Proving that truly no IP is safe from modern reboot culture, Atari’s Breakout is back. The upcoming version of the simple 1976 brick-smashing hit rotates the playing field by 90 degrees and adds auto-scrolling, neon effects, power-ups and local co-op. In other words, Breakout Beyond is the Tetris Effect formula applied to the Led Zeppelin-era arcade classic.
The original Breakout was a product of dramatically more limited 1970s hardware, but its simplicity was part of its magic. Rows of bricks sat up top, a player-controlled paddle lived down below and a “ball” (actually a square, thanks to ‘70s graphics) bounced in between. Move paddle, hit ball, smash bricks, wow bellbottom-wearing arcadegoers.
The core formula — moving a paddle to bounce projectiles against bricks — remains intact in Breakout Beyond. But the game’s landscape perspective, while better suited for today’s televisions and monitors, may be hard for old-school gamers to get used to. Ditto for auto-scrolling, as this version pans left-to-right toward a goal rather than simply requiring you to break all the bricks on a fixed screen.
Visually, the new version’s ball is more like a comet, with a long neon tail trailing off behind its round head. Seizure-inducing effects abound. And there are multiple balls to contend with, not just one. (However, Super Breakout, the original game’s direct sequel, had two modes with extra balls.)
Like Tetris Effect, Breakout Beyond introduces combos, rewarding you with intensified visual and sound effects for stringing together streams of broken bricks. You can also break special blocks that unlock power-ups: bombs that clear out everything from a set radius, a force field to shield the ball and a freakin’ laser cannon that lets you blast bricks out of your way, a la Space Invaders.
The game supports two-player local co-op so you can smash bricks with a couch buddy. It has 72 levels and an optional focus mode that slows down time (at the expense of higher scores).
Breakout Beyond will arrive “later this year” for PC, Switch, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, PlayStation 5/4 and Atari’s rebooted VCS console. There’s no pricing info yet. You can check it out in the trailer below and learn more on Atari’s product page.
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