Is anyone else having trouble accessing new games offered? All I get when I come to GOTD is this game.

Next.....

I uninstalled the program. It is toooo sloooow....

I paid $3 to download this game.
After the introduction movie, my computer hang.

When I press Ctrl+Alt+Del to display Task Manager, this game consumed 99%, so I coundn't do anything.

A big game, also a boring game!

Thanks GGAOTD and Magnussoft. Installed, activated and runs great. I like these kinds of games and the fact that its FREE is even better.

I'd like to play Aquarnoid 2 but it keeps craching on my system and i loose the video. maybe my system is just too fast for it or something i play high graphics/action games all the time. but this game is just taking up dic space so i am uninstalling it

Jack Boyce (#25): It's surprising that a "dedicated gamer" would hold much stock in the comments found here. In the time I've been coming to this site I've found very few people who can try the game and then give an informed, objective opinion. Most can be split into categories: those who hate every game because it isn't Halo; the pom-pom squad who heap praise upon any bone you throw them as an excuse to drone on about themselves every day; and the simple-minded fans of the haters or pom-poms who never learned to think for themselves. Just skim through the comments on any given day.
It didn't take me long to realize the only person I can trust around here is Toodles...Toodles LaPlume.

Happy gaming.

Hi Nutzmum comment #25, here ya go.........

Whiterabbit-uk@hotmail.co.uk

or try this one:

Whiterabbit-moonrising@fsmail.net


Thank you JanW comment #5. I tried the game and do agree it's a solid freeware arkanoid, with some excellent options; although I do think it's a little too generous on the power ups and you can only play it in windowed mode. It's definitely one of the better freeware versions though, although ‘Beatball’ is much better (you can also find ‘BeatBall’ in the freeware library section). If you like ‘Beatball’, try ‘Beatball 2’ which isn't freeware, but has better level sets and a much better sound track. Tamarra, comment #23 says it all when he/she says you can spin the ball. This one has excellent power-ups as well and IMO is one of the best freeware arkanoids around together with poing that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Available from:

http://www.firestormproductions.co.uk/poing/


‘Poing’ is a little different from your usual breakouts and like Beat Ball also has the ability to spin the ball to make it curve. Also check out the freeware library at the giveaway project as you can pick up a few other reasonable arkanoids such as ‘Wreckerball Dreams’ which is also available from:

http://www.glinkiegames.com/main/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=5&MMN_position=5:3



and ‘Hoowaball’, available from:

http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware-Games/HOOWABALL.shtml


The latter game has German menu's, but please persevere because it's another unusual arkanoid that should be in any game fans Indie folder, especially if you’re into arkanoid/breakout clones.

There are loads more available, but many are poor imitations so I won’t bother posting links.

You can get a few arkanoids from the following address, the link takes you directly to ‘Scaraball’ which is also known as ‘Gem Ball’ which was developed by Erse Games and was a giveaway some time ago.

http://www.gametop.com/?utm_source=ScaraBall&utm_medium=downloadable

When you close the game down you will always be taken to the games home page. However as I've said in the past, there appears to be no other malware, pop ups or other unwelcome stuff downloaded with any of the games from Game Top games. If you look to the bottom of the page that you are taken to there is a very large list of games to download including the 3D arkanoid ‘Brixout’ and ‘Star Ball’. Of those two, the former is a definite must have, although it’s no where near as good as ‘Scaraball’ (which was made by the developers of the two ‘Nuclear Ball’ games and ‘Gem Ball’, as I mentioned above)

Apart from maybe ‘Beatball’, ‘Scaraball’ (which isn’t technically freeware) and maybe ‘Poing’; I would not agree that any of the others are better than today’s giveaway, especially ‘IBreakout’ suggested by JanW.

‘Aquanoid’ is a hard one to play, but isn’t that supposed to be part of the challenge when playing games? If you want something easy, go play one of the many 3D arkanoids which apart from a few are a lot easier to play.

Have a great new week folks and in the UK I hope you all enjoyed your extra hour today :)

this is the second game that has messed up. the game will not load for me, it installed ok, but when i go and run the game, i get this little odd box twice and then it goes down. so cannot really comment on the game itself at all have uninstalled the game

Wow, this game STINKS, glad I don't spend money on small games like this, id send this back to the companie with a nasty letter about now much it STINKS and how much I want my money back!

I'm sorry--but for an underwater theme, breakout type game you can NOT beat Alawar's Aquaball. I'm still playing that from the last time it was given away a couple of week's ago.

I thought the game would be fun since I play this type of game almost every day. Downloaded and installed. Then I read the comments and I decided to trash the game before playing it a single time. Now I am thinking about what I did and why.

The tone of comments made early after a game is published on the website seems to influence my desire to play the game. If I can detect that the persons making the comments actually tried playing the game, I pay attention to what they post. I feel that most of the folks that posted today's comments probably tried the first two or three levels. If the early levels of a game don't make it for others, then I probably am not going to be very excited about playing the game either.

I wish that I had read the comments before downloading today's offer. I usually do read the comments first. Since I have it installed, I guess that I will give the game's author a chance. I hope that game developers realize or quickly learn the necessity of having exciting first levels. Without hot early play, a game is not likely to ever go very far with dedicated game players. Or, at least this dedicated game player.

Magnussoft, here is your chance!

Whiterabbit, aka Stephen, I tried the link to your email and it did not work for me. Do you have a new one?

Hi.I am on dial-up and this game would take about 7 hours to download so I will pass today.Go get the freeware BeatBall from here:
http://www.imphenzia.com
if you like breakout games this one is worth it.In options turn on the spin it is great.The soundtrck is pretty good to.
Thanks anyway GGOTD.Be back tomorrow.
Tamarra25

@ #18:
The link shows it also has a Windows version... And it runs fine on my Windows machine.

Many thanks for all of the comments. Since I have played DXBall(2), I did not found an equal exciting breakout jet. Thus, I'm not going to install this one.

This is a junky clone of Bricks Of Atlantis. Not recommended.

Magnussoft, thanks for the software. The graphics are fine, the sounds and music are okay, the option selections are good. There is only 1 major problem, and it's the same as in Barkanoid: There is NO--I repeat--NO PADDLE CONTROL, other than moving it back and forth just to prevent the ball from exiting from the bottom of the screen. Therefore, where is the fun??? All you can do is watch the ball as it follows its automatic path, deviating only when nudged by other objects which merely set it on a different path but one which the player still has no control over. It would make a nice screensaver if it would run all the time. But I wouldn't call it a "game".

Thanks for your participation in GGAOTD. I would like to see a good Arkanoid-type game from your company, but it will never happen unless you change the ball physics in your games. And I believe most of the other people here agree with me.

RE: #5's comment:

"I suggest that anyone who wants to try this one, skip it and go to:
http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LBreakout2
It’s free, has a level editor and the gameplay is solid."

This is not for Windows; it's for Linux.

this is the worst acroniod clone I've ever seen!

Download went fine but when I tried to install it I kept getting a message saying that the giveaway for this game had expired even tough it says on the front page that there are over 15 hours left :-/ Decided this is not a game for me.

The usual Magnussoft AVI screen and the excellent graphics and good soundtrack make this a very large download. I’m sure for this reason alone (the size) many won’t download it. I dread to think how long it would take to download on dial up. I downloaded a 1.7Gb file last night and was horrified to see it was going to take several hours to download, due in part to it’s popularity (the Crysis single player demo that had just been released) which had slowed down my usual 200kb/sec download speed to around 35Kb/sec at times, so how dial up users cope, I don’t know. :(

Also, the plethora of comments that are bound to find this particular arkanoid hard to play and therefore those immortal words that I see so often uttered here ……‘boring’……. will rear it’s ugly head in a predictable manner. HOWEVER, please don’t let this put you off. Try the game and see for yourself.

The downloaded file unpacks to a single file that contains both the activation and set up modules. It installed like a dream and once opened I was immediately impressed by the excellent options menu and the 11 page help menu. There are seven sets of bricks you can use, that will change the way the game looks quite dramatically in some cases. There’s end of level bosses and bonus bricks that can be toggled off to make the game harder, there’s also a bat behavior toggle and three difficulty settings to make the game even harder if you wish. The minimum specs do require a graphics card and at least DX 8 installed, but the size of the cards memory is only 16Mb, which all on board graphic’s chips have now, (unless your computer is pre millennium). If the game does seem a little choppy you can toggle off numerous animations such as the fish, bubble, plants and the (IMO) annoying way the bricks fly off the board when hit.

The ball and bat interactions are hard to figure at first, but if you are willing to spend more than a few minutes I’m sure some of you will find it possible to control the ball to some extent. It’s not the best control I’ve seen though and will make this a hard one to finish, especially as it’s advertised as having over 300 levels, which, apart from the recently released Hyperballoid Golden pack that has many more levels and Ricochet Infinity that has access to 1000’s, is one of the bigger arkanoids I’ve seen around. More usually you only get 100 and sometimes even less.

The game is basically a clone of Magnussoft’s previous giveaway, Barkanoid 2 (which received a mixed welcome) with the backgrounds, music and graphics changed for some different themes. The aqua theme that this game uses with lots of pretty looking fish swimming about seems to be very popular at the moment and for that reason is in danger of becoming over done, however the backgrounds to this are far nicer than its predecessor Barkanoid. The power ups, bat types and the excellent option menu, basically contain the same features as Barkanoid 2 (and now there’s a Barkanoid 3 with some new features), so please check out the reviews from the previous giveaway by following the link below: In particular see the following positive comments #14, #20 (my review), #39, #40, #41, neutral comments #35, Negative comments #13, #16, #17, #19, #24 and my partial retraction of things I said in my main review comment #37:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/barkanoid-2/#comments



Despite the shortcomings this game has, I do think it is a worthy game to include in my arkanoid library so will be keeping it, regardless of my retraction to my original review from above; that in my opinion although written about Barkanoid, is still partly applicable to this giveaway as well.

For those with enough time on their hands and the patience to persevere with the bat and ball controls; they will be rewarded with the realization that there ‘is’ some control to this game. Following my review of Barkanoid I persevered with the game, partly because it’s my favorite genre and also because I liked the look of it and eventually did find it easier and worthwhile playing. The game had initially impressed me so I was willing to give it more time and I’m glad I did. For those who say there is no control over the ball I give it more time and you’ll see……..Using the edges of the bat for example does allow you to control the ball some what, and using the frequently seen monsters as ‘reflectors’ you can change the angle of the balls trajectory as well as it’s speed. It just takes a lot of practice and skill that some people are not willing to give or have (due to not trying in the first place). If everything was as easy as say for example playing the Hyperballoid series, then I’d soon get fed up (which I did with the series, despite it’s beautiful graphics) and I think is their loss. (then again maybe not as we all have our own preferences, lol)

I see this game as a challenging Arkanoid to play. Just because it’s bat and ball physics differ from what you expect from a game doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. You just have to adapt

The choice of power ups, the monsters, the number of levels and the excellent options menu as well as the large number of levels, gives this game a lot of replayability. However, the use of pass worded levels is an annoyance that really needs to be addressed. This system of accessing levels you’ve played previously is out dated and just not practicable. I have other games like this and to be honest (for me anyway) writing down passwords breaks the flow of the game and besides the hastily scribbled notes I usually make of the levels get recycled, so I invariably have to start from the beginning again, which after a while becomes tedious; even with the best of games and invariably I cast them aside in frustration; for example ‘3D Brick Blaster Unlimited’ and one of the ‘Arcamania’ games. Both of which I think are excellent games, but both remain virtually un-played because of the password style of saving your progress.

I do hope Magnussoft improves on the bat and ball interactions as there does seem to be some discrepancies, with respect to the ball not obeying, but for me personally this is not a good reason for giving this game a thumb down as it has so many positives that make it a worthwhile download. I think it’s worth 7 out of 10 at least for its replayability, and excellent graphics. If the method of saving this game was changed to something a little more up to date and the ball physics were improved a little this game would be worth more and I would certainly consider buying it. A levels editor would be nice to as I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to make one for general release as was done for Barkanoid 2.

It also plays via Vista.

Sorry for the lack of screenshots today. This had the same problem as Barkanoid in that I had to restart the game whenever I took a screenshot. If you want to see what power ups are available, or what you can find in the options menu, which as I’ve indicated above is extensive just follow the link to my Barkanoid images. The names and icons are sometimes different, but they do the same things.

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Barkanoid%202/


As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Barkanoid%202/?action=view&slideshow=true

No thanx, I'm sick of Arkanoid games, already have two from here, but thanx anyway....

I'll copy parts of my note to Magnussoft from an earlier giveaway.

Dino Dave:
The dinosaur has poor movement and convulses all about the screen and turns all over the show pushing blocks you did not want.
- dahood
It is very glitchy, controlling the dino is very sensitive.
- shetaz
But the controls once again interfere in game play (…) which makes for an incredible unexpected dificulty for an unintuitive way to control the character.
- RMSM

Barkanoid2:
Whether the ball goes left or right when hitting the paddle seems random, and the lack of control is especially frustrating when trying to hit the last couple of bricks.
- bovi (yeah, me)
Little or no control over ball return direction and angle.
- scott

Jack's Crazy Cong:
Poorly explained controls (use Alt to drop an item, use Ctrl to use the lever). Clunky controls. The guy will keep walking after you release the button.
- bovi (me again)
The controls on this game are very bad just hope you don’t get hit by a barrel while holding a tool.
- Bud

Aquarnoid 2:
The ball reacts inconsistent to the way it touches the (side of the) paddle.
- JanW
Rubbish physics - the rebounding of the ball with the paddle, floating baddies, and blocks is terrible and unpredictable. Hopeless paddle/ball control (...)
- panhandle


Magnussoft, there is a recurring pattern here. You are unlikely to get many new customers through GOTD with your current selection. The competition are trouncing you at every stage. This is simply not good enough.
Please take the time to let a couple testers at the game before releasing it. I'm positive that these issues would have been pointed out by them so you could have done something about it. I hope you are taking the lesson to heart, and that we can see an improvement in later titles.

This "Aquarnoid" is merely the Barkanoid debacle in a new wrapping. No lessons learned here so far.

Not a good game. And it's called AQUANOID. Not Aquarnoid.

Wow, there's a passWORT for every level! Just what I've always wanted, to enter in a passWORT every time I want to replay a level, instead of using something convenient like saves. Who needs saves when you can have passWORTs!

Wow! Exceptional ...ly disappointing -- AND Uninstalled.

I love arkanoid clones - they are my favourite genre. However, this game is just painful!

The music and the graphics are fine, but this game is not fun for the following reasons:
1) Bad collision detection - some of the floating obstacles seem to get hit when the ball is no where near them, and even the ball/paddle collision detection is inconsistent.
2) Rubbish physics - the rebounding of the ball with the paddle, floating baddies, and blocks is terrible and unpredictable.
3) Hopeless paddle/ball control - same as 2, but worth repeating specifically because this single flaw alone makes the game frustrating
4) No 'next level' auto power up - since the ball control is so bad it would be useful, when only a few remaining blocks are left, to have something drop down at regular intervals to take you to the next level. This doesn't happen and you can spend more time trying to get the last few blocks than it took to clear the other blocks.
5) Loss of game if click outside the play area - I have a dual monitor setup with my desktop extended onto the 2nd monitor, and I keep seeing the mouse peep over onto my other monitor when I move the paddle over that side of the screen. If I click the mouse while the mouse is on the other screen, the game loses focus, the desktop appears, and the game becomes a black box in the corner that won't refresh if I swap back to it - ie, I have to quit it.
6) No full screen/windowed option
7) No chance to change options mid game - press escape and you are back at the menu! No question "do you want to quit?" - just "poof!" gone.
8) No save game (that I could see).

Basically, this game is now gone from my system!

I agree 62m for this.

Non funziona: dopo lo splash magnusoft da un errore in tedesco sulla scheda grafica...che non si legge perchè coperto da altra finestra.
Ho installate le directx 9.0c scheda grafica nvidia geforce.
Ciao.

Nice looking but insanely fast at times, bricks fly everwhere which is confusing, walls start very close to the bat so any falling powerups or nasties hit you (or you miss them) before you see them! Lots of monsters come down as well. Although English chosen as the language some text is still german (punkte for instance).

Gone from my drive I'm afraid!

Installed and activated fine.

Enough options to play around with concerning graphics and sound.

Graphics are decent for a freeware game, but I wouldn't be pleased about them when I had to pay 12.99 EUR for this game.

Gameplay isn't all that too. The ball reacts inconsistent to the way it touches the (side of the) paddle. C'mon, get this principle straight or don't bring out an Arkanoid clone at all.

Although the English language was selected within the game, some German is still used in the game. I.e.: "Punkte" isn't English, "Points" is...

Nice attempt if it was a beta project, poorly executed and produced if this game is the final result. Needs a lot more work if it wants to be a true Arkanoid game.

As for the asking price (ignoring the fact this is a time limited free offer today); I can buy games in the budget corner of my favorite store for half that price with far better graphics and far better gameplay.

I suggest that anyone who wants to try this one, skip it and go to:
http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LBreakout2
It's free, has a level editor and the gameplay is solid.

I have no choice and have to give this one a thumbs down, thanks for the offer anyway.

one of the most boring Arkanoid-Games ever played...

talk about a big file size, 62 mb for a stupid game haha.

Great. Thank you very much.

installed, played 5 levels, closed, uninstalled. i LOVE block-breaker games, but this one didn't do it for me.

my mouse (touchpad) is not natively set to be overly receptive to my movement, but upon opening the game, i found that the cursor leapt all over the screen at even the tiniest of movements. normally a game that makes an assumption about my mouse interaction also has an option to edit this problem, but i found no such thing in this game. it has many many options, just not one to limit the sensitivity of the cursor. i ignored the issue and started right on playing thinking it would be ok. but it wasn't. if you're not used to an ultra-sensitive mouse, this will be a problem. otherwise, the game seems to mediocre at best. not worth fighting with a mouse setting issue, surely. there are free games with better levels and graphics, and without a mouse sensitivity problem. check them out rather than this one.