Breakout: Recharged

It's hard to believe that it has only been five months since I was first introduced to Atari's Recharged franchise. In that short amount of time, they've managed to revamp four of their arcade classics, including an excellent reimagining of Centipede, a so-so version of Black Widow and a less-than-stellar take on Asteroids that left me cold. Their newest entry is Breakout: Recharged, and I'm happy to say that it rights the ship and gets the retro series back on the right track. That's good news, but has Atari taken the criticism to heart and improved the Recharged franchise for 2022? Believe it or not, the answer might surprise you.

Even if you've never played the original 1976 arcade game Breakout before, you'll recognize the gameplay. Developed by Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell and Steve Jobs, this was one of Atari's earliest hits, thanks to a simple premise that featured a bouncing ball clearing a bunch of bricks. This gameplay conceit would eventually be ripped off by Taito to create the long-running Arkanoid franchise, and even Nintendo created their own Breakout clone called Alleyway for the Game Boy.

Despite being so influential, Atari hasn't done much with the Breakout name in recent years. That's one of the reasons why I was so excited to see what they could do with in the Recharged version, especially given how much I liked both Centipede and Black Widow. Bouncing a ball in an effort to break through a bunch of colorful bricks is a radical change from the shoot 'em ups that have so-far been the stars of the Recharged series. I'm not going to lie; I couldn't wait to see how they would shake up the formula and what kinds of challenges were in store. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed.

As you would expect, the gameplay is essentially a carbon copy of the 1976 arcade hit. You move a paddle left and right on the bottom of the screen, bouncing the ball back up towards rows of bricks. If you're able to clear out all of the blocks, a new pattern of bricks will show up and you'll start the whole process all over again. I'm sure the developers were tempted to add extra moves or maybe the ability to shoot back, but this version of Breakout works because they have largely kept the gameplay the same.

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Beyond just dealing with a bunch of brick patterns, you'll also find that some of the blocks will shoot back. This adds a real sense of intensity to the action, as it forces you to weave through bullets while also hitting the bouncing ball. The good news is that Recharged comes with a handful of useful power-ups, including a few that were introduced in Super Breakout and other sequels and updates. On top of being able to extend the size of your paddle and introduce three balls into the action at once, there's also weapons that give you a triple shot, homing missiles and a huge laser beam that can destroy a full row of bricks in a single shot. Other powers include a shield for the ball, a guide showing you the ball's path and a time warp that will slow down the ball as it nears the bottom of the screen. These add a fun new dynamic to the action without breaking too far from the formula that made the original so successful.

Much like the rest of the games in the Recharged series, the real reason to buy this game is for the challenge mode. We once again get a few dozen missions to complete, each with some sort of challenge related to clearing blocks, earning a score or using an item. This is where we see a lot of the most interesting brick designs, and some of these stages are genuinely tough. This is by far the most difficult batch of challenges I've seen in this series, and it's all the better for it. I came away from these stages feeling like I had learned something and gotten better at Breakout. What's more, they feel a world away from the shoot 'em up challenges we saw in Centipede, Black Widow and Asteroids. Breakout is exactly what the Recharged series needed.

And that extends over to the arcade mode, which has historically been the weakest link in these reimagined classics. If you've seen any of my Recharged reviews, then you've heard me complain about the lack of options. It seems like Atari has heard the criticism, because Breakout makes a big step forward when it comes to the arcade mode. We are now able to choose games based on how many lives we start with and whether or not we allow power-ups. That may not sound like much, but it's a major leap in the right direction compared to the barebone packages we're used to. They could still go a little further, with background options, custom power-ups and more, but at least this shows that they are listening to the criticism. I hope that this will be the standard going forward.

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As much as I want to say that this is the best Recharged game yet, there are a couple faults holding this game back. The first is widescreen display, which reshapes the playfield from the original vertical display. It may not seem like much, but it makes a big difference when it comes to the speed of the action and the types of patterns that can be created. I understand why they are sticking with the widescreen view, but I wish they would include more aspect ratios. Perhaps some can be wide, while others are tall, more like the original.

And speaking of issues, I found this weird gameplay quirk where you can't hit the ball if it's flush with the side of the level. Even if the paddle is all the way to the left or right, the ball will just slip through some invisible hole and send you to the Game Over screen. It's really annoying and shouldn't be like that. There shouldn't be a dead zone in the stage.

Thankfully, these minor issues don't overshadow what Breakout: Recharged gets right. In almost every way, this game is a big step in the right direction, something that was desperately needed after the dismal Asteroids update. If you like bouncing balls, busting up brick walls and dancing to catchy techno music, then Breakout is the game for you.