Krypton Egg

Arcade 1989 Dos Dosbox C2V Arkanoid style Single screen Action

Neat variation on a classic arcade genre

After the massive success of Breakout and Pong, the original ball-and-bat games, it was no surprise that several companies came up with their own spin on the genre, and while the Arkanoid series might be the best known (and with Arkanoid 2 being probably the best example of the genre), there are some lesser known gems out there as well. These include the likes of Batty and Aquanoid, with Krypton Egg also fitting neatly into this category. In many ways, this game is nothing special and adds little to the established conventions, where players must simply knock a ball against a collection of bricks, with the aim of destroying them in order to move on to the next level. The usual upgrades and power-ups are available here, including multi-balls, thrusters and weapons as well as bricks of different kinds and which require cunning and quick reflexes in order to destroy them. One slight innovation is the inclusion of monsters which fly around the level, and while most of them are harmless and simply interfere with the ball, others can destroy your paddle if they come into contact with it. There are also the occasional levels where you must defend yourself from incoming enemies or must defeat a boss and it is additions like these that elevate the game from being a mere clone of interest only to hardened genre fans, to one that is definitely worth playing for anyone who likes a great game. The graphics are simple but effective, with good use of colour and bold sprites, and with everything moving around at a nicely hectic pace. The gameplay might not be deep or complex but for some straightforward arcade action in Breakout style but with added variation, this certainly delivers the goods.

Breakout clone with very good graphics and mechanics

Along with Snake, with Tetris and with other arcade classics, so too has Breakout received an enormous amount of clones. So, you will ask, how is Krypton Egg any different, than the original? Well, the answer, while very subjective, is that Krypton Egg is simply a very well polished game. The original mechanics are there: you get your paddle, you shoot a ball to different arrays of bricks and make sure to catch power-ups while staying away from the crippling, false powerups. You can increase the size of your paddle, you can add missile launchers to it, you can unlock more balls to shoot and you can vary the speed of your paddle as well as the speed of your ball(s). Therefore, the game is quite varied, very well drawn and with a host of novel set of power up additions that were not featured in other breakout closes. Given that the game was released in 1989, the game seems very modern, with cool backgrounds (generally collages of geometrical shapes) and with loads of progressively more difficult levels. So, if you want a good dose of breakout, this game will deliver.

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