Bob the Brick Breaker – A modern gem inspired by old arcade classics

Bob the Brick Breaker is a modern gem of an arcade-style game available on PS5 and the Nintendo Switch. From Brainium Games, it’s a challenging but rewarding experience, including minions, bosses, and online leaderboards. There is an escalating difficulty as you progress through the levels, providing a gameplay experience that can challenge even the most seasoned players. It includes local/split screen co op as well as online gameplay (complete with leaderboards). You can play with a friend, either head-to-head or cooperative.

The gameplay is faithful to the traditional brick breaker genre, and you can feel the nostalgia of games like Arkenoid and Breakout. A reactive paddle, a dynamic sphere, and grids of blocks to shatter make up the composition of the game. What differentiates it is the inclusion of multiple variations, including mini bosses, altered gravity and moving bricks, turrets, etc.

I found the difficulty to be a little punishing at higher levels, and some of the mechanics a little confusing. I never completely understood what every power-up did (like the rope), making some of them seem less urgent to capture than others. Perhaps a small tutorial or index for each would be helpful? The movement of the paddle at the beginning of each level also felt a little slow compared to the speed of the ball as well. Because of these issues, I’m not sure it would have long-term appeal to very casual players or those looking for a simple time waster, but fans of the genre will certainly have a fun time with it. The online leaderboards appeal to those with a competitive streak as well.

Graphics and soundtrack are completely in line with the arcade brick-breaking game style. With its minimalistic style, bright colours, and fluid movement, it could easily be confused for a game released in a wide variety of years.

At only $6.99USD, it’s a relatively inexpensive game that you can have some fun with your friends and is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre.

**Thank you to Oscar Celestini (the artist who made all the graphics, sprites, and animations) for providing the code for this review from Brainium Games**

*Originally posted on The Hive Media*