Brick Breaker Revolution has a simple premise, move your platform from left to right on your screen while keeping your ball in the air. As your ball collides with the blocks at the top of the screen you earn bonuses, points and eventually you defeat the level. If you've ever played the arcade classic game "Breakout" you'll already have a pretty good idea of how this game operates. If you haven't played Breakout keep reading to learn more about this virtual clone of the game.
I've always liked Breakout and clones of the game, unfortunately Brick Breaker Revolution is a poorly created take on the arcade classic. The graphics attempt to give the game a new feel, unfortunately their cartoonish design with overly rounded corners and too large to function pieces makes the game feel crowded and quite honestly juvenile.
You'll also notice that the backgrounds and the gamepiece colors are all a little "busy" for lack of a better word. Quite honestly the game gave me a headache. Although I did like the new piece shapes which circumvent the old "bricks" ironically of the original game.
Some levels were simply hard to play because of everything going on all at once. Even in the traditional brick design levels the pieces were so close to the platform that it made controlling your platform while grabbing the ball almost annoying.
Shrinking the bricks slightly to allow for more space between the platform and the pieces would have been appreciated and would have taken away from the crowded look.
Another issue that came up was the simple fact that the game doesn't offer trackball support! I've played several other versions of the Breakout game on Blackberry and what made them fun to play was that ability. My buddy tried the game on his Blackberry Storm and said the controls were great, but keyboard use on non-touchscreen Blackberry's (which is most of them) because irritating from the moment the game begins.
If there's any type of saving grace for this game it's the inclusion of three different game modes which are all fun.
Here are the three types of gameplay as outlined and explained on the Blackberry App Word location:
(1) Revolution Mode – Survive as long as you can playing endless levels and battling deadly bosses
(2) Classic Mode – Complete 99 levels and defeat the final boss
(3) Time Attack – Go as far as you can in a battle against the clock
A good mobile game designer understands that sometimes less is more and in the case of Brick Breaker Revolution that simple rule was definitely not follow. The game screens felt crowded to me during much of my gameplay and I felt like the display on my device could have been better utilized.
The lack of trackball support is also a big problem and for that matter I would highly recommend you only download this game if you're using the Blackberry Storm or any other Blackberry touchscreen devices.
Most clones either keep the original game in tact or add some type of new fun feature to the program, this game simply destroys the original game by refusing to keep true to the gameplay that made Breakout so much fun.