Arkanoid DS – NDS – Review

Arkanoid – the final frontier. This classic,
spaced-out game of single-player Pong has enthralled the lives of countless
players. At launch it was considered one of the most difficult games ever
made. The arcade version was particularly challenging, as it used a trackball
to give players the most sensitive control style possible. However, it also
meant that you couldn’t make a quick move without having to worry about the
weight of the ball and the likelihood that it would keep rolling after your
move was complete.

Few games have this kind of history. Even fewer
have been cloned and rehashed across multiple generations of consoles and
handhelds. But it’s only because we love the game that much that publishers
are able to toy with our emotions and cash in on a title that looks and sounds
like Arkanoid but is not Arkanoid. Don’t get me wrong, there have been a few
“inspired” games that did justice to this classic franchise. But when you want
the best, you know where to turn.

This Nintendo DS update, however, isn’t it.

Spread across both the top and bottom screens,
Arkanoid DS was designed with old arcade cabinets in mind. The elongated view
matches that of the rectangular screens that once housed this game and other
hits. Nearly half of the DS’ playing field is devoted to a border – it serves
no real purpose but is there nonetheless. This means that your actual playing
area is very narrow, offering very little space to move around.

The bottom screen is where the magic happens;
the top screen is where the magic fails. Using the D-pad or stylus control
setting, you’ll move the small platform left and right. By grabbing power-ups
you’ll be able to expand or shrink the size of the platform, add a sticky
element to the ball (making it freeze whenever it lands on the platform), or
obtain a super ball that can blast through almost any kind of block.

This is all familiar territory. But while you
interact with the bottom screen, there aren’t any blocks to interfere. The
ball has to bounce all the way from the bottom to the top – which can take a
full second or two when the game is at its slowest pace – just to interact.
Once it hits a block, it’ll either bounce up or down. If it bounces up, cross
your fingers and hope it takes out a few more blocks. If it bounces down, hold
onto your stopwatch: another wait is coming.

In any other world, a one or two-second wait is
meaningless. But in a video game – especially one where you’re bouncing a ball
back and forth – that wait is fairly painful. You can increase the default
speed by upping the level difficulty, which leads to another set of problems.
Before starting the main campaign, you’ll have the option to add bars to the
bottom of the screen. These bars act as a cushion to your mistakes. If the
ball slips past your platform, it’ll hit the bar and bounce back up. Without a
bar in place, you have no cushion: one life is all you get. This leaves you
with two options: either make the game too easy (and reduce your point
earnings) by adding bars, or make it too frustrating by taking them away.

That, however, is not as troubling as the level
designs. With half (sometimes more) of the DS’ viewing space taken up by a
colored border, players have very little room to move around. Worse yet, there
wasn’t much room to apply multiple block patterns on the top screen. Instead
of getting a wide variety of shapes and formations, you’re generally stuck
with a similar group of clusters – none of which are unique or inviting.

Moreover, the confined feel of the game is not
on par with the original Arkanoid, which was slower and less precise (the
stylus controls are the one thing that Arkanoid DS excelled at producing) but
had better level designs and was several times more entertaining.

When compared with some of the recent Arkanoid-inspired
games (like the stellar and highly original
Nervous
Brickdown), Arkanoid DS doesn’t make much sense. There are dozens of
stages to finish and a new multiplayer component. But none of these features,
old or new, is on par with the classic you remember.

Review Scoring Details for Arkanoid DS