Pretty Girls Breakers

If you're a fan of the classic arcade game Breakout, then the first part of 2022 has been surprisingly great. Last month we saw Atari revive their classic with Breakout Recharged, and now, only a few weeks later, the ball-bouncing fun returns with the awkwardly named Pretty Girls Breakers. Wait, don't tune out just yet, because this game is a lot better than it sounds. It's a fun twist on the decades-old formula that gets rid of the paddle and instead has the girls batting the ball around and enemies flying by. That's a cool twist, but is this new game better than Breakout Recharged? That's what I intend to find out in this review of Pretty Girls Breakers.

Before we get into the breaking, let's first talk about the Pretty Girls. In case you aren't in the loop, Pretty Girls is a line of games from EastAsiaSoft that adds cute anime women to all kinds of popular games, including poker, mahjong and Qix. Now they've set their sights on Breakout, the 1974 Atari game that inspired both Arkanoid and Alley Way. What does this have to do with Pretty Girls? Absolutely nothing, but that's not going to stop the developer from cramming them in there just to stay on brand.

To be fair, the girls actually have more to do in this game than some of their previous outings. In the case of Breakers, the game replaces the usual paddle with an overhead view of one of the Pretty Girls. Now, I know what you're thinking: Aren't these anime characters really thin? You're right, and obviously that's not the ideal replacement for a paddle. But don't worry, the game knows what it's doing. You're not really using the girl's bodies like a paddle, but rather they swing a bat to bounce the ball towards a bunch of colorful blocks. You can swat the ball with the left or right arm, giving you a little more control over the action than a typical game of Breakout.

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That one simple gameplay tweak may not sound like much, but it ends up being the freshest thing about this game. The rest of the action is fairly predictable, with the usual batch of power-ups raining from the sky and a wide assortment of block patterns to bust up. But let's not gloss over the items too quickly, because they play a big role in the action. If you've played a game like this before then you already know what to expect, as we get side guns, items that slow the ball down, a bat extender, a multi-ball power and an incredibly helpful floor that will keep the balls in play.

We also see a lot of familiar block types and level designs. You'll get the levels where everything is spread out or you'll need to smack the shielded blocks multiple times before they'll go away. There are also enemies lurking around the screen taking shots at our Pretty Girls. This gives the game another chance to stand out, since you can turn the bullets into projectiles by batting them away. I like that the game introduces new types of enemies over the course of the 25-level campaign, though it would have been nice to see a little more variety.

That's one of those reoccurring problems that kept popping up -- Pretty Girls Breakers flirts with unique ideas, but then never fully commits. You can see this in the gameplay, which has the women swatting the ball instead of it bouncing off of a paddle. That's a cool change to the formula, yet it ends up not being all that different in the long run. We're never given the level of precision that you would expect, so a lot of the bouncing comes down to pure luck. It's frustrating because the game has the opportunity to overcome this problem, but chooses not to.

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I was also annoyed by the lack of modes. There's the campaign, which sees us play three or four levels as each of the Pretty Girls, but that's about it. There are no challenge modes or multiplayer options, so all we're left to do is dress up the characters in different clothes. Perhaps that's enough of a reason for you to unlock everything, but I would have preferred an endless mode or something that made me want to come back and actually play the game, rather than gawk at the girls.

If you're still on the fence on which game to get, I say the right decision is Breakout Recharged. It's more robust, has better graphics and offers multiplayer support. That said, Pretty Girls Breakers is a lot better than the name suggests. There are a few genuinely interesting wrinkles to the formula here, even if they ultimately come up short every step of the way. Consider this a tepid recommendation, but only if you've already grown bored of Breakout Recharged.