One of the oldest concepts of gaming is the "ball-and-bat" genre that was popularized by both Breakout and Arkanoid. The titles originally appeared in Arcade form and eventually made their way to home consoles when they became available. In modern gaming, many titles have spun-off from these pioneers, with AlphaBounce being the latest. The Arkanoid-like game features thousands of levels and an RPG element, mixing up the root formula introduced over-three decades ago.
In AlphaBounce you play as one of three prisoners that have been charged with mining the galaxy for minerals. Your prisoner is dependent on the difficulty level you choose. In the game, you control a ship called an envelope that launches out balls to break blocks in each level. Just like in any game in the genre, you complete a stage if you destroy all the blocks in the level and you lose if all your balls are destroyed or if your health is depleted. Ultimately, you will need to traverse the galaxy in order to find your way back to Earth.
As you complete each level you will be able go to the next level in the galaxy, which is represented by a huge square grid that's easily bigger than 100 by 100 squares. Occasionally, you will see an object in some of the squares; if you complete that level successfully you will earn that object which can be outfitted to your ship, providing you with a new ability. You can also earn new ships by completing all the levels which makeup a planet in the galaxy. The other incentive to complete each planet is that you will find a piece of a map that will help you find Earth.
What sets AlphaBounce apart from other games in the genre is variety. In addition to having an unprecedented number of levels, the game also has a lot of different power-ups and block types. There are 26 different power-ups in the game, one for each letter of the alphabet. While many of these power-ups are beneficial and assist you greatly in each level, there are also negative power-ups such as whiskey, which makes all the balls move as if they were drunk, or pause which causes your ship to stop moving for a period of time. There are also many block types with different properties; some even cause debris to drop, which can destroy your ship or fire bullets at you.
You control the game with the touchscreen and buttons. Movement of your ship is handled by the touchscreen and it actually works really well thanks to how responsive and fast your ship moves. This is obviously beneficial because the frantic action requires quick, precise movement. The buttons only serve to launch the ball initially and to fire specific weapons if you have outfitted them to your ship.
The game’s biggest problems are the various technical issues. As you might expect, these technical issues are, at times, very detrimental to the game's overall quality. Before starting any level you have to sit through a loading screen that usually lasts around 10 to 15 seconds, if you play through many levels, the loading times will become extremely annoying. There are also many framerate issues. While I understand that the framerate can be affected when many things are happening at once, sometimes I witnessed the game moving at a slideshow-like pace when almost nothing was occurring. By far the biggest technical issue is that the game is prone to crashing and I had the unfortunate experience of the game crashing more than once. When the game crashes it is very irritating because the only way to turn off the DSi at that point is to either wait until the battery fully drains or to unscrew the battery compartment and then remove and reinsert the battery.
Another big issue is the inconsistent quality of levels. While there are a solid amount of well-constructed levels, many of the levels are essentially filler. These filler levels are either bland or cause a chain reaction of power-ups that will make the game play itself, to a point where a level is completed, leaving the player puzzled as to what exactly happened. Considering that there are a lot of these filler levels, it makes progressing through the game feel like a chore at times.
Ultimately, AlphaBounce is a good Arkanoid clone that brings many great additions to the genre. Unfortunately, numerous technical issues hamper the game. If you enjoy games similar to Breakout and Arkanoid, you will definitely enjoy this game and will most likely find it addicting, it’s just a matter of coping with its technical issues.
Review Policy
In our reviews, we'll try not to bore you with minutiae of a game. Instead,
we'll outline what makes the game good or bad, and focus on telling you whether
or not it is worth your time as opposed to what button makes you jump.
We use a five-star rating system with intervals of .5. Below is an outline of
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but execution is poor and many issues hinder the experience.
Though functional, a game that receives this score has major issues. There are little
to no redeeming qualities and should be avoided by nearly all players.
A game that gets this score is fundamentally broken and should be avoided by everyone.
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