#ARKANOID DS OPTIONS UPDATE#

It works, but moving something that you aren't touching takes a bit of getting used to, and sliding rapidly back and forth will result in a slip of the stylus occasionally. To combat visibility issues, you can drag from anywhere on the screen that is vertically aligned with the Vaus. Dragging the Vaus around with the stylus feels imprecise. Of the three control schemes, the one that makes the best use of the DS's prominent features is also the most awkward. Oh, and it's also got online multiplayer. I couldn't get rid of the boring all-white Vaus and replace it with a proper silver-and-red model quickly enough. The in-game shop reveals the somewhat antiseptic visuals to be a feature: the fact that the basic appearance of the game is kind of bland helps motivate you to earn in-game currency and spend it on wacky new block shapes (like Space Invaders), backgrounds, level frames, Vaus shapes, and even sound effects.

Branching paths allow a lot of replayability and customization of the game - the game contains 28 different sets of five levels. It's a shame, because there are a lot of really compelling new features that add a lot to the experience. Arkanoid was once really hard, and the lack of challenge hurts. In essence, all of the challenge has been stripped out of Arkanoid DS. You have a supply of three bumpers that refreshes in every single level instead of a persistent supply of lives. If you miss the ball, it simply bounces off the bumper back up into the level. High scores (and a grey powerup) increased the number of lives you had.Īrkanoid DS's lives manifest as a bumper under the paddle that stetches across the whole playfield. After dying, you'd start again with the ball positioned on the paddle and your progress saved, until you ran out of lives and the game ended. In previous incarnations, you were given a number of lives, which decremented every time the ball fell past the paddle. Reshaping the levels isn't all that Taito did to make Arkanoid easier. The size of the playfield varies by level, but it's always pretty narrow. It makes the game much easier, since the ball does more per move, you effectively cover more of the space to start with, and don't have far to go to catch the ball. This means two things: first, that the ball ricochets off of the side walls much more than before, and second, that your Vaus has much less distance to move. The resultant increase in the vertical playfield space has been combined with a sharp decrease in the horizontal space: basically, the playfield has become much taller and narrower. The DS game stretches the action across both screens, with the block structures (colorful arrangements of blocks placed either to be challenging or to make a picture) on the top screen. It's completely self-evident: you see your paddle (the Vaus) on the bottom, blocks on the top, and a ball in the middle, and you know from the first second of play that you're to break the blocks with the ball, using the paddle to direct it, and keeping the ball from falling. It fails to hold up perfectly to the original, but it's pretty good.Īrkanoid DS revisits the simple gameplay of Taito's arcade classic.

#ARKANOID DS OPTIONS UPDATE#

While I thought Space Invaders Extreme looked like a more creative update of its source material, Arkanoid DS had Arkanoid as its source material. I have been waiting for the American release of this game since last year. When Taito revealed that they were updating Arkanoid for the DS, I was beyond thrilled. It's still really hard, and I still think level 3 - level 3! - is one of the most devious and challenging video game levels ever devised. I purchased the NES game, with its included paddle controller, as soon as it came out in 1987.

Arkanoid ds options