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Ricochet Infinity
I am so predictable. Put a brick buster in front of me and I won't move an inch for hours. I usually don't play a game for more than an hour or so, before my ADD kicks in and I wander off in search of something else to do for a while. Brick busters are the exceptions. The game play is so simple, and yet so compelling. I'm guilty of uttering "just one more level" over and over until 20, 30 or more levels are under my belt.Follow the jump for the complete review
All of that is just to set the stage for my state of mind when I get to
review a brick buster. I'm a little biased because I love them SO
MUCH, but at the same I'm a little jaded because I've played so many of
them. Hopefully, they cancel each other out and I can give a fair
review.
I'm not going to go into detail about exactly what a brick buster because it's one of the oldest forms of video games (I played in 1977 on my Atari 2600) and the concept is painfully simple. It's aa single player version of Pong really. You have a paddle, usually at the bottom of the screen, and a ball that bounces off of it towards bricks at the top of the screen. The goal is to destroy all the bricks. Simple, right? But oh so addictive. Tempting you to play just one more level. Taunting you with that one bloody brick you just can't get the right angle on. BASTARD BALL JUST HIT THE DAMN BRICK SO I CAN MOVE ON!!! . . . ahem Oh sorry, yes where was I now.
Ricochet Infinity really doesn't vary to far from the tried and true formula that made Ricochet so good. It takes the same risks that the original took, but by now they aren't risks for Ricochet. It has added a few twists, but mostly they are variations on the same thing. This is not at all a bad thing for what Ricochet did well, Ricochet Infinity does better.
The first thing you'll notice if you are new to the series, is that the bricks move. Sometimes flying around the screen in dizzying patterns. This time around there are a couple of new twists to brick movement. The bricks in some levels move to actively avoid your ball. They don't move so fast that you can't them, but it can be frustrating at times to get the perfect angle just to watch the brick move out of the way. Another twist is that on some levels brick position is tied to paddle position. Move the paddle and some bricks move. This movement was the hardest for me to get used to since I play by keeping the paddle under the ball at all times. In order to get some bricks hit on these levels I would have to move the paddle differently from what I've been doing for the past 30 years.
The addition of a recall feature really adds to the strategic play that is missing from brick busters and enhances it beyond belief. I think there was only 1 or 2 levels that required it, and one of those was the tutorial level for it, so it is possible to play without using it much. Recall is simply the ability to change the direction of the ball as it moves. Hold down the right mouse button and the ball is pulled back towards the paddle. It doesn't come straight back, but instead flies an arc turning back towards your paddle for as long as you hold the button down. I've seen a similar mechanic in another brick buster, but that one only allowed you a few seconds per level. You have unlimited use in Ricochet Infinity. This mechanic is great for tweaking a slightly off shot into the last brick.
Powerups run the standard range of powerups, no surprises there. You have speed up, slow down, enlarge paddle, shrink paddle, sticky paddle, guns, missiles, etc... Nothing really ground breaking there, but they've worked for years so why screw them up with weird powerups you never want.
Level design is where the Ricochet series has always shined for me. They aren't just static grids of bricks. They make pictures, and the movement of bricks really opens up the levels they can create. One level has flowers with bees flying around. Another is a space ship launching and flying around the screen. Yet another has you trying to hit groups of bricks shaped like fish swimming around.
Graphics are above par for brick busters, but really they haven't much improved over the years for the Ricochet series. Many of the bricks are just reused from earlier games. Again I have to say this isn't a bad things as the Ricochet games have always been ahead of the curve graphically.
Replayability is high since you can download new level packs for free from right inside the game. As most things that allow you to download user content, some of what you get is good and some is really bad. The level packs are user rated so you can usually get a good idea of how good a level pack is before you download it. There are a couple of level packs out there with 200+ levels. The quality is good enough in those packs that it's like getting a whole new game.
This game is highly recommended and because of the user content will have a place on my hard drive for a long time. It would have scored higher, but I didn't feel it really improved over previous versions. If this is your first Ricochet game or your first brick-buster, I would rate it a 9.0-9.5. But it loses a couple of points because as far as the Ricochet series goes, it's just more of the same.
Click to enlarge
Recently
I got my hands on what I'm going to call the 2nd sequel to one of my
all time favorite brick busters, Ricochet. I'm not real sure on the
actual number because this game was also released as Rebound. Then the
sequel was released under 2 names as well, so I'm not real sure exactly
what number the are on. Since I've never played the Rebound versions
and this is the 3rd Ricochet version, that's what I'm going by.I'm not going to go into detail about exactly what a brick buster because it's one of the oldest forms of video games (I played in 1977 on my Atari 2600) and the concept is painfully simple. It's aa single player version of Pong really. You have a paddle, usually at the bottom of the screen, and a ball that bounces off of it towards bricks at the top of the screen. The goal is to destroy all the bricks. Simple, right? But oh so addictive. Tempting you to play just one more level. Taunting you with that one bloody brick you just can't get the right angle on. BASTARD BALL JUST HIT THE DAMN BRICK SO I CAN MOVE ON!!! . . . ahem Oh sorry, yes where was I now.
Ricochet Infinity really doesn't vary to far from the tried and true formula that made Ricochet so good. It takes the same risks that the original took, but by now they aren't risks for Ricochet. It has added a few twists, but mostly they are variations on the same thing. This is not at all a bad thing for what Ricochet did well, Ricochet Infinity does better.
Click to enlarge
The first thing you'll notice if you are new to the series, is that the bricks move. Sometimes flying around the screen in dizzying patterns. This time around there are a couple of new twists to brick movement. The bricks in some levels move to actively avoid your ball. They don't move so fast that you can't them, but it can be frustrating at times to get the perfect angle just to watch the brick move out of the way. Another twist is that on some levels brick position is tied to paddle position. Move the paddle and some bricks move. This movement was the hardest for me to get used to since I play by keeping the paddle under the ball at all times. In order to get some bricks hit on these levels I would have to move the paddle differently from what I've been doing for the past 30 years.
The addition of a recall feature really adds to the strategic play that is missing from brick busters and enhances it beyond belief. I think there was only 1 or 2 levels that required it, and one of those was the tutorial level for it, so it is possible to play without using it much. Recall is simply the ability to change the direction of the ball as it moves. Hold down the right mouse button and the ball is pulled back towards the paddle. It doesn't come straight back, but instead flies an arc turning back towards your paddle for as long as you hold the button down. I've seen a similar mechanic in another brick buster, but that one only allowed you a few seconds per level. You have unlimited use in Ricochet Infinity. This mechanic is great for tweaking a slightly off shot into the last brick.
Powerups run the standard range of powerups, no surprises there. You have speed up, slow down, enlarge paddle, shrink paddle, sticky paddle, guns, missiles, etc... Nothing really ground breaking there, but they've worked for years so why screw them up with weird powerups you never want.
Click to enlarge
Level design is where the Ricochet series has always shined for me. They aren't just static grids of bricks. They make pictures, and the movement of bricks really opens up the levels they can create. One level has flowers with bees flying around. Another is a space ship launching and flying around the screen. Yet another has you trying to hit groups of bricks shaped like fish swimming around.
Graphics are above par for brick busters, but really they haven't much improved over the years for the Ricochet series. Many of the bricks are just reused from earlier games. Again I have to say this isn't a bad things as the Ricochet games have always been ahead of the curve graphically.
Replayability is high since you can download new level packs for free from right inside the game. As most things that allow you to download user content, some of what you get is good and some is really bad. The level packs are user rated so you can usually get a good idea of how good a level pack is before you download it. There are a couple of level packs out there with 200+ levels. The quality is good enough in those packs that it's like getting a whole new game.
This game is highly recommended and because of the user content will have a place on my hard drive for a long time. It would have scored higher, but I didn't feel it really improved over previous versions. If this is your first Ricochet game or your first brick-buster, I would rate it a 9.0-9.5. But it loses a couple of points because as far as the Ricochet series goes, it's just more of the same.
I may not have as long or distinguished of a heritage in this genre as you, but I do think that this style was one of my first 3 video games ever. I had a cousin who went so far as to program his own a few years ago.
It sounds like this version manages to have some innovation in an already well developed game genre. This game strikes me as a perfect game for Xbox Live Arcade (or XNA).
The first game I ever wrote completely was a brick buster. A very bad one.
The only problem I have with something like this on XBLA is the lack of paddle speed control. You can use the analog stick to control speed, but to me this is a game style that requires a mouse or a special paddle controller like on the Atari 2600 for quick movements to cross the screen in an instant on a bad bounce. I'd actually like to see devs use paddle speed for ball english some time. If you flick the paddle under the paddle real quick it puts a little spin on the ball so it bounces off of objects with a flatter or steeper angle depending on spin type.