Breakout Beyond revives the classic series by dropping it on its side and forgetting that controlling your paddle is the most important part of a Breakout game. There are balls hitting bricks, and you need to keep them from getting by you. It’s one of the simplest concepts in gaming, and it’s kind of amazing, but just how disappointing this game is.
Breaking Out
The classic Breakout games and their clones like Arkanoid are brick breakers. They were major quarter munchers originally set in a vertical orientation that better fit the 4:3 arcade monitors. A small ball would launch from your perfect flat paddle and go up at various angles to hit bricks.
Breakout Beyond goes horizontal to better fit modern 16:9 and ultrawide displays. It doesn’t work very well if your screen is a decent size. My 42” OLED TV, sadly underutilized with a lack of HDR support, was simply too big for this full-screen horizontal setup. My neck hurt within a few levels, and I had to back up, which made losing the ball easier in the chaos.
You can spin and curve your shots depending on how you’re moving the paddle at the time it connects. Various lighting effects and music will pop off as your combo and speed increase. It should be fun, it’s such a simple mechanic, but the game has one fatal flaw at launch.
One Simple Job
The game controls poorly. It’s a three-button title, and the sensitivity on the left stick is far too high. There is also a large deadzone, so it takes a fair amount of movement to get your paddle started. Once it does, it moves too quickly. I never felt fully in control and had to utilize the other buttons to have any shot on most stages.
The right bumper is a slowdown that costs you a score multiplier but is unlimited. It is a requirement due to how poor the game controls are. Even during the slowdown, the paddle jumps around. There are special blocks and other various items to spice up the game’s 72 levels, and a full leaderboard suite alongside local co-op.
It should be a fun time, though I have no clue how much it will cost. Instead, it is a non-stop lesson in endless frustration as you try to dial in paddle movements but cannot because the game has so few options.
The Rest
Breakout Beyond is a 900 MB file, and the game’s looks never really change from the first few levels. You get more and more colors, explosions, and effects, but the overall look is always the same. It’s bright, and colorful, and really would have benefited from HDR support.
The music isn’t memorable or particularly enjoyable. I ended up muting the game instead of listening to it or the sound effects. I found it far easier to try and compensate for the terrible controls without all of the high-pitched distractions.
Quick resume seemed to work fine, as the game has zero online server connections outside of loading the global leaderboard, of which there weren’t any listings, yet.
Wrapping Things Up
Breakout Beyond takes a classic and forgets the most important part. You can’t have a brick-breaking game be fun if it doesn’t control well, and this one does not at launch.
Review code was provided by the game’s PR reps
Breakout Beyond
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Colorful
CONS
- Terrible controls
- Lack of HDR
- Distracting Music
