Brick Breaker Halloween Reviews

https://youtu.be/w33nCU5o33E

Good mind numbing fun

its ok for a game to listen to music and chill

PROS minimal mouse lag ((on my 2011 laptop) there are't many games around satisfying this criteria. if any, don't wait to tell me) many bonus balls that lets skill matter. fun new mechanics including brick animations and whole-board invisibility. the item system is mostly in Arkanoid style, i.e. no bad items. but there are some bad "objects" (if touched by the paddle) that acts like bricks which could be hit and destroyed by the ball (and some take effect when hit by the ball). even the most classic "speed-up" effect is implemented in this way (through hitting the colorful brick/flying object dispensed by the boss). this is really unique and fun, though it appears only at late stages, and before that i thought the ball will have constant speed forever. many speed-up will stack up and give you some hyper speed (in a short time though) most effects are time-limited, positive or negative, except for triple-ball (actually, 2 bonus balls) and falling protection (until a ball breaks it). these are good. (the one of the few points i don't like about Breakfinity (a good arkanoid-inspired indie mobile game with in-app purchase) is just "confiscating" the extra balls (only leaving the one at highest position) when passing a board) nice graphics (though not commercial quality, but still clear and nice), nice BGM. spoiler: the last boss has simplest (and retro) mechanics which requires most hard skill. little cons or bugs: no sound effect on border/invincible block/paddle bounce. only one sound effect of breaking a brick besides explosion. also i think there are some bugs when the ball passes invisible bricks, the sound effect is triggered but no brick is destroyed. no sound effect even on losing a life, neither on winning or game over. *facepalm* hope there will be some "normally complete" sound effects.... sometimes the ball will be reflected with a near horizontal angle (1~2° i think) when hitting a moving paddle on its sides. the effect of losing a life on some boss battle is hard to observe, and those projectiles generally don't look like "takes your life" at the first glance (your ball is a skull, lol, nothing's more scary than yourself). the ball's colliding volume seems a bit large.... the ball sometimes "hit the diagonal brick inside". the ball often goes into a moving object and causes repeated collision (but the author seems to let it be, haha). some stages will let you think it's a kuso game. feature expectation: shortest time for each stage, and also individual hi-score? (two strategies) gradually decreasing speed? (and earlier appearance of the speed-up brick?) more mechanics on predefined objects, for example spiders generating cobwebs? (and give it more score?)

Brick Breaker Halloween (aka Halloween Arkanoid 2... oops... the developer used the licensed trademark from Taito without permission) is a GameMaker Studio template copy + paste, the developer took a bare bones brickbreaker game template from Yoyogames, slapped some asset flipped Halloween art on it, and is now trying to get paid for it. Unsurprisingly this shovelware has zero redeeming interest for gamers. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics. The game features somewhat lazy, simplistic 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort Flash/browser games and mobile apps. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers. Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is often used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected in the general public reception. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. That's right, only 3. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in the game is to be expected. Gamers just didn't take this low quality game seriously, and for good reason. Brick Breaker Halloween is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. Also, given the developer is infringing on a licensed trademark, it's possible the game will be removed from Steam once Taito hears about it.

Well I'll be damned this game is great. I'm glad I read reviews because it looks like some Arkanoid spinoffs suhk. I can't help but remember the email I got about being refunded for my recent Steam controller purchases, because I used the gyro with the last one I have & it felt great. No mouse, no analog, it goes where I'm pointing, & the fine movement is there since I can use my whole arms instead of just my wrist like a mouse. This is now a review of the Steam controller. RIP.

For what it is and how chep it is, so is it a good game. I do only play it (very) casually, as of the time of writing have only played 0,8h.

good game, music is pleasant , has halloween expected sound effects ie witches cackle. its not scary.

EDIT-12/8/2018 MOUSE CONTROL!!! Great addition, and adds much to play, game length, and ball control (or seems to for me. Especially improved by mouse control is ball aiming! Section on lack of mouse control removed.) Also, pressing ESC out of habit (to pause) no longer exits the game. (Perhaps the best sign of a good game is attentive developers. If so HA2 will do very well. Thank you!) As a player who has an almost obsessive interest in the PONG, Breakout, Arkanoid genre of arcade game, Halloween Arkanoid 2 (HA2) was pretty much a certainty (at least at this very reasonable price.) While I’ve been playing such games since my Odyssey console in 1973 included a PONG game, I won’t begin to say I’m proficient. But I can speak from more than four decades of intermittent experience. Please keep in mind that what may be its biggest plus may also be its biggest (review) negative: 150 levels. I can’t begin to comment on more than the first handful of levels within the first few hours of release, or the increasing originality of levels that a player would both hope for and assume. But since many aspects are almost certainly universal, many of them can be safely discussed. (And this review can be edited over time.) Confusing to me is the purpose for the scoring available on each level. Perhaps this has meaning further on, but without leaderboards or any obvious use for scores (beyond a HIGHSCORE selection on the Main Menu, purpose for which is unclear...Grand Total perhaps?), it seems more reasonable to not assign values to blocks at all, since scoring seems to have little critical purpose, and only clearing the field seems to matter for level progression. (I hope to find myself corrected by developers, and perhaps have it also included within the game in some manner.) What DOES HA2 offer? The paddle is able to extend all the way to, and even beyond the edge, and that’s a feature I’d like to see more often. Another very nice feature is that pretty much any contact between paddle and ball will act to rebound the ball into play instead of a corner nick knocking the ball downward. And as mentioned above, there are enough powerups to virtually drown the average player. No, there is no clever or interesting backstory (nor is it practical to expect one at this price), and this player is certainly most curious as too just how far new ideas and concepts can expand in 150 levels. And it’s also a strong feature that each level is individual, and only needs to be defeated once to remain unlocked forever as it unlocks the next level in sequence. Is Halloween Arknoid 2 for you? At this price, my personal choice is a resounding “YES!” However, I’m in the fortunate position to be able to buy pretty much as many of them as I wish (since none are expensive.), Most gamers do not have this freedom, and must be cautious in their choosing. With so many choices of this genre on Steam at approximately the same price range, I suspect the mouse issue will be a deal breaker for many. Thank you.

Simple but satisfying breakout game. You can switch between using mouse or keyboard to control the paddle via the Settings screen. I made it to Stage 4 on my first try at medium difficulty. There's 15 screens per stage and the final screen of the stage is a boss fight. Power-ups are the standard in break out type games - large ball, laser paddle, large paddle, multi-ball, bumper guard, exploding ball, Pretty much standard brick types too; standard, hardened, invulnerable, invisible, switches, moving bricks, ect. All in all, it scratches the itch for a new variation of the standard break out game. And at the price, definitely worth it.