Hit Blocks. Fight Evil in Your Underpants. Question Life Decisions.

NES Catalog #049-50

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Arkanoid

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PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Taito

RELEASE DATE: Dec. 26th, 1986 (JP), Aug. 1987 (US)

ALSO AVAILABLE ON: Atari (8-bit, ST), Amiga, Apple II, Arcade, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Tandy Color Computer, Amstrad CPC, iOS, Macintosh, Mobile, MSX, PC, NEC (PC-88, PC-98), ZX81/Spectrum

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Arkanoid is an evil beast that doesn’t care how you feel about it. You’ll be lucky to get past the third stage without multiple game overs. “Oh, but games were just harder back then.” Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean we need to suffer the game’s excessive difficulty now.

You control Vaus, a spaceship that looks suspiciously like a paddle. You’re tasked with “breaking” your way out of 30+ rooms, each featuring multi-colored blocks that need destroying. Armed only with an energy ball, you use Vaus to hit each of the blocks in your way with the ball and move onto the next stage. Unfortunately, Vaus’ movements are limited to the bottom of the screen. Lose the ball in the pit below Vaus, and he crumbles into space dust.

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Those molecules are so dead.

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Some blocks, once hit, release colored pellets that give Vaus extra powers. The colors dictate Vaus’ new abilities, so dark blue extends the ship’s length, while red gives Vaus the ability to shoot lasers and destroy the bricks on his own, orange slows the energy ball down, etc.