Thanks Mitch and Wags. I honestly detested Arkanoid when I first started playing it for whatever tournament that it was most recently in. Level 3 in particular is just a huge spike in difficulty to overcome so early in the game when you're not experienced with how best to defeat it. That, among other difficult levels initially turned me off a lot from the game, and many others as well I'm sure. If I didn't have easy local access to the real hardware I probably would never have put any more time into it, so I am very fortunate in that respect.
Apologies for the incoming treatise, but my blog my rules
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I don't know how to articulate it, but Arkanoid is a really confoundingly designed game in a lot of ways, both well and poorly chosen.
- The difficulty curve is the main negative - there is a really inconsistent jump from level to level in depth of strategy needed that is unbelievably frustrating when you're starting out. The natural way to play the game is typically to try to finish it as quickly as possible, which is bad because it prevents you from maximum opportunities to get the extra life/level skip items.
- It's also natural to think that getting the ball up top and letting it work is the best idea. You stay safe as you can't miss hitting it if it's away from you, and you feel like you're making progress. But in an insidiously smart/incredibly infuriating design decision, the top of the playfield accelerates the speed of the ball more than if you'd just hit it normally down lower.
- In addition, hitting the ball at sharper angles also increases its speed moreso than the normal 30-45 degree incline. If you're a new player you'd likely never realize this (I didn't either, I had to be told by someone) and just assume that the game is too difficult for you and just quit trying to play it.
- Capsules are worth a huge amount of points relative to most of the rest of the game, and should be gotten all the time. Nowhere on the cabinet instruction sticker things does it mention this. Conventional powerup wisdom in a lot of other games means that there's usually a 'best' powerup and that you should try to avoid the others. Certain levels certainly require or heavily incentivize the catch/laser/split powerups in particular, but as long as it's not dangerous you should get every powerup you can regardless of whether it immediately helps you, simply because the points make earning extra lives easier. This is a very counter intuitive tactic.
- Level 3 is very hard, very early. It forces you to get out of your comfort zone, and hit sharper angled shots to succeed. In a sense this is a great thing to have the player learn early on, as ball control is vital for success. However it is certainly possible to hit normal-angled shots and get very lucky and clear this level without learning the intended lesson. You can also get bailed out by a lucky split powerup even if you're not targeting optimally. This lets you skate through on occasion, and blame all the other times you die on bad luck. When in fact it's been your fault the entire time, the game just doesn't do a good job of communicating that you'll have maximum success by hitting the ball as sharply-angled as possible.
I could go on for much longer, but this is a pretty good overview. Now that I 'know the rules', so to speak, I can really appreciate the thought and decisions required to do well in this game. It really gives a ton of depth to what could otherwise be a pretty shallow Breakout clone. I just wish those rules were a bit more natural to figure out on one's own.
