Arkanoid: Doh it Again was my introduction to the brick breaker genre. I remember playing it when I was a kid. It wasn’t too difficult and can easily be beaten in a weekend. But its still a fun game. And playing it now with more of a game designer/developer mindset, there’s a few notable things that I think are pretty cool.
Fun fact: I used to get this game from a video rental store. Remember those things!? No? Me neither…
Powerups
The powerups are probably the most recognizable feature in Arkanoid: Doh it Again. Occasionally when you break a brick, a capsule will begin falling. If you catch it with your paddle, you’ll gain some sort of new ability including things like:
- Increasing the width of your paddle.
- A sticky paddle that allows you to catch, reposition, and launch the ball.
- Open a portal immediately to the next level.
- Splitting your ball into 10 simultaneous balls.
- Lasers! (my personal favorite)
Would be interesting to see just how many different types of powerups people could come up with.
Enemies and Bosses
I won’t claim to be an expert on Breakout-style games. But I’ve never seen another that includes enemies and bosses. While not really posing any serious threat, the enemies provide a few different fun additions. After hitting one, it splits into 3 balls that can also help break bricks. Another is an alien/jellyfish type thing that will teleport your ball if it collides with it.
Arkanoid: Doh it Again also gives you a new boss roughly every 10 levels. Though its actually the same 3 bosses, repeated 3 times. It’s kind of a unique thing though. I don’t think an entire game of bosses would work (just my opinion, of course). But I’d love to see what other style of bosses people could come up with. (10 unique bosses, rather than just recycling the same 3.)
Passwords
If you happen to struggle on a particular level and end up losing your last ball, you don’t have to worry. Arkanoid: Doh it Again gives you a continue countdown. But once the timer expires, you are given a password. Enter that password into the Password screen on the main menu and you can immediately jump to the level you died on. Albeit with a score of 0. Useful for those times when you just can’t finish the game in one sitting.
Or when you have to turn the game off. Like now. Because you have to go to the store. Or its bedtime and its a school night. Not that I’m bitter or anything…
On the SNES, passwords started becoming much more common. The Mega Man X series also utilized it, as did many others. But it was still sort of unique at the time. And to be honest, I’m not quite sure how to even go about implementing something like this. (If you know, be sure to let me know in the comments below.)
Level Editor
This one is kind of hard to miss. And probably my favorite on the list. It doesn’t actually show up on the main menu. Instead, you can find it under the Options menu. But personally, I think something like this deserves a spot on the main menu.
The level editor is one of the earliest examples I can think of that actually gave the player to become a creator. You could place bricks, change their color, control which ones had powerups. It was pretty cool. About the only downside was the inability to actually save your levels.
Although that could be a good thing. I remember being a bit…immature with some of my creations.
Final Thoughts on Arkanoid: Doh it Again
This was a fun game to revisit. Especially since once of my first projects was making a Breakout clone. (CS50’s Introduction to Game Development, lecture 2 if you’re interested.) It’s fun to think about how you can take an existing game and expand upon it.
There are some pretty cool features in Arkanoid: Doh it Again for a brick breaker game. The level maker and bosses in particular were some pretty unique ones (in my opinion, of course). Play through it yourself and see think about what you like, don’t like, or could expand upon. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.
