Burning Ball

Although the Arkanoid and Breakout gameplay formula has been copied over and over again, it’s tough to innovate such a simple idea. On the other hand, people don’t mind playing the same thing again if the experience is fun, even more so if the gameplay is addictive and well-designed. More levels are always welcomed, and interesting changes to the gameplay can work wonders.

Burning Ball is an arcade game in which you get to re-live the golden days of the arcade and put your reflexes to the test. The goal is to break bricks and keep the ball in play until everything is gone and you unlock the next stage. Everything gets faster and tougher later in the game, but you can also make use of power-ups to improve your chances.

The first couple of levels are fairly simple, since the bricks do not have special properties. However, later stages introduce all sorts of traps and annoyances, including tougher blocks that require multiple hits in order to be destroyed. You also have to watch out for other obstacles, some of which really put your reflexes to the test.

Sometimes you can gain access to special powers that let you speed things up, such as bombs or fireballs, which are great when you need to get rid of multiple bricks as quickly as possible. However, you cannot always count on this to help you along, because power-ups are not a sure thing. On top of that, you also have to account for the awkward controls and terrible point of view.

In short, the camera does not show you the whole level, which means that it scrolls up when the ball goes toward the top. Because of this, you cannot see the paddle at the bottom, even if there’s an arrow indicating its position. A lot of shots are going to be missed due to this inconvenience, not to mention the fact that there’s a slight input lag that makes things even worse.

In the end, Burning Ball is a tad too repetitive and annoying when it comes to controls, so the frustration sets in rather early. However, you can still have a bit of fun with it for a few minutes, depending on how patient you are.