Review: Beautiful Bricks (Steam)
Beautiful Bricks is the ultimate 4 player brick breaker. Restoration of an arcade great with awesome improvements like physics-based ball behavior, more paddle control, 4 simultaneous players and boss battles. All presented in a consistent retro ‘8-bit’ aesthetic.
Pros:
- Chunky pixel art graphics.
- 193mb download size.
- Arkanoid inspired gameplay.
- Own in-game achievements.
- Controller support.
- Graphics-scale and menu line spacing.
- Customize screen-Wallpaper and border art.
- Control mode-slick or stiff.
- 3 modes- Main game/Vs/special game mode.
- How to play section.
- Unlocks-visualer/hardcore/EDFI/max firepower.
- 3 difficulties-easy/medium/hard.
- Special modes-endless/boss rush/invader/marathon.
- Vs-competitive/volleyball can set rules and length.
- Local leaderboards.
- Bar-can does light/hard or even jump when hitting.
- Power-ups plenty from multiball to the sticky ball.
- Boss fights.
- 2-4 local play.
- Simple concept.
Cons:
- No fullscreen option instead you have to alt+enter to do it.
- Clunky user interface.
- No online leaderboards.
- No steam achievements.
- Have to unlock many of the modes.
- Way too many power-ups to remember.
- Mouse cursor stays on the screen.
- Music.
- Graphics - 7/107/10
- Sound - 6/106/10
- Accessibility - 7/107/10
- Length - 7/107/10
- Fun Factor - 7/107/10
Summary
Wh have had many Arkanoid breakout type games over the years and for a game to make a dent in its legacy it needs to build and expand the experience. Beautiful Bricks takes a stab at it and OK the gameplay is still the same it does try to introduce more mechanics like power-ups and the different strengths of hitting the ball but it has clunky menus, modes locked off and the bar movement is still not that smooth. I managed to get a few hours done and it was a mixture of nostalgia and frustration with frustration winning and me wishing the controls were tighter and that I could get some help with memorizing the many many power-ups. Basically it kind of half does the job it set out to do but for me, I still prefer the originals.
