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"When it comes to solitary sports, a bat, a ball and a wall is about as good as it gets. Because however you choose to define the resulting tennis-squash hybrid, you're always in control of the action. Throw in a spark of imagination, and you're well on the way to winning your own Wimbledon wall tennis championship.
But whichever collection of top rated players you choose as your to-be-beaten opponents, your real enemy is the bounce of the ball."
Full Source:
Pocketgamer.co.uk
"Chances are good you’ve played some version of the classic arcade game Breakout, even if you don’t know it by name. It even comes free with the latest generation of iPods. The mechanic is simple: you move a Pong-esque paddle left and right to bounce a ball at the top of the screen to break all the bricks, trying to keep the ball from falling off the bottom of the screen. In some versions different color blocks are worth different points. In some versions you can get power-ups to change the ball speed or paddle size. Everyone seems to have their own spin on the relatively simple game."
Full Source:
Nintendo Now via
Gonintendo
"There are plenty of ways you can make an old video game concept feel fresh again. You can gussy up the graphics, turn 2D into 3D, or maybe even slap some recognizable personalities on the box, be they fictional or otherwise. However, Nervous Brickdown goes its own route--or should we say routes? It offers a suite of unique variations on the classic brick-and-bat gameplay typified by such games as Breakout and Arkanoid. Some of the variants in Nervous Brickdown offer just a simple twist, while others virtually rewrite the formula, sometimes making the game feel more like a shooter or a dungeon crawler than a Breakout clone. The differences also go beyond just the mechanics, with each variant sporting a striking visual style and some fitting, often quite catchy, music. The results aren't always consistent, but Nervous Brickdown hits more often than it misses."
Full Source:
Gamespot
"When I hear “paddle-and-ball” my eyes start to glaze over and my fingers tremble with dread. There must be a thousand clones of the classic Breakout on the market and with very few exceptions, they seldom add anything new to the genre. The last big advance happened years ago with Arkanoid, which introduced powerups and innovative design that pushed the genre forward, giving way to an armada of clones that soon followed. Now we have Nervous Brickdown from Arkedo, and while it doesn't represent a paradigm-shift for paddle-and-ball games, it does introduce several new ideas, wrapped in a superb presentation that elevates it above the masses, ultimately allowing it to stand tall as the definitive Breakout game for the DS (assuming the DS really needed a definitive Breakout clone)."
Full Source:
GameAlmighty
"While Nervous Brickdown is certainly a cute title, Brickout would be far more appropriate. This is, after all, 10 different takes -- of grossly varying quality -- on the classic action-puzzler Breakout. There's a bizarre, Feel the Magic-esque aesthetic running through the game, but it's the only constant; Nervous Brickdown feels like a potluck of Breakout clones, each done by a different member of the development team."
Full Source:
1-up
"The original Breakout design was a simple creation: a paddle, a ball, and a whole lot of bricks. By putting controls on an analog knob, players had direct control over the paddle - it moved with the exact rate of your twisting, which in turn gave the feeling that you were manipulating a real object left and right. Clones of the Breakout design have spawned throughout the years, but if they didn't use the knob control they never held the same fun factor as the original."
Full Source:
IGN
"Nervous Brickdown is unexpectedly wonderful. It's unexpected because as soon as we heard "Breakout-style gameplay" we sort of tuned out, afraid of yet another mediocre DS title, let alone another Breakout clone. But that was our own near-lose, because it's actually a great set of deliriously creative and fun mini-games that quickly bear almost no resemblance to Breakout at all. Unfortunately, the games do have some issues, mostly because of their Breakout roots."
Full Source:
Gamespy
"Scheduled for release later this month, Nervous Brickdown is a collection of Breakout/Arkanoid-style games that are played exclusively with the Nintendo DS's stylus and touch screen. The paddle, ball, and bricks gameplay that Nervous Brickdown takes its inspiration from has been done to death, but the upcoming game manages to make it feel fresh with interesting new gameplay mechanics, as well as a number of quirky art styles. Nervous Brickdown also features no fewer than 135 levels all told. After having recently had an opportunity to play through a good number of them, we're pleased to report that they're incredibly varied and a lot of fun."
Full Source:
Gamespot
If you think you've played every Breakout clone, just wait until you see Nervous Brickdown. Developer Arkedo has made some awesome innovations to the genre while taking appropriate advantage of the DS hardware.
We tried out four of 10 stages (with 135 levels between them all), the first of which was pretty standard -- you have to start somewhere. Think of it as a warm up to get used to controlling your paddle with the stylus and the ball crossing the gap between the two screens. If you're not put off by the slight learning curve, the game gets fun fast.
Full Source:
1-up
