KMGR of "Brick Breaker Revolution 3D"

Image via WikipediaWe've seen probably bazillion variations of Breakout (tm) by now... As it's one of the oldest games ever. There's Arkanoid, one of the better ones, and in recent years, Ricochet series from Reflexive. So should you be impressed with "Brick Breaker Revolution 3D" from Digital Chocolate? Both yes and no. It's impressive to look at, but doesn't play well in practice.

The plot has you trapped in some sort of computer matrix, and you need to fight your way out by playing Breakout, with both power-ups and power-downs. Power-downs are bad for you, like ball speed-up, paddle-shrink, close-up view (can't see the ball in relation to the paddle!) while power-ups are good for you, like sticky ball (ball sticks to your paddle until you launch it), slow ball, BIG ball (demolish bricks instead of bouncing off) and so on. Every few levels, you'll come across a boss, who has to be killed a certain way, usually by hitting him with the ball in certain vulnerable spots.

The classic mode doesn't resemble Breakout much. The revolution mode on the other hand, sometimes opens a second set of paddles on top of the field, so you now have to juggle the ball on BOTH sides of the playing field. If you miss, you get dumped to some OTHER playing field. It's a lot of variations in 3D.

The problem is the actual playing field. There seems to be a strange "lag" behind the controls. I'm not that bad in games, but it took me a while to get use to this game, as I keep missing balls just left or right of the paddle. And where you hit the ball with the paddle DOES affect how it bounces. When bricks are destroyed, you get debris strewn all over before they fade off the field, and that sometimes interferes with your vision of the field. The way the camera is in 3D doesn't help either as your viewpoint tends to float a little, and bobbles, and changes between levels are done in 3D (ball flies off the field, and drops onto another field). Some people can get sick watching this rollercoaster ride.

If you are masochistic and incredibly good, you may be able to unlock the nightmare mode.

All in all, Brick Breaker Revolution 3D looks pretty good, but doesn't play as good as it looks. The 3D gimmick wears off quickly, leaving you with a Breakout clone with a shaky playing field, and that is no fun to play. The secondary paddle doesn't really add that much to the game.

Overall rating: 6.5 out of 10
Pros: Breakout in 3D, woohoo!
Cons: Not much beyond the novelty of it