Shatter Remastered Deluxe Reviews

An amazing arcade style gem with an exceptional soundtrack. The co-op mode is where the game shines. It's state of the art in arkanoid. This unexpected remaster is a blast - 100% recommended.

Don't listen to the the ones not wanting to put the time and effort into the game to get a highscore. I casually played through the story in my first try and atm. under 20% has done that. Under 60% has cleared world 2. I'm number 40 in the world by just playing through the games 10 worlds, it runs smooth. I have experience from PlayStation, however I'm not even near the form now, as I was back then, when first playing on PlayStation. I used a Piranha 360 controller for PC.

I've been playing the original Shatter on PC off and on for over a decade, and it's in my list of favorite games ever because of the way it just scratches my itch for a simple, fun gaming experience. It doesn't beat you over the head with chaos, white-knuckle excitement, distracting flashy visuals to make the game harder, or superficial elements to give the game attitude. This is a game that takes the basic concept of PONG, Breakout, Air Hockey, and Arkanoid and gives it a twist along with a visual treatment that is utterly drenched in smooth vibes and relaxed satisfaction. Each of the many levels are built on certain creative choices but there's an element of random flow through the physics such that every play through could be different and you never ever feel like the game is stacked against you. With some exceptions: at the end of each world there is a Boss Battle which introduces a character that has unique behavior to attack and deflect you and your ball, and the behavior in some cases interrupts the bounce-and-break patterns harshly enough that sometimes you're just sitting there waiting for the physics to line up just right rather than steadily pushing on through the storm. If anything the gameplay is a bit easy and once you get the hang of the concepts you can glide through the obstacles without too much pain. In fact the control scheme is probably the most challenging aspect because this concept really deserves to use something like the old Atari paddle controllers rather than an xbox thumb stick. There's going to be SO many instances where you marginally overshoot a movement and miss catching the ball and that's entirely a result of the thumb stick just not being dexterous enough compared to a little wheel. I do want to take a moment to talk about the soundtrack. I said that I played the original game off and on for over a decade. Well, I've listened to the soundtrack almost DAILY for that same decade. THIS SOUNDTRACK IS MY JAM. Oh God in Heaven is it ever enjoyable. This remaster makes some changes to the music and even if it's not altogether different it's still as infectious as ever, and I would pay good money to have a DLC package that adds all new music to the mix. Seriously, I listen to this music ALL THE TIME. As for the remaster... well, I like it. It looks nice. It has been awhile since I last played the original and so I'm actually at a loss for how well this compares. It looks and sounds rather a lot like before, but I appreciate that it's been updated to look and run better. Quite honestly I'm mostly happy about the remaster because it means that new people who have never heard of this game in the past 10 years will get a chance to see it afresh and that's a mighty thing. Go buy it! It's totally worth it! Enjoy!

A modernized breakout game with cool boards, scenes and boss fights with utilizing multiple balls, absorb, and repel. I played the original version pretty much enough and this version is almost same in gameplay-wise. This may, or may not a version for who played original version of Shatter because this 'Remastered Deluxe' is different in several points. [What it missed] 1. Paddle ship rotating along with player control, and some graphic effect when ship movement stops and turns its direction. Functionality is same, just visual effects and model movements are missing. 2. Almost all blocks lost its glossy reflection, and glassy look transparency. 3. Sound FX lacks some impact a bit. 4. PC friendly UI: It lacks several 'go back' button, but it is not critical. 5. Stage clear cutscene elements are overly skipped, dropped its quality overly. 6. Shards lack its trails and it seems like I dropped graphic quality to low. [What it added, or changed] 1. Remastered soundtracks: Lesser bass than original. Both sounds awesome, and they tastes different. This version's soundtracks are mastered with 'recent' taste. 2. Korean localization and some more languages, even logo itself. (Korean logo looks pretty awkward and it lacks some key iconic visual of original English logo though, but nice try.) 3. Proper scaling for 4K resolution. Original can work in 4k but UI does not scale. 4. Rebuilt UI elements. I like original in-game UI better though. 5. Fragments are actual fragments now. (Some players won't like it.) 6. Absorb and repel now have different SFX and VFX. 7. Bonus stage screen is changed, looks cooler than original in my opinion. 8. Visual of power up items are changed, but it's harder to know what item icon means what. 9. Loading times are shortened a bit. Probably engine version effect. 10. Higher FPS support, as stated at description: I don't have monitor supports more than 60fps, I'm not sure about this. With its full price, especially for fans who waited for day one definitive experience may be disappointed. Improvements are minor, there are several misses, and price wasn't cheap enough to calm down the crowd. But, when it's in sale, around $5 USD, I think it's worth to drop one McDonald's Big Mac Set price. This 'Remastered Deluxe' have some bummer and somehow it feels like some cashgrab, but the company behind this, PikPok is.. actually Sidhe as far as I read from Wikipedia. OK... PikPok, update the game to restorie missing elements, and you guys restore your honorable reputation as a company of original Shatter. It's been around 2 years, it's unlikely to be happen though.

EDIT after a back-to-back comparison to the original Shatter: Do not purchase, buy the old version instead. I will request a refund. The game is a mobile backport with all its drawbacks. They called the mobile version Remastered. In the UI there are no back/cancel buttons in the game over screen, because you are supposed to use your phone touch controls for those. Sometimes art is divisive, but the low-poly style here feels not like a free artistic choice, but was a technical necessity for the mobile edition. It really is the same objects with less polygons. You can easily tell by the red shield blocks which look simply worse, not just different. There are less special effects on block hit as if you turned the settings down. This makes a huge impact. The old version is so much more satisfying I cannot understate the effect it has. I want my arcade games to be flashy and if not, let me turn down the settings. The octopus boss has so much better translucency effects that I thought for a moment they could re-release the old Shatter as a Remastered Remaster. Shield is now a seperate gauge from the shards, but the gameplay impact is miniscule. Controller has, just like the original, a lack of controller sensitivity settings, but here it is worse. The old one was too slow, this one is usually just right, but if you have a circular stage it becomes completely twitchy. The technical side is a full on disappointment. The game features no HDR. The advertised 4k/120fps features are already in the old version and I feel mislead by the marketing, thinking there were substantial upgrades as I had not played the old game for quite some time. 4k is not a selectable option, but the engine supports it in the config. There are VSync and frame pacing issues, running effectively worse than before. Developer said there was a hotfix coming. The only thing this games does better is the better assets in the bonus stage background, the serpent looks better and the remastered soundtrack. As the original was already absolutely great, this is polish and does not excuse the overall worse experience. I do not see how normal updates could make me come back to this, as it would require another extensive rework of the graphics. Original Review: I am about to refund this, if no substantial update comes out very soon. Vsync sometimes gets not applied correctly, but more importantly frame pacing is broken. The ball is stuttering all over the place which the old version did not do and RTSS/Vsync settings which normally work for most other games do not produce the desired result. Some forum users pointed out this is the mobile backport of Shatter. Also the old game is 4k and 120 fps compatible, and this version does not support HDR which is a huge missed opportunity. SpecialK HDR did work, though it is not anywhere close to native support and is more a bandaid due to instability and being user unfriendly, although its features are highly impressive. Since this version's existence is only justified through its technical features, it fails completely as it is worse than the old version.

I rarely refund games and I wanted to like this but it is very visually broken. Sure, it runs at 4k 120fps but there's something wrong with it. It looks like frame pacing issues but measurements don't record that. The ball and general animations are just so jittery yet the transition between stages is smooth as butter. The music also sounds great via 5.1 however, the original game runs flawlessly even though it is in stereo sound! Play the original game if you want 4k 120fps - albeit with a small UI at that resolution (config edit). I think the original even looks better? *edit* OK, so I bought the game on the series x and that game suffers the same issue. There are aspects of the game that are running at 120fps (transitions, hud slides, explosions) yet the ball, moving blocks and shards are very jittery. Very distracting and I can't believe that nearly all of the "professional" reviews out there have not picked up on it??? I'll keep the xbox version - I hope it gets fixed.

Very disappointing and underwhelming, thus far. Must be a quick cash grab by the publisher, if I had to guess. The good: The new additions to the music are nice, but still rather subtle. (I have the beautiful crystal blue vinyl of the original game's OST in my collection, but still no vinyl player.) The bad: Everything else about this edition of the game... is either essentially the exact same, or somehow worse. The UI and menus are overly plain, bland, and unexciting (especially compared to the original, as far as I remember). The joystick sensitivity seems to vary wildly between levels, and is a lot more sensitive in general--excessively so. The Game Over screen is unclear, and does not include an obvious Quit/Exit option, if any. I could find no toggle in Settings for WIndowed/Fullscreen. Etc. etc. The ugly: Worst and foremost, the visual micro-stutter mentioned by other reviewers is very real. Wait for a fix, and THEN wait for a sale, while you discover or revisit the original $2 USD MSRP Steam version of Shatter in the meantime. A classic, likely the best and most notable brick breaker since good ole Arkanoid. Full disclosure: my first 30 minutes were played on Deck. I'm confident these issues persist across devices regardless. And even if they don't, I'd be better off playing the original on Deck instead, because it functions even better. As of now, I myself have 90 more minutes (and two more weeks) to consider refunding this deluxe de-master, especially if a fix for the microstutter doesn't come quickly enough. Shouldn't have been in at launch in the first place.

I love Shatter. Probably the best Arkanoid-like ever made. And I think it is a must own title. I however cannot recommend the "Remastered Deluxe" version as it is a hollow and misrepresented inferior game. The issues are immediate to anyone who's played and loves the original game. The upgrade to 4K is nice, but the new graphics are actively worse, gone are the background atmospheric animations, all the items and bricks seem more simplistic, and lower polygon. The whole game feels sterile when compared to the original. This is a graphically simpler game, which is insane as Shatter is over a decade old now. The options menu is limited, and there is no support for new rendering techniques. This is a game where Ray Tracing could have been a literal game changer, As would have been HDR. but this is a bare bones port with little to no consideration given to the platform it is being released on. A common complaint I have with PikPok PC games. Mouse controls are tight and responsive, with no detectable mouse acceleration, and you're able to remap the silly default controls to use you mouses additional buttons. Controller support is also great, but this game is not one that should be played with a controller in my opinion. The music mix is awesome, but so too is the original's. The difference in audio quality it subtle at best (to my very layperson ear(s)), and I cannot comment on the 5.1 mix as I am deaf in one ear, but I don't hear much if any of an upgrade in audio quality. As for performance, its a rock solid 120 fps @4K. But the original also runs at 120fps even if it is officially limited to 1080p/1200p. You can however run the original at 4K with a simple config edit. (C:\Users\**username**\Local Settings\Application Data\Sidhe\SH). Simply change the resolution in the "application_parameters.xml" and you're playing at whatever resolution you like, although the menu doesn't dynamically scale. It's a shame PikPok (Sidhe) never updated the original with a basic patch to allow their config to naively support higher resolutions. An extremely simple update that would have been appreciated. Even so the original looks and feels better. Then new UI is an adapted touch screen interface, and not designed ground up for KB/Mouse or Controller, and it shows. It's not a huge deal, but demonstrates where the design was initially focused and pivoted very little to get this version on Steam. This is a mobile port, not a PC remaster which is a shame because I really hoped PikPok would actually leverage the PC's capabilities here, but instead they seem to have done the bare minimum. If you own Shatter already don't bother this is not worth your time or money. If you like brick breaker games, Shatter is great, but this is the inferior version. So unless you need native in-game options for 4K support stick with the original, not this slightly shinier but noticeably less artful rehash. PikPok needs to do much better with their PC releases. Simply dumping their mobile games on PC with minimal work on UI and controls is frankly just not good enough. And the gall to name a game "Deluxe" because it is on PC and not mobile is bordering on outright dishonesty, and is at the very least disingenuous. You don't see Sony for instance labeling the PS5 version of God of War Ragnarok as the Deluxe version simply because it looks and run better on that hardware. Refunded.

In comparison to the original, it's just a badly done mobile game you'd expect for under a dollar. Music stutter is the most glaring problem. It looks worse than the original, the levels are only slightly different looking. If you've never played the original and want a good arkanoid game, do get the original (I do recommend that one). I see they're not improving anything in this version.

I'd been excited about Shatter Remastered Deluxe for months, but only after its release did I learn thanks to other users that it's not a remaster of the original but rather [i]of a mobile port.[/i] Why anyone would choose to take such a circuitous path for a modern re-release of this arcade classic is quite beyond me, but the result is obvious and predictable. I made a back-to-back comparison of the original 2010 Steam version of Shatter and this new "Remastered Deluxe" release, and it's a clear downgrade. Everything simply looks and sounds cheaper and thinner, and there's a bizarre and unforgivable choppiness to performance. I waited 12 days before testing to allow time for patches while staying inside the refund window, and it's still a dramatic disappointment. Shatter is a wonderful game, but this is not the version of it that you should play. Buy the 2010 release here on Steam, give its .xml file a quick edit in Notepad to cover your modern resolution, and enjoy a vastly superior product to this so-called remaster.