By: Ryan Seiler
Posted: August 11, 2012
Someone over at Atari really dropped the ball when they didn’t maintain creative rights to Breakout. Granted it was 1976 and ripping off games – which consisted of Pong back then – was all the rage. Once a new game had released, everyone and their brother made their own version of it. And by version I mean clone.
“Look the Sears one has orange blocks!”
“Woah, the Radio Shack one has two paddles!”
Strangely, these first few games are still being reproduced today. Every piece of consumer electronics, from iPods to digital watches plays Breakout, in some form. Ever own a cell phone that didn’t have a version already built in? Hell, when aliens find the Voyager probe I’m pretty sure the first thing they’ll do with it is boot up Block Breaker.
Over the years, Breakout hasn’t witnessed its share of innovation. Even Pong could be said to have evolved into today’s tennis games, but not poor old Breakout who only survives thanks to nostalgia. And the fact that it’s super easy to make. However, some standout titles have implemented new gameplay mechanics -- for better or worse. A few games started giving the paddle weapons to eliminate hard to hit blocks. MagicBall even gave us 3D structures to tear down instead of a 2D plane of bricks, as well as the now-standard array of weapons. Breakout on the Playstation tried hitting up the then popular mascot market of Mario, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot by giving the blocks faces, personalities and storylines – it surprisingly didn’t do so well. Imagine Resident Evil 2, if you played the whole game as that unlockable square player, Tofu. And instead of shooting zombies, you’re slowly bouncing balls at frickin’ blocks!
The next logical step, obviously, was to implement RPG elements into the fray. That’s where Wizorb comes in. This little indie title first debuted as an Xbox Live Indie game and did what every good title there does: it got the hell out! But just how well do an RPG and a Brick Breaker mesh to form a cohesive game? And can Wizorb break out of the mediocrity the genre is known for.