In the 80's, one of the biggest games in arcades was named after something destroyed in the game's backstory. That game was Arkanoid named after a ship transporting colonists to a new world, which was destroyed by a dimensional rift, which eventually captured the escape capsule, the Vaus. It was perhaps the final evolution of Breakout, the classic video game in which you bounced a ball off of a paddle to destroy bricks onscreen. It added enough plot to make it more than just an excuse to throw quarters in a machine, and it added all sorts of wrinkles to the gameplay power-ups, enemies, and even a boss at the end (the dimensional entity DoH). But it's been a long time since the Vaus has ventured into the rift not since Arkanoid: DoH It Again! for the Super Nintendo.
Except this time, DoH isn't anywhere to be found. In fact, the old space vessel Arkanoid doesn't exist either. Instead, the game takes place around the sun Arkanoid, and the planets that revolve around it. Apparently, some strange force has captured the other inhabitants of this solar system, and only one, name Ananke and resembling the Prince of All Cosmos, can save the others by boarding the Vaus (that's still around, at least) and breaking bricks until he can free his friends.
Look, I know that Arkanoid was never a plot-heavy game. In fact, you could honestly dispute whether a mysterious wire-frame extra-dimensional warlord even counts as a plot rather thanthe purest form of random boss. Still, DoH was important in that he gave framework to the game he gave focus to the player's goal, he set up the entire illogic of a space ship bouncing a ball to destroy bricks, and he also presented some great boss fights. And now? He's gone. Maybe you all out there wouldn't understand, not having played Arkanoid growing up, but to me, it's like The Legend of Zelda without Ganon (even Link's Awakening featured a doppelgδnger of Ol' Pig-Nose).
Perhaps that's also reflected in the fact that the play of this game is seriously stripped compared to its predecessors. The basics are still here the Vaus is still a paddle at the bottom of the screen that bounces a ball up and down, and you have to hit all the bricks (except the gold, although you have to hit the silver bricks multiple times) to destroy them and advance to the next level. In that respect, of course, it's yet another clone of Breakout, which is one of those games that even I only barely remember.
One thing that people will notice right off the bat is that the bricks are narrower, now becoming squares roughly half the length of the original bricks. On top of that, levels can vary in width there are some levels that are so narrow as to make it nigh-impossible to drop the ball, while others give you plenty of space. I don't mind this change there has to be some concession to the new medium, with less screen space, and the varying widths open up some new ideas for level design... well, I'll get to that in a moment.
However, equally noticeable is that the enemies that would filter in from the top are no longer there. It's not like the enemies were difficult the Arkanoid games are perhaps the only games I know of where any enemy (other than DoH or the giant brain at the halfway point of Arkanoid 2: the Revenge of DoH) that collides with the player instantly dies and gives you points. The enemies were there to make things difficult they could deflect the ball, cause it to speed up, and just otherwise prove an annoying obstacle. Moreover, they were just fun to shoot with the Laser capsule. Removing them seriously removes much of the fun and challenge of the game.
Speaking of capsules, many of the power-up capsules introduced in earlier Arkanoid games no longer exist. Now, all the classics, like Catch, Laser, and Extend, still exist. Some are slightly modified as a protective shield exists below the Vaus to bounce the ball back instead of extra lives, you can buff the barrier rather than get extra lives. But there are so many that used to exist but are now gone. The Illusion capsule, one of my favorites, is gone. So is the Twin capsule, as well as the New capsule (which was kind of like the regenerating Dispersion capsule). They don't really introduce anything new, beyond the ability to gain piercing lasers if you snag two consecutive Laser capsules. Imagine if the next Mario game only gave you the Super Mushroom and the Fire Flower after years of new and different power-ups. That's what this is like.
I suppose it goes without saying that the final fight in the main mode is nowhere near as good as the fights against DoH. Here, you just end up bouncing the ball into a translucent blue glob that has another Vaus stuck in it, in the hopes that you can hit it enough times to destroy it and free one of Ananke's idiot friends (and trust me, when you find out all about their capture, you will find them idiotic). Forget trying to dodge swirling energy balls of doom while bouncing a little blue ball against a wire frame Moai head while enemies try to deflect your sole projectile. Just bounce the ball against the brick taking up a third of the screen, and you're home free. Where have you gone, dimensional overlord DoH, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Mind you, DoH is just about the only thing you'll miss from the first game. In a fit of misplaced nostalgia, nearly every level from the original Arkanoid, and a few from the sequels, reappears in this game. This is a bad move in this instance I don't think Square Enix wanted to remind me of the old days, when Arkanoid had more challenge and wasn't built for pansies who can't figure out a ball's trajectory. A little more creativity in level design would have helped.
Perhaps the worst is the play modes offered. Now, the "choose your path" thing is alright one of the only two recognizable remnants of Arkanoid 2 that was welcome back (granted, you choose a batch of five levels instead of each level, but that's life). So is the ability to play back levels you've already cleared. And yes, there is a mode more in line with the original Arkanoid, although it's a giant pain to unlock and still pales before the original. Finally, of course, there is a mode in which you can buy decorations with points earned in other modes. The tacked-on online play is okay, although it's oddly laggy for a game that's so simplistic. I get the sense that Square Enix just doesn't know how to get a simple online game to work (of course, critics of Final Fantasy XI will say that about more complex games, but this review isn't touching that hornet's nest).
You know what is missing, though? The ability to create your own levels. I know for a fact that I'm not asking for something outrageous. I had Arkanoid 2 for my computer way back in the day. It was a game that fit on a single 5 1/4" floppy disc. And not only did it have a level editor built-in, the disc itself had enough memory to store an entire set of levels on there in addition to however many you wanted to save to your hard drive. This was almost 20 years ago. You're telling me, that with the incredible advances in user-friendly interfaces and storage space, that we somehow lost the ability to have a level editor built into Arkanoid? This is just completely unacceptable.
The play control on the game honestly varies. If you rely on the shoulder buttons or the control pad to move the Vaus, it behaves decently, although it lags slightly and doesn't change directions well. The touch screen controls are incredible, although twitchy folks might find them too precise you actually need to move very softly to control the game, but I find that level of control relaxing and allowing me as much precision as I want. But if you import the paddle control that was released in Japan (for the record, while not sold in America, the paddle control works just fine with the American version)? Forget it. Every so often, the input gets scrambled and the Vaus starts moving on its own. The Vaus does not move nearly as much as you'd expect from a turn, and sometimes the game reads the wrong amount of spin into a given move. If anyone debated importing the paddle for this game, forget it the touch screen is obviously the way to go.
The game's graphics are probably the excuse for why there's no level editor. Admittedly, everything looks rather nice, and you get tons of wallpapers to customize your look. In addition, you can customize the look of the Vaus, and even the bricks themselves admittedly, it's a thrill to set everything to look like Space Invaders and destroy all of those. The graphics do stand out on all levels, so you never have to worry about bricks disappearing into the background. If the gameplay wasn't all there, at least the presentation is.
That goes double for the music. Admittedly, the thought of music during the play of Arkanoid itself seemed sacrilegious to me. There's the intro theme, which plays as the Arkanoid's fate is revealed in the original. There's the Vaus theme, played at the start of every level (and that continues here). But music during the levels? I had worried that it would be distracting, but it turns out to be good and just techno enough to fit the feel of the game. Some of the tracks are really good I know it sounds odd, but wait until you get to the third set of planets and get to hear "Fairy Reflection." It's isn't that often that I go nuts about a portable game's music, but Arkanoid DS shows that there was plenty of room to improve on a classic.
The problem, of course, is that music is the only place where Arkanoid DS is a true improvement. Other than that, I'd honestly rather just play any other iteration of the franchise. To be honest, I don't understand how you might even call this an Arkanoid game. Just imagine if you played a Kirby game that revolved around a light purple fluffball that could do only a quarter of what the real Kirby does. You'd want to disown that, and I want to disown this game. I take back everything bad I ever said about DoH... just don't leave me with aliens that are bad ripoffs of Katamari Damacy characters. I really don't ask for much. Just that if you revive a classic franchise, make sure to bring back the parts of it we loved.
