Caromble! Reviews

Looked like a good take on the classic Breakout game and was enjoying it until I reached a level that was just rubbish. Usually if you miss a ball with your bumper you lose the ball. In this level if you missed your target you lose the ball off the top of the screen. Additionally the contact area of the bumper is below a floating blue force field type thing which makes it unnecessarily deceiving. Many times I made "contact" with the edge of the force field, only to have the ball pass through missing the contact area and lose a ball. Really annoying and easily fixed.

this is the prettiest breakout i have seen the design and the art style looks amazing. needs more variety of power ups .sometime with all the effects and the explosion its hard to see the ball. the speed of the ball above normal and some levels are not easy so beginners watch out ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. https://youtu.be/Eq6BOFUxNfg

Very cool lighting effects and gameplay. Audio a bit rinky-dinky carousel type stuff, unfortunately not in the same class as the great Russian K-D Lab's Biprolex +. Arcalex is ready! Tetlix Stopped! Achtung! Rabid Squares Down! Wow! Super Ball! If you can figure out how to play this Dynamic Battlefield For Your Brains there is an emulation at https://archive.org/details/BIPROLEX

I thought this game was going to be more fun. The levels all look the same; no creativity in themes or bosses, same boss every time. Some years ago I saw a better brick-hitting game similar to this one on Amazon and it looked way more fun with lots of power-ups and better scenarios, and this was almost 10 years ago. I recommend you play it with your mouse. I tried playing it using a controller and it didn't work well on my PC. The mouse responded well enough. It is also a little difficult with only two-balls per scenario and you have to finish a stage that consists of at least four scenarios and if you lose you're back to the first scenario of the whole stage. Overrated and expensive, especially expensive. I whish I would've played this in the first 30 days to get my money back; it's not enjoyable for me and this makes it even more boring than already is. I do play it, but I quickly leave it. Overall, save your money for something else; I've seen SNES games of the same genre that are more creative and fun.

If you are an ARKNOID or Brick Braker fan. Then check this out. It is unforgiving but soooo FkN lovely. If your worried about why its been in early access for so long read the community thread. The ULTIMATE breaker gasme. IMO Updated: Really worth a play. better mouse dynamics off the bat (from my opinion).. Love the way this is going. Light story mode Arknoid in 2.5D with play you have to play, to know it's not just a clone. The Ultimate Ball Breaker - in so many delightful ways. This game is Arknoid on a protein and mushroom shake, beefy and confusing. It won't hold your hand or give away many of it's secrets in a single play or even a play session. I will probably end up trying to find some hints later but for now am enjoying playing and being amazed at myself when the complex becomes clear. Don't be put off by 'Early Access' - it has been that way for a long time and is perfectly playable now - I think the developers have included over 80% of the planned content as of writing although with a small team that all work in other jobs and do this 1 day a week don't expect the final product next week. (edit: Yes I meant ball breaker not brick breaker - This is a ball game where you break not only bricks!) <<< I wish there was a difficulty mode to quicken?? slow the game by 5% 15% for less rewards and progression. but hey lose some more. I take this back >>>

This one was a very nice suprise. It may be hard to follow the ball every so often but it is very original for a brick breaking game. A great time-killer!

Essentially, Caromble! is a reworking of the Atari classic Breakout from 1976 or the more advanced Taito classic Arkanoid from 1986. Caromble! has good sound and quite nice graphics, which are cell-shaded and three-dimensional. Caromble! looks quite sci-fi, but doesn't take itself that seriously, so you are up against a cartoonish city-destroying monster and it is your job to stop it. That's all the story you get and all you need. Caromble! is fun to play and challenging but also difficult and very frustrating until you get the hang of it. It tests your reflexes and aim as you demolish the scenery to score enough points to enter a portal to the next stage and ultimately defeat the boss on the final stage of each level. It is a 'just one more go' type of game that requires skill, determination and patience. The best control method is the mouse and you may find the controller only takes you so far until you are forced to switch to using the mouse. The trick is to spin the ball and charge up your shots to score more points and collect power-ups which appear more frequently when you cause lots of destruction in a short space of time. Extra lives are particularly important. A number of the power-ups are detrimental, like the one which makes the paddle shrink, or the one which pixelates the screen. The game has high score tables and badges with honours for completion, big points score and speed.

Having played for half an hour I got to the 4th level of the 1st chapter. My experience so far: [list] [*]This is a game that is easy to learn, but very hard to master: the levels are easy, but the challenges are hard. [*]The physicsengine in this game works very well and adds to the overall feeling of destruction. Seeing contructions tumbling down and sending the supercharged ball through it feels very satisfying. [*]The artstyle and level design give off a steampunk Borderlands-feel by having thick black edges and iron everywhere. [/list] Since it's still in Early Acces some options and features are not present in this build (V-sync, controller support), only basic ones like volume and resolution setting are present at the moment. The first level alone adds interesting and new mechanics and to the classic Breakout mechanic, so I'm very excited to see what future updates bring to this game.

"So much more than a game.....CAROMBLE! IS ART !!!!" For Christmas, 1973 I was fortunate enough to receive the very first console game system available in America….Odyssey by Magnavox. Though it advertised as having about a dozen games, in reality it was just a dozen forms of PONG with plastic overlays for your TV set to create slightly differing game effects. (Not a criticism…PONG was a great game!) Who would have imagined that over FORTY years later, the most exciting new game I’m playing currently is actually just an unbelievably amazing new version of the original master, PONG…..Caromble!. Throughout the years, the concept behind every similar type of “hit a moving object with a paddle; rinse & repeat” game has been the same, brilliant in its simlicity. But now we have that same simple concept, but added to it some genuinely remarkable newer concepts to bring this great concept well into the 21st century: GRAPHICS – Caromble!’s “photo-real” type of animation (with enough “true” animation aspects so as to not seem commonplace) is some of the most intriguing I’ve ever seen in any computer game. Because of the nature of this game, being able to know “what, where and when” is very critical, but still needs to have an amusing aspect. Caromble! succeeds wonderfully, and beautifully. I hope to see more of this style in other games. LEVELS – Caromble! is NEVER easy, but the learning curve works well. The game starts with a multi-step intro to prepare players for both the “Protect the Earth” story, and the necessary aspects of the game in a very simple format. From there, each level is composed of three(?) separate (and unique) but connected game areas, each (seemingly) ending with the same Big Red Boss. Each new area must be unlocked by defeating the boss on the last stage of the previous level. CONTROL – Unlike some similar games, control over the ball is a critical aspect of Caromble!. But it’s also fairly easy to learn. I’m certain I’ve played well over 1,000 hours of computer pinball, and have to say that CAROMBLE! FEELS MORE LIKE PINBALL than any other similar type game . I find myself enjoying it in quite the same way that I love playing pinball for hours on end. Over fifty of my Stream friends are serious pinball players. I suggest that each of you consider taking a look at Caromble! to see if you feel the same sort of control, Zen and heart-pounding excitement that pinball offers, and that I’m happy to say I feel from Caromble!. PHYSICS - So natural, I originally forgot to include it in this review, and had to edit this in. AWARDS – Currently, the Early Access form of Caromble! lacks both achievements and cards, but it does have AWARDS. For each three-stage level there are three awards available; completion, score and time. Completion is adequate to unlock the next level. In the event you are SO CLOSE to winning, there’s a MERCY selection upon losing. MERCY allows a single extra life/ball. (How that effects awards or high scores isn’t known to me at this point.) POWERUPS – As is typical with Breakout type games, powerups can be obtained for immediate use. Some make the game easier, some make the game harder. (But it’s easy to tell them apart by color.) Extra Ball powerups can be stacked to the point that it’s possible to have as many as five balls on the field at once (and maybe more. Understand I’m still on early levels of this game.) Admittedly, Caromble! seems to be a bit pricier than similar type games, and that’s why I waited this long. I see now that waiting was a mistake. This game is everything I hoped it might be, and more. The thrill of taking down whole BUILDINGS (as well as hitting a well-aimed shot perfectly) is hard to describe. And while the music may leave something to be desired, it wasn’t until I played with headphones, and heard each and every single THUD and THUMP, that I really began to feel myself to be a part of the game. And that’s a place I am VERY happy to be. (My time on Caromble! is currently 6 hours. I bought it about 12 hours ago.)

Wow! two breakouts released in a day. Breakout/arkanoid games have always been one of my favourite arcade genres ever since the first one was released way back in the late 1970's. I've played hundreds of them over the years and have some particular favourites (e.g. Acky's XP Breakout, Ricochet infinity, Arcmania 2, Reaxxion, Hyperballoid 2, Arkanoid: The Virtual Isles, Incrediball:The Seven Sapphires, Magic Ball 3 aka Smash Ball 3, plus several others, including some freeware versions such as Beat Ball, Jarkanoid and Poing). All of those mentioned had something different or special about them such as a never before seen power up, a level editor, hidden levels, great level design or mini games, most of which gave them a lot of re-playability. That said Caromble has an innovative addition called leap motion, which requires you to purchase the leap motion hardware that'll set you back just under 90 Euro's. I like the idea, it would go well with my Track IR, but for this game, I doubt i'll be spending a further 90 euro's. The level designs are nice and I like the colour scheme, which reminds me of the colours used in Borderland and Borderland 2. There's nothing spectacular about the game play, in fact I found it a little tedious, though there are some nice features; for example, i) ... A request window pops up for suggestions and feedback when you close the game down (this will probably disappear once the game comes out of early access), ii) ... Level navigation is simple iii) ... You can avoid the last few awkward to get bricks by hitting the portal at the top of the arena, that appears when there are only a few bricks left. iv) ... The way you can curve the ball by slicing the ball as it hits the bat. v) ... The end of stage bosses. vi) ... Unfortunately, at the time of writing I don't think the overall ball physics are quite there yet, and the bat movement feels a little sluggish. I've been playing breakouts frequently for over 30 years and consider myself an experienced player, yet I missed quite a few balls in the first 10 or so minutes due to the bat sluggishness. It's nothing major and changing the sensitivity of your mouse can sort the problem somewhat. [b][u]Suggestions to the developer[/u][/b]: It would be nice if there was a count down indicator showing how long there was left of any power-ups captured and I'd love to see a level editor. I'd also like to be able to select or deselect power ups. I've only ever seen this functionality in a few breakouts and it added a lot of re-playability. Also some idea's for new power-ups include ball shape changes and bat shape changes to add to the randomness of ball flight. I will return to this review to update it once I've added a few hours of game play and when its out of early access. Hopefully we will see lots of updates and additions. Overall I give this a thumbs up. You can see a couple of videos of game play [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NKrQKaYbEk][b]HERE[/b][/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWYbPzqVQ1k][b]HERE[/b][/url] Check out Xaxtor99's review and video available [url=http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198053422627/recommended/347660/][b]HERE[/b][/url]. I will be updating my review with a more positive feel to my feedback once I've played the game a little more. Edit: A few years down the line....... I must admit to not playing the game since posting the above review until the other day, which leads me to say, it has been massively improved since then. The issues I mentioned i.e. sluggish movement of the bat and imprecise ball physics seem to have been addressed and both are now excellent; making this one of the best breakouts on Steam. I'm also impressed that the small development team, who only work on the game every Friday are still giving us regular updates. There's only three decent Breakouts on Steam now, this one, Ion Storm 2 and Shatter (IMO). Valve removed two others called Ricochet Infinity and Reaxxion for various reasons; both of which were also some of the best breakouts to be released over the last decade. Sadly the breakout genre is lacking in new and exciting releases. I was recently in touch with the developer of the freeware arkanoid called [url=http://www.jarkanoid.com/][b]Jarkanoid 3[/b][/url] and he told me that he has been working on a 3D version which he hinted will add some new ideas to the game; so watch out in future for that one to be released. :) second Edit: Another year and more additions to this fast becoming my favourite breakout game. We now have the story mode, a versus mode, and a skill mode with the latter having several different types of skill levels, where you have to complete as many skill shots in a specific time using different techniques, for example the side swiping curve ball skill shot. All levels include two high score tables, one for points and one for the time taken to complete each levels. Each level in the story mode includes three or four tables; you have to complete all four to be awarded a medal (there are three, each one for a different aspect of completing the level e.g within a specified time) and to unlock the next level set. If you fail to complete any of the sets in a level, you have to start again; however, you can beg for mercy once for each level set; so if you lose all of your balls, you get the option of a mercy call or starting again; fail a second time and it's curtains.