through
by pressing the Circle button, pressing the X button will activate the selected
power up.
Most levels in the game stick to the Breakout
formula of bouncing the ball off of the paddle in order to clear the area of
objects, usually bricks, some levels in the game however require the player to
do less simplistic objectives, such as destroy objects in a set order. Some
levels also switch the game player to Bouncer having to move on two legs.
The game features a single player mode, this
mode is also the one that has the game story. When starting out the player will
first play through a training level for them to get use to the controls and how
to make full use of the curving paddle.
Once you have acclimatised to the controls you
can start the single player mode, this mode while having the traditional
Breakout game mode in which the player bounces the ball off of the paddle and
via walls to destroy the blocks on the field. It also has additional modes of
play as well, with the game making use of the various locations that the levels
are based in.
For example the first level is named Egypt,
here you have four sub levels the first being called Pyramid Power. After a
short cutscene the player must destroy blocks of a pyramid in order to gain
access, this level also throws in a wall behind the player to prevent the ball
from going out of play, however any blocks behind that are hit by the ball will
then be destroyed, with the ball being able to go out of play then.
The second level in the Egypt section has the
player trying to get the ball though a wall, this however is hindered by statues
that fire lasers as some blocks and sometimes even full columns of blocks.
These blocks will then turn red, if the player hits one of these red blocks the
entire wall will advance closer to the player.
In addition to the Egypt themed levels the game
will also have the player travelling to other locations such as a farm, castle,
factory and space. Each of these locations will have levels themed around the
location, with the farm having the player trying to get rid of sheep and hens,
while space has the player trying to fuel and spaceship and destroy incoming
asteroids as a spin on the Breakout formula.
Challenge mode uses the same levels from the
Story mode, once you have completed a level in the Story mode you will be able
to replay it in the Challenge mode, this mode is mainly for practice and
bettering the ranking you received on the level.
The games rankings have a total of 12 ranks
which are awarded when completing a level, these range from the worst rank
which is beginner, to a middle of the park rank of contender, all the way up to
champion and superstar being the last two and highest rankings.
In addition to the game single player mode and
single player challenge mode there is a multiplayer mode, with an additional
controller up to 2 players can play, with a multitap up to 4 players can play
simultaneously. Once accessed you will be present with a map screen with
locations to choose from, this mode however only have 4 to choose from.
The first is Egypt, this location plays out
like the classic Breakout with the players trying to destroy the bricks in
their own area, glowing red blocks when destroyed can cause mayhem for other
players, with bricks being added to other players total.
The other multiplayer locations that have a
regular Breakout mode of play also have additional factors to make multiplayer
games more interesting. The castle has knights that can effect the game as well
as a Dragon Power up which sends a dragon to an opponents field which spits
fire at them. If they are caught In the flames they will be slowed down.
The Space level has panels that when hit fire
rockets at other players, if the player is hit by one of these rockets like the
Castle level they will be burnt and slowed down. The final level is the Farm,
this is the only real multiplayer level that shakes up the formula, in this
mode you paddles will be stood upright, with players needing to nudge hens into
their respective coloured coops.
This unlike previous Breakout games has a
story, with players playing as Bouncer who lives on an island filled with
bizarre creatures in the form of paddles and balls. Bouncer enjoys his life
their with his beautiful girlfriend Daisy.
All was fine and peaceful on the island until
one day when Bouncer took a swim out to sea to rescue a ball, while away the
evil Batnix and his henchmen kidnapped Daisy and his friends. It is up to
Bouncer and with the help of coach steel to rescue his girlfriend and friends
from the clutches of the evil Batnix, and stop him before he completes his plan
to take over the world.
Critically this updated version of the classic
Breakout on Playstation was well received by a couple of reviewers, with the
game peaking at a solid 80. largely though review scores fell into that average
range, with a couple falling even below this, with the game bottoming out at a
disappointing 25.
As usual we will start with the best of them
which comes from Atari HQ who rated the game at an 80. With the reviewer
finding that if you enjoyed Pong, Breakout will provide you with similar
thrills. The reviewer continued by saying. The game has kept the same whimsical
nature of Pong, and the elements that made
Pong so popular are also carried over to Breakout.
PSX Nation are next up with another 80 rated
review, with the reviewer finding that for the hardcore gamer out there, the
challenge of Breakout is to player the levels to such perfection, that the
highest of 11 rankings (SuperStart) is constantly achieved throughout the game,
which is not easy task as your rank goes down each time you lose the ball.
The reviewer continued by saying. But for the
rest of us Breakout is an affordable time waster on which to kill a few hours,
without wasting too many brain cells or thoughts. The reviewer continued by
calling the game a reborn oldie that, thankfully remained a goodie. Concluding
the reviewer said, we recommend it cautiously, especially for the $20 asking
price.
We now take a significant drop in review score
for the next review, down to a 65 from German publication Mega Fun. With the
reviewer finding that unlike other updated classics like Centipede and Space
Invaders, the guys on Breakout seems to have gone a bit further.
With the reviewer finding that this
modernization is not limited to a technical modernization, but the original
gameplay with a more varied gameplay as well as combining other concepts. With
well known titles like Tetris and even Space Invaders elegantly merged into a
well known principle.
Staying in Germany we have Video Games up next
with their 62 rated review. The reviewer not being a friend of loveless
remakes, which is why Breakout does not even disappoint the reviewer. With the
reviewer fully expecting nothing to come out of it.
The reviewer found in addition that collision
detection errors quite bothersome, with the games controls too slow even using
the analogue controller. With the reviewer finding that using a mouse is the
best way to play the game. Concluding the reviewer said. No thanks they prefer
the original over this one.
All Game Guide are next up with an above
average review score of 60, the reviewer finding that this latest updated
arcade classic is not great, but at the same time not bad either, with the
reviewer finding that the game succeeds in some areas but fails in others.
The reviewer finding that important concepts
from the original such as rebounding the ball with a paddle remain, while
adding some strange new twists. The reviewer continued by saying, Yes, strange
is a good word for this enhanced version of the old ball-and-paddle,
bricks-smashing classic.
Strangest of all are the levels in which your
paddle leaves its previously horizontal state and hoofs it on two feet. He runs
from angry dogs, knocks ducks off a raft, shoots at robots, throws bricks at a
dragon and more. These levels are original and mildly amusing, but they
interrupt the flow of gameplay and seem totally out of place.
The reviewer found the puzzle elements in the
game to be interesting, challenging and sometime original, with some levels
requiring the player to aim the ball rather than just letting it hit your
paddle. The reviewer also praised the games attempts at bringing a story to
Breakout, with the reviewer finding it provides motivation for beating each
level, and helps bring your paddle character to life.
The reviewer was a little disappointed with the
end reward, which unlike the Space Invaders remake which had the whole original
game that can be unlocked, Breakout sadly only has the one level. Concluding
the reviewer found this remake to be visually surprisingly good, with good
sound and music, but overall the game is just not as intense or addictive as
the original, they also found the game to lack a huge amount of replayability.
GameSpot are the penultimate review, with the
reviewer rating this Breakout remake at a below average 49. With the reviewer
finding Breakout to be neither a particularly bad game, nor is it a
particularly good game either.
The reviewer found this remake to have the same
repetitive gameplay from years ago, camouflaged beneath some average looking
polygonal graphics. They continued by saying. If your still don’t have your
Atari 2600 lying around, and you miss this sort of simplistic fun Breakout may
be worth a rental. Concluding the reviewer had the following to say. And while Breakout
is a fine starter game for young kids attempting to get a handle on their
hand-eye coordination, all others might want to pass on this one.
The Final review of the game comes from TheVideo Game Critic who rated this Breakout remake at a disappointing 25. With
the reviewer finding the early stages of the game to be fun and addictive,
however as the game progressed they found it became less and less like
Breakout, and consequently less fun.
With the reviewer finding that with the game
going overboard with annoying connect the pipe puzzle stages, the reviewer
found that Hasbro lost sight of the some gameplay that made the original so
great. The reviewer continued by saying. I’ll conceived power ups tend to
distract more than help, and the mandatory bonus stages are painfully difficult
and have absolutely nothing to do with Breakout.
Concluding the reviewer had the following to
say. Breakout begs for a paddle controller, and the analogue or digital
controls aren’t responsive enough, especially when trying to keep multiple
balls in play. Hasbro tried to do Breakout with what they did with Pong, but
this time they came up short.
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, where if you are looking to trade in your copy of Breakout,
you will be looking at just $1 for your copy of the game from Gamedude. If on
the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game from Gamedude, you
will be looking at an outlay of $5.
Next we head to
Retrogames.co.uk where sadly we don’t find the game listed we do find Breakout
listed in compilation games but not this 2000 release of the game. So we will
quickly move on to eStarland.com where we do find the game available.
At the time of
writing this eStarland.com has three copies of the game available, the first a
disc only copy of the game is priced up at $3.80. A second copy which is
missing the case can be picked up for $6.18, while the final copy on offer is a
complete copy of the game, this will set you back $8.08.
In addition to the
copies already on the market, eStarland also offers a trade in for this game,
with up to $2.60 being paid for a complete copy of the game. This price will
vary depending on the completeness of your copy, with a disc only copy worth
just 91 cents at trade in.
Lastly we have Amazon.com
where we find a decent supply of the game available, with a disc only copy in
acceptable condition, available for as little as $6.98. If like me you prefer
your copies to complete, the cheapest currently on offer is a very good
condition copy for $8.26, this copy also comes with free shipping.
Another couple of
very good condition copies are on the first page of listings however these
copies do not state there completeness, so contact with the seller is advised
if you are thinking of buying one of these copies. On the second page of
listings we find a couple of complete good condition copies for $8.99 and
$9.48, the former coming with free shipping.
On this page we also
find another very good and good condition copy, with both also coming complete,
these copies are priced at $9.99 and $10.30 respectively. If on the other hand
you are looking for a like new used copy you can pick one up for as little as
$11.93 or $11.98.
Used prices for the
game remain pretty reasonable, with used prices not going beyond $16. There is
also a modest supply of new copies of the game available as well, with prices
starting from $17.44, with a large number of the copies available priced from
this point up to around the $20 mark, with a couple of copies prices beyond
this point. The game currently has a price high for a new copy of the game at
$39.64.
Written by
P J Gibbon
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