When I was first asked to review BreakQuest, I was expecting to play yet another Atari BreakOut or a Taito Arkanoid clone. You see, I haven’t played any of the recent clones, so I was a little out of touch with just how much the genre has moved on and evolved since the last time I played. So, imagine my surprise when I first played BreakQuest.
For those of you that have never heard of BreakQuest well it’s actually been around. The original game was first developed by Nurium Games for the PC, it was then ported to Mac OS X by Red Marble Games and now in its latest incarnation thanks to Beatshapers makes itself available on the PSP as part of Sony’s new PSP Minis series.
PSP Minis are essentially byte sized games (under 100MB) that are pickup and play games but only available as PSN downloads making them available at the lower end of the pricing market. By all accounts Beatshapers’ port is extremely faithful to the original.
The Controls
The main menu options are selectable via the d-pad, though strangely here the analogue stick does nothing. Within the Quest and Arcade modes ( more on these later ) the d-pad’s up and down buttons allow you to select the difficulty level, while the left and right buttons on the d-pad allow you to select your in-game ship. In these modes the analogue stick allows you to select the level you would like to play, assuming of course you have managed to unlock it.
The most annoying thing about BreakQuest’s menu system, and it’s only a minor point, is that they have mapped going back functionality to the triangle button, when on the PSP and PS3 XMB, and in most games, the back option is always activated by using the circle button.
Firing It Up
When you first fire up BreakQuest, the first thing you’ll notice is the retro stereo music tracks, coupled with the simple yet effective graphical style. These will send you reeling for your flares and leg warmers as they really capture the mood of the era. It certainly reminded me of the gone times when gameplay mattered and you actually had to practice playing a game to get good at it.
The Modes
There are two modes available in BreakQuest, namely Quest and Arcade. Quest mode follows a campaign structure, where you play each of the game’s 100 levels in sequence. Arcade mode picks one of the aforementioned levels randomly but with different settings. Quest mode has 3 difficulty settings, imaginatively named Easy, Normal and Hard. While Arcade gives you the three from Quest mode plus Armageddon, Fast, Master, Minimal and Beginner.
Arcade mode can only be unlocked once you have collected 5 keys from the Quest mode. These keys are won by completing 5 levels within any of the Quest mode levels. Once arcade mode is unlocked, next time you load the game you can get a quick fix by firing up Arcade mode or continuing on your adventure via the Quest mode.
Selecting Your Ship
Before starting a level you need to select an appropriate ship and each comes with a particular style bumper. While playing the levels you can control your ship’s horizontal movement using either the d-pad or the analogue stick. I found the analogue stick in this situation too fast, even after adjusting the sensitivity. So throughout my time with BreakQuest I used the d-pad for movement.
I suppose BreakQuest’s gameplay can be best summarised as physics based collision response. This means that almost everything on the screen adheres to the basic laws of physics. This makes for interesting and varied gameplay, ensuring that replaying the same level is always a little bit different. The ball will not only bounce off the “bricks” but also the power-ups and other stationary and animated obstacles, seemingly wandering around the screen, just waiting to cause mayhem when you least expect it.
Apart from the usual power ups that increase or reduce the size of your bumper, BreakQuest’s power-ups change the shape, size and viscosity of your bumper, while other power-ups change the ball’s shape, size, speed and quantity. There is even a power-up that will make either the ball or your ship move along as if they were drunk.
The Gravitater
One of the best additions to the game, and I hope will now be standard fayre in this genre, is the use of a gravitater. This allows you, through the magic of the down button on the d-pad, to encourage the ball towards the bottom the screen. This has the advantage of allowing the player to have limited control over the ball’s downward trajectory.
Once you get the hang of this gameplay device, you’ll wonder why no one else did this before. It also has the added benefit of shortening the amount of time you have to wait for the ball to make its way back down to the bumper, when you only have one or two obstacles left to hit on the screen. Learning to time the gravitater just right becomes an art form.
The Levels
Each difficulty setting has 100 levels for you to pit your skills against. Levels vary from standard BreakOut or brick style levels, to more physics based levels and some levels combine the two. As the difficulty increases, so to do the number of physics based obstacles and of course the speed of the ball. Overall I enjoyed the physics based levels more because they were not only more challenging but extremely unpredictable.
Add to the levels the variety of themes and you start to break the monotony that could quite easily kick in after 50+ levels. A highlight for me personally was the space invaders level which despite being one of the more simple levels brought back some great memories. Overall BreakQuest delivers a good mix of levels in terms of both look and complexity with the hinged and spinning obstacle based levels being some of the toughest.
As I mentioned earlier the music tracks really evoke the feel of retro gaming. The tracks do get a bit repetitive if you make it to the later levels, but overall they suit the feel of the game just right.
Scores On The Doors
BreakQuest is a refreshing take on a classic theme, and if you like the games that inspired this version, you’re sure to enjoy this a lot. There’s always that incentive to play just one more level to beat your previous high score and that makes this game a great purchase for any puzzle fan.
Graphics 7/10
Audio 7/10
LevelDesign 8/10
GamePlay 8/10
Overall 7.5
BreakQuest is available from the PSN store for £2.49 in the UK, €2.99 in Europe or $2.99 in the US.