ManiacBall Demo

In certain cases, you do not need innovative gameplay ideas to keep the players satisfied, because some concepts work really well if you just keep doing what everyone else is doing. Naturally, a bit of improvement and originality never hurts, but that is only if you want to have that extra kick and try to attract more people than usual.

ManiacBall is nothing more than an Arkanoid clone, but that doesn’t necessarily work against it at all. In fact, if you are a fan of the genre, then you know that there’s not much originality involved in it and most of the games are basically the same, only with different levels and a few changes when it comes to the power-ups that drop from the bricks you manage to obliterate.

To begin with, the levels are somewhat more intricate than usual, especially since some of them feature multiple paddles on different planes. As such, while you still have the one at the bottom that’s a classic in almost all Breakout-themed games, there are also cases where you have vertical paddles as well. Although these are usually just placed there as extra features, you sometimes really have to watch them or risk dropping the ball.

As previously mentioned, some of the bricks hide power-ups that can provide you with additional bonuses. These range from extra balls to score boosts, but nearly all of them can help you if you manage to pick them up. However, the annoying thing is that you have to hit the same brick twice in order to get the power-up, so that may feel a bit awkward most of the time.

The visual aspect of the game is as simple as it can get, featuring 2D graphics and bright colors to make the bricks a lot easier to spot and hit. However, the user interface can be a bit glitchy and unfriendly at times, although you can get used to it. The game also seems to move a bit too slowly for most tastes, although you have the option to increase the difficulty level.

All things being equal, ManiacBall could have done a better job when it comes to gameplay and the user interface, but everything else is quite nice. Hence, if you fancy yourself as a supporter of the genre, this may very well be something to keep you busy for a while.