0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - BreakThru
BreakThru! Is a tilematching puzzle game that was originally released on Windows and MS-DOS in 1994
and was originally developed by Japanese company Zoo Corporation and published
by Spectrum HoloByte and released exclusively in North America.
A SNES release of the
game in North America was also release in 1994, as well as a Game Boy release.
The SNES release of the game was developed by Artech, Realtime Associates
Seattle would develop the Game Boy release of the game.
The game was re
released in 1995 for both the Sega Saturn and Playstation, with both
development and publishing moving to Shoeisha, this release of the game was
exclusive to Japan only, with the game releasing on the 22nd of September 1995
on the Saturn, and December 1st 1995 for the Playstation.
BreakThru involves the player moving a cursor
amongst a grid of different coloured squares, all squares must be removed by
the player and can only be done by three squares of the same colour directly
touching each other.
When the player successfully removes three of
the same colour the remaining blocks will shift downwards and then either left
or right to fill in the blank spaces that have been left. The game will come to
an end in two situations, the first when the player has successfully removed
all squares from the board. And the second when the timer runs down to zero.
The player may come to a point where they can
no longer remove three of the same coloured squares, in this event the player
has a couple of options available to them. Special items are available that can
clear squares from the board without them being the same colour.
One such item is the airplane block, this
special item will remove an entire row of squares in the direction it is
pointing. Another type of special item is dynamite, this will destroy every
square that it is in direct contact with. Players can also choose to drop a new
randomly generated square into the equation as well.
The player will have to deal with additional challenges
as well as spiders, soda cans and boulders will all challenge the players and
attempt to make the players like as difficult as possible, the player can use
rockets and bombs to help deal with them.
The Playstation version of the game uses a the
D-Pad for movement around the board, this being an early release in the
Playstations lifecycle there is no analogue support for the game. Using the
circle button will allow you to select the coloured squares, if they are in
direct contact with two other squares of the same colour they will disappear
when clicked on. Players can also move the board left and right using the L1 or
R1 shoulder buttons as well as making pieces fall from the top of the screen
using the X button.
This being a Japanese only release on the
Playstation, critic reviews for the game are none existent, as a result we must
head over to GameFAQs for their user ratings. At GameFAQs we find the game
currently sitting on an average user rating of 3.43/5 from a total of 7 user
ratings. The game is currently sitting as the 26th lowest rated
Puzzle game on the Playstation and the 1108th highest rated
Playstation game of all time.
Taking a closer look at the game user ratings
we find that the game didn’t receive a rating below a 2.5/5, with one user
rating it at this. Another two users rated the game at a 3/5, while another
four rated the game at a solid 3.5/5. The final user was highly impressed with
the game rating it at a full 5/5.
Next on to the games difficulty we find a total
of 8 users rating this category, here we find a single user that found the game
to be on the easy side, while another found the game tough. The vast majority
of users found the game to have just the right difficulty level, averaging out
the game comes in at having just the right difficulty level.
Lastly on to the games lifespan, here again we
find a total of 8 user rating, with a good split of time spent with the game.
We find one user each spending either 1, 4 or 12 hours with the game, an
additional two users spent and impressive 40 hours with the game, while the
final three users spent an impressive 60 hours. Averaging out the game lifespan
comes in at around 34.6 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, where unsurprisingly we don’t find this Japanese only
release game listed on the site. So we will move on to Retrogames.co.uk where
we do find the game listed for the Saturn, but sadly not the Playstation
version.
Next up is
eStarland.com where sadly we don’t find the game available or even listed, so
we will quickly move on to Amazon.com here we find both the Game Boy release
and SNES releases of the game listed but gain sadly no Playstation version of
the game, not a huge surprise with it being an early release in the systems
lifespan and being a Japanese only release as well.
As a last hope we
head over to ebay.com in the hopes of finding at least one copy of the game.
Things however were not looking good initially, while the game was there in its
either Saturn, Game Boy or SNES format but not the Playstation version. However
hidden away a long way down the listings I have finally found a handful of
copies of the game.
The first copy on
offer is a used copy with a copied cover and an overall acceptable condition,
this copy is priced up at $3 with a $5 shipping fee, bringing the total to $8
for this copy. The second listing is in a similar condition, this copy once
shipping has been added in the price comes to $11.
From here prices increase
to $16 for a copy with some disc scratches and a slightly bent instruction
manual another copy in slightly worse shape is priced at $17. We also find a
good condition copy available on ebay, this copy once shipping costs have been
factored in will cost you $18. The final copy on offer which the seller rates
as all being in B condition is priced at $21
Written by
P J Gibbon
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