Glow Ball

Arkanoid was a very popular game back in the old console days, mainly because it allowed the players to keep themselves entertained for hours without pauses for cutscenes or a story. To make things even better, replay value was great, since you could always go through the levels again and try to get a better score, or finish them even faster than the first time.

Glow Ball is an Arkanoid clone that aims to provide you with the same level of fun, only in a slightly more modern environment. Don’t expect state-of-the-art graphics, however, because the experience is kept as retro as possible in this regard. The mechanics can be a bit of a bother sometimes, unfortunately, mainly because the controls are rather sluggish.

To begin with, you can select one of the three levels that are available at first, although more are unlocked if you manage to finish those. You can also use the currency you earn along the way to get more levels, but they usually cost quite a bit. Obviously, each stage features a certain challenge you have to overcome, such as moving platforms, difficult to break blocks, or a variety of other things.

There’s no doubt that the game is fast-paced, and that’s not usually a problem, but in this case the slow controls make it difficult to enjoy yourself. The ball may move quickly, but the input lag and the slow paddle responses are too annoying to keep up with the action. Obviously, this causes a lot of frustration right from the start, not to mention the fact that some random power-ups make your life even more difficult.

As mentioned before, the graphics are kept to a minimum, but they are quite nice. The retro style goes great with the theme of the game, and each level is unique, but then again this can also get repetitive after a while. Usually, the addictive gameplay prevents boredom from making an appearance, but in this case it’s not that simple, thanks again to the awful controls.

In the end, Glow Ball could have been a lot more if the controls were on point, but sadly this is not the case here. Hence, as long as you can get over this, you can still have a bit of fun with the game if you are a Breakout/Arkanoid fan.