Pretty good breakout/arkanoid clone. Much better than Twixoid that was released a couple of days later.

I LOVE THIS GAME!

THANKS GAOTD! :-)

I like "bat and ball" type games but this is EXTREMELY boring. Little or no control over ball return direction and angle. Completing the 3rd level (leggos) is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Horrible boring gameplay. I've downloaded several games from GOTD, but this is the first one so bad that I've uninstalled before the end of the first day. Boring boring boring!

Sorry, but this game is completely unplayable in Windows Vista (I am using Ultimate, but I doubt that makes a difference). It loads the MangusSoft welcome screen, and then crashes, forcing you to end it manually from the Task Manager or 'program has stopped responding' prompt.

"Classic features" is right! They musta been talkin about "Pong".
Sorry magnussoft, I really wanted to like this game but it is depressing. The only enjoyment I got out of it was when the monsters got me because that meant the end was a little closer.

I found the level editor here:
http://www.barkanoid2.de/b2_dedown.htm

I almost passed on this, but thought I would at least try it as I like this type of game. I'm finding it pretty fun. The falling goodies require a knowledge of what they will do... some will really mess up your bat and make using it much harder, but ones like the flying duck will allow you to have lots of fun and control as your bat can fly. The game graphics are bright and attractive and the sound is good. I'm glad I tried this game; I haven't experienced any problems as yet and I'm really looking forward to exploring the level editor. Thanks!

Thanks, GAOTD... I'm not really a fan of arkanoids, but this one didn't bore my socks off right off, as some do. Don't know why some are complaining about the bat, as I can hit the ball in all directions with no problem, tho I'm sure some that are collectors that have games that are more responsive. But I didn't notice anything strange about the bat. I left all the settings at their default, and I did notice one about making your own levels, which is "off" by default. (someone asked about that above) Not a game I'll play all the time, but one I'll keep for a bit! So thanks again!

Poor movement, bad gameplay, sat watching the ball do nothing...uninstalled.

After playing the game for a few hours throughout the day, I must retract some of the positives I said about this game. :( I still think it’s got a lot of potential, but must agree about the lack of ball control and the frustration at spending upwards of 15 minutes trying to get the last few bricks to win a level. I thought playing it on hard would help somewhat, but it didn't. The monsters are able to change the trajectory and speed of the ball easily, but the bat has no response apart from using the edges when set on 1, but this is hardly ball control.

My initial enthusiasm was partly because of the colour, number of power ups, online play as well as a very comprehensive options menu, the ability to play with the computer, a levels editor, (that now seems to be missing) and the end of level monsters. I’d also change the password system because it's a pain having to note them down.

Sadly the lack of ball control destroys this game big time. I do hope the developer considers updating the game as I really do think with better ball physics this game would be a big winner. Standing up against ‘Acky’s XP Breakout’, ‘Breakquest’, ‘Breakball 2 Gold as well as the more modern games such as the latest in the ricochet series ‘Ricochet Infinity’, ‘Magic Ball 3’ and ‘Reaxxion’ to name a few. I'll stand by my first impressions if this is accomplished. That is add this to my top 20 (maybe not in my top ten though as there’s too much strong competition. Maybe adding a few more power ups such as guided missiles, explosive balls as well as an 8 ball power up and even ball and bat shape changers. You could even add a panel that would enable you to select the frequency of each power up and even turn some off. (like in Breakquest).

....Please sort the ball physics......Magnussoft.

#10, 12, 16 and 17 - spot on.

the lack of control makes it very tedious very quickly.

uninstalled.

2/10

Im not sure about the mixed comments on this title. Everything plays and runs great. The sound track is fantastic. The reason why the file size is so huge its because the artwork and animations in the game are very high quality.

Finally a note to Windows Vista users. If youre on a basic vista system with 512mb of ram, its not gonna work. Youre gonna need 1gb.

Too much plain compared with other arcanoids which were here earlier! It could hardly beat even the very old Kripton Egg!

I like arkonoid games, but the control of the bal on the bat is bad. So after playing some levels, I unstalled it.

After downloading and trying to install keep getting message saying corrupted file. So, no go for me with this one.

Right last comment.. lol

Wow, this game is horrible. Poor movement, bad gameplay, just plain BAD.

Too many megabytes for my dialup. Would take me alll day. What a shame!!

I like noid gams, but I hate this version. All good noid games have some way to speed up the end of the level. Especially when you have so little control, it's painfully boring to try to clear the last few bricks.

Can't get it to run on my XP system...hangs up on the movie window and wont play....anyone know why? I have a new HP computer, don't have problems with any other programs....hmmmm.

And such a huge file, no way can I get it, I have dialup. Waa! Oh well. Ty anyway. :) This this team gaive us some great games or what??? YA! :)

This says "Fatal error, invalid key"???!!!¿¡

The coding for the bat is messed up. The bat will almost always bat the ball to the right side of the screen. Even changing the bat configuration to "2" does not correct it.

This makes getting anything on the left side of the screen much more difficult than it should be. Not only that, but it feels "unpredictable", since you hit the ball with the left side of the bat, only for it to shoot to the right!

I can sometimes get it shoot straight up, by sliding the bat as you hit the ball, but so far I've not actually got it to hit to the left.

This is a great shame, as the gameplay is GOOD! This game would certainly be well worth playing when it is fixed.

Not sure how the ball favouring the right all the time could have escaped testing? It is SO BLATENTLY OBVIOUS when you play the game, that it looks like no-one bothered to try the game before releasing this? That would not normally bode well for the rest of the game, but I've got past level two fairly easily and it really does seem a very worthy game - Just irritating to the point of unplayable with it favouring the right all the time.

Read Whiterabbit and Belgin Dude, they say it all. Ditto ditto ditto.

I can't seem to get it to work with Vista Home Premium - even in Win XP compatability mode. I get an error that says it must close even before it loads.

i love it & the kids will to !!

The game downloaded and installed without a hitch, although I had to close down the game and restart it for each screenshot I took. You can see those by following the link below. Despite discovering lots of new genres to play since the inception of the Game Giveaway I still find this is my favorite; and what a treat this one is. Despite now having over 150 arkanoid games and ‘obviously’ being a fanatic; I’d never come across this particular game. Even though, in the introduction, it professes to have had a very popular and successful first release?

The opening screen definitely gives a feeling of professionalism. A bright and easily accessible main menu that gives you links to the start of the game and the important options menu where you will find loads of options to play around with. These include the ability to change the styles of bricks; the new set has a lot more variety, such as death bricks, teleport bricks and hydra bricks (that cause more bricks to appear). There a prodigious number of power ups, which approach the number found in one of my all time favorites ‘Breakquest’, that is 35 power ups that include the usual ones plus loads of not so usual ones, for example, the flying bat, the auto driven bat and the weather changer. Weather effects are important because they can protect you from certain types of monsters. See the options and help menus for more details of these monsters and power ups.

From the options menu you can also toggle extra animation, select your difficulty setting from easy, medium and hard. There’s a good comparison in the help menu of how different each one is. You can also toggle on/off the final monster, that appears at the end of every 10th level in the medium and hard settings; which means 30 times as there’s 300 levels included. There are others such as the password entry for each level (a pain in the *** IMO) and racquet behavior toggles, plus lots more. You can even play with the computer helping you to bash away those bricks and monsters or play online via an internet or LAN link.

Just by playing a few levels of this game I can feel it’s going to be added to my top 20 list of arkanoids and possibly my top 10, so IMO, it’s a must have download for your games library. It has to be the best arkanoid given away so far. I do think the ball starts off too slow on all of the difficulty settings, but at least in the harder levels it can soon speed up if you catch the appropriate power ups. Although the speed up ball is considered a negative power up, I found myself looking for them so as to enjoy the game more, although the start up speeds will enable younger children to enjoy this excellent game more.


There is supposed to be an editor with this game, but I was unable to find it. There is however 300 levels so it’s going to take quite some time to play through them :D although an editor would have been an excellent addition to this game. If anyone works out how to find or use the editor, please tell. :)

Follow the link below for lots of screenshots of the game, particularly the options and help menus, of which there are several.


View as a slideshow:

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

View at your leisure:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Barkanoid%202/?action=view&current=1mainmenu.gif

See all the images on one page:

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

I would have taken lots more in game screenshots, as the three different levels I saw were very different from each other, although that could have been partly to do with the fact that I took only one each in the different difficulty settings, but as I mention at the beginning of this review, taking a screenshot crashed the game and I would have to start over again. (Didn’t get as far as using passwords), so didn’t bother.

It also installs and plays with no problems on my Vista machine. :)

Thank you Magnusoft and the giveaway team for an excellent game. :D I’ve got to give this a biased 8.5 out of 10 for re-playability, a large number of levels and an excellent variety of power ups and bricks. :D


P.S. Just to answer a few of the negative or comparing comments:

After playing Hyperballoid for a couple of years, and spending far more than commenter #8 Snowy (around $160 as I bought level packs as they were released)I would only say that the graphics were of a better quality, simply because of the vast array of different themes and the fact that the hyperballoid team have specifically focused on the graphical delights (I wont deny that some are beautifully rendered and a delight to behold) to the detriment of the game play. There's several hundred levels available in the golden pack), but there's virtually no change of pace, the power ups become boring after a few level packs as there are far fewer than with todays game.

For those who complain about the bat. There's a toggle in the options menu for changing the behaviour of the bat. Although I would agree there are other arkanoids with much better bat control, some of which are now freeware, for example Beatball which is available from the freeware section of the giveaway project or from the developers home page.

http://www.imphenzia.com/games/beatball.asp

The second in the series is fantastic, but unfortunately for those of you who can't afford to buy any or many games it costs nearly $20, however te freeware version is well worth the download, if only for the ability to curve/spin the ball
There's another one tat's freeware, with excellent ball effects, but the name escapes me and the computer I have it loaded onto is in bits at the moment being updated. (I'll mention it the next time theres an arkanoid :) )

The other arkanoid that springs to mind which has excellent ball control is called Break Ball 2 Gold, considered one of the classics by some. Anyone interested in finding more arkanoids, check out Mr Arkanoids site for a precise of most recent arkanoids. It also lists lots of freeware alternatives, although most dont come up to the standard of Beat ball for freeware alternatives:

http://www.arkanoid.com/about.php

And so the trip down memory lane continues.

Another game that can be tracked back to the 80's. Another game that was copied to death on home computers as well as IBM clones.

Let's be honest. Even if you liked the game, even if you don't mind it's controls, even if you enjoy how it behaves, sounds and looks, would you really truly pay money for it let alone 13 Euro (18.5 USD). If so then can I interest you in a nice bridge that is for sale or would you be more interested in some nice plots of swamp land then can be yours for 1,295 USD per square feet?

Don't forget that the question isn't if you like the game while it is for free but what you think of the game. The only reason you got the try it for free is that the publisher/creator is using it to advertise there goods and sometimes in the hope to get feedback so they know what they can do to improve their marketshare. Keep this in mind the next time you read someone falling all over himself in praising a game . Fawning over each and every game just because you can get it for free for one day is really sad and denigrating.

#6 thanks.

Gets boring very quickly. So, the game has a few more tiles than your usual, and it has a bit more bonuses than usual. But it still has poor playability - you can't even change the angle of the ball yourself! This gets very despairing every time you're close to finishing a level, as you can't direct the ball to the last few cubes, and you have to watch it bounce again and again from wall to wall without hitting anything. Not fun. Not fun at all.

What does this mean, from the features list: "Editable bat behaviour"??

Post #10 is a big warning for me as it moves the game from skill to just random blocking, and the latter isn't very appealing. But I'd like to try it if someone could clarify if the feature noted above will fix the problem.

Can someone advise?

One more thing if you notice when you do hit like the bird you are able to move the paddle all over the board which is why some might not understand it and one of the things cause the paddle to be icy which is why it is difficult to control all in what prizes you decide to get:)

WOW GREAT GAME I HAVE NEVER PLAYED AN ARKANOID LIKE IT. Just make sure you don't hit the skulls as it automatically ends your game. I have to say i love this game and it is definately a keeper thank you mangussoft and GGAOTD:) If this is a repeat i want to say i sure didn't get it b4 and happy you are able to share it again :) WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO enjoy everyone this is definately one to play and keep your attention awhile:)

Screenshots look fun, but when I ran it on my 22" wide screen monitor the game display was jogged off to the left showing only the right 2/3 of the game window. Couldn't find any way (in the right 2/3 of the screen anyway) of setting the screen resolution to match my monitor's 1680x1050 resolution.

Anyone else having this problem or have a solution?

Wait... What?

When the ball hits the right side of the paddle (or any spot on the paddle), this doesn't influence the direction of the ball whatsoever...?

Mmmmkay... Could be a new twist in the arkanoid gameplay, but I don't like it. Uninstalled...

Thanks for the offer, though.

Pretty but borring
dont really know why, just boring

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. Pretty graphics on the bonuses though. Thumbs down.

Good Job! I love it.

I like arkanoid games, but since discovering Hyperballoid Golden Pack, all other clones of this type pale in comparison. I paid only $6 for my license of HGP, but I think the regular price is around $20 or $25. It's well worth it.

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/1745/hyperballoid-golden-pack/index.html

THIS GAME IS SO BORING :@

very good game it works well on my vista setup

nice game... thanks GOTD

Excellent game,thanks alot!! :)

I love this game. Very excited to get a copy I can play offline. Thanks again GGOTD!

i love noid games

if anyone gets this to work for vista can you plase post it thanks. cali