despite its pong-descendant status representing one of the earliest advancements in video game development, breakout - both as a game, and a genre - has never felt like it's had its time in the sun. no one would put forward an invective or dismissive position regarding breakout, but few would argue that it has maintained a foothold in the industry's subconscious, and at present the genre has seemingly been relegated to mobile game fodder. at best, the most you can hope for is for a few eccentrics to remember arkanoid fondly - and why shouldn't they? with its far cry from the mechanics of progressive breakout titles, taito's evolution of form emphasized peculiar stage design, high speed brick breaking, multiple hazards in the form of drone enemies, a space-age lounge aesthetic, and numerous powerups designed to introduce a degree of modularity in the playfield. the paddle - or vaus, in arkanoid - can fire lasers, multiply the number of balls in the field, slow the ball down, or elongate in length, to name a few. importantly, none of these powerups intersected, which introduced an ever-present degree of decision-making superimposed on the frantic juggling act essential to brick breaking. in one of the title's many hypothetical scenarios, i may not want to switch out a power-up in my possession for an oncoming powerup, but attempting to slide out of the new power-up's path of descent might mean allowing the ball to dart past me, thus losing a life. these mechanics dovetailed into a game where turning away from the screen for even a fraction of a second might result in death. arkanoid required precision and demanded attention - it necessitated player's eyes to be glued to the arcade cabinet's digital luster, and cultivated strong engagement as a result.
in spite of these strengths, it's important to understand why the genre's slow-crawl fade into oblivion may have occurred. we can only offer theories for this, but firstly, i'd like to point out that breakout and all of its successors are simplistic games that hinge primarily on instinctual input. which isn't to say these games are bereft of strategy - but that these tactics are minimalistic even to the trained eye and for the uninitiated, almost totally unseen. for the sake of comparison, it's worthwhile to consider how something as reaction-driven as tetris can be has still maintained cultural dominance all these decades later. it's a brisk game, its dense strategy has been unfurled across millions of player-inputted hours and iterations of the formula, its mechanics are perfectly interlocked, and upon failure, a player usually has an idea of how to improve. the same can't be said for breakout or any of its plentiful successors, which are usually content to posit the intrinsically demotivating consequence of 'simply do better, next time.' this is a perfectly acceptable arrangement for some players, and in a different mechanical suite, might be totally permissable. but breakout's simplicity tacitly discourages improvement and feigns a truly fair set of mechanics the way tetris affords. tetris is, at its core, a game of space control. the player is always centered at the helm, and despite the 'randomized' blocks coming your way, the apparatus is entirely yours to execute with as you please. by contrast, you might have noticed i left one power-up out of the medley when discussing arkanoid - the power-up that automatically lets you skip a level. a godsend for some, but it's an exhibition of the kind of seemingly random behaviour that can make breakout frustrating for some players. in other words, in breakout the game exercises jurisdiction over players parallel to players acting within the construct of the game. the pace is not set by the player, as it is in tetris, but is set in conversation between the player's maneuvering of the field and the physics of the ball. tetris is mediation, breakout is negotiation. the consequence of this is simple: if you aren't invested, the breakout experience gets flattened, and there's no steady sense of escalation or improvement. factor this with the game actually getting slower or more cumbersome towards the end of any given stage rather than faster (since players might take haphazard shots or struggle to demolish the last brick), and it's easy to see why players are turned off from the genre with ease.
strikey sisters isn't nearly as blisteringly fast as arkanoid. its stage layouts have more obstacles, but generally ask you to make less complicated shots. screen real estate is arranged slightly more horizontally rather than vertically, which gives it a bit more of a cramped feeling. but the core feature that makes strikey sisters such a compelling take on the arkanoid formula is both a greater degree of consistency than arkanoid juxtaposed with a greater degree of randomness.
these two contradictory tenets - strict order, and total variability - seem like they represent an inherent paradox, but this isn't really the case, and to explain why, it's worth discussing what makes strikey sisters different. the most apparent difference is that you don't control a paddle in strikey sisters - you control one of two sisters, both of whom have the same kits (for fun co-operative action, but i played the game solo). you might argue it would be a bit more difficult to hit the ball with the sprite of a character rather than the sprite of a horizontal paddle, but that's why strikey sisters has not one, but three ways of hitting and manipulating oncoming balls. hitting the ball directly with your sprite in classic arkanoid fashion guarantees a shot that is slower, but a little more difficult to aim. but hitting the attack button lets your character slice in a parabola arc - on contact, the strike makes the ball travel faster and the nature of the arc means you have better, more intuitive control over your aim than in other breakout titles. and finally, charging your attack shot will make the ball travel at the fastest velocity possible, and also guarantee the destruction of a brick, which would otherwise take two shots (something true of every brick in the game, unlike arkanoid's variable hp bricks).
taken together, these elements underscore far more transparency in the game's set of mechanics (no one would argue that arkanoid isn't a fair game, just that its unrelenting speed and errant physics somewhat obscures this and has the detrimental side effect of stopping would-be interested players). but these components of strikey sisters intersect with the way it handles its bestiary and powerup mechanics. throughout its many stages, strikey sisters has a full-fledged bestiary of enemies designed to trip you up at every turn while you try to break bricks. some fire projectiles that slow you down. some strike the ball right back at you. some fire projectiles at you in varying speeds and quantities. some will summon tornadoes to block the path of the ball. some will shake the earth and alter the arc of the ball when you least expect it. and all of them, upon hit, will alter the ball's direction. since enemies will randomly spawn in and try to thwart your efforts right up until the last brick is broken (by which point you just have to mop up the last few enemies remaining), this means that your progress is continually and organically impeded by a constant barrage of foes, which brings the juggling quality that defines breakout at its best to the forefront. importantly, your charged attack will destroy enemies in one hit and repel projectiles back into either enemies or bricks, and the attack more generally has a close-quarters function should enemies get a bit too close.
threading these systems together is the nature of powerups. you gain no powerups from destroyed bricks, but every slain enemy will drop a randomized powerup which either affects the ball (for instance, double balls or an iron ball which, while significantly weightier, will plow through bricks undeterred), the player in passive form (shields, an hp point, or speed), or spells which are offensive or defensive in nature (traps, projectiles, and so on). managing every power up you get effectively is often the key to victory on a stage, and leads to any number of insane interactions. the double ball powerup is particularly enjoyable this time around since the control you have over the ball's speed and arc means skilled players can more reliably keep both balls in rotation, whereas the multiple ball upgrade in arkanoid felt more like a single use shotgun if anything.
as if all this managing of various systems wasnt enough, the final key to the puzzle is how far strikey sisters goes in the completionist angle. it's one thing to clear a stage, but to clear it well means collecting coins dropped from every brick you destroy, which effectively means players have to intelligently manage a ball in rotation, enemies attempting to trap or kill them, and coins falling from destroyed bricks at any given moment. it's a tough balancing act, but with every tool at your disposal it can be made fair. the more coins you've amassed, the more likely it is you'll get other collectables as well from chests which you still have to hit to open - emeralds, keys which unlock secret levels, and a tarot spell which, if successfully used, destroys enemies and adds them to your bestiary. breakout as a genre is at its best when there are several components interwoven with the core mechanics of keeping a ball in rotation, and for those pursuing mastery strikey sister presents an incredibly compelling solution.
like many great games, strikey sisters threads together order and chaos to brilliant effect. it's a smart and tightly designed title with a great deal of miscellaneous content to dig into. i've always had a fondness for these kinds of coffee break games you can play in between long days spent working - i wouldn't have put as many hours into the first risk of rain as i did if this wasn't the case - but strikey sisters is so, so easily the gold standard of this branch of design. bravissimo, dya games
in spite of these strengths, it's important to understand why the genre's slow-crawl fade into oblivion may have occurred. we can only offer theories for this, but firstly, i'd like to point out that breakout and all of its successors are simplistic games that hinge primarily on instinctual input. which isn't to say these games are bereft of strategy - but that these tactics are minimalistic even to the trained eye and for the uninitiated, almost totally unseen. for the sake of comparison, it's worthwhile to consider how something as reaction-driven as tetris can be has still maintained cultural dominance all these decades later. it's a brisk game, its dense strategy has been unfurled across millions of player-inputted hours and iterations of the formula, its mechanics are perfectly interlocked, and upon failure, a player usually has an idea of how to improve. the same can't be said for breakout or any of its plentiful successors, which are usually content to posit the intrinsically demotivating consequence of 'simply do better, next time.' this is a perfectly acceptable arrangement for some players, and in a different mechanical suite, might be totally permissable. but breakout's simplicity tacitly discourages improvement and feigns a truly fair set of mechanics the way tetris affords. tetris is, at its core, a game of space control. the player is always centered at the helm, and despite the 'randomized' blocks coming your way, the apparatus is entirely yours to execute with as you please. by contrast, you might have noticed i left one power-up out of the medley when discussing arkanoid - the power-up that automatically lets you skip a level. a godsend for some, but it's an exhibition of the kind of seemingly random behaviour that can make breakout frustrating for some players. in other words, in breakout the game exercises jurisdiction over players parallel to players acting within the construct of the game. the pace is not set by the player, as it is in tetris, but is set in conversation between the player's maneuvering of the field and the physics of the ball. tetris is mediation, breakout is negotiation. the consequence of this is simple: if you aren't invested, the breakout experience gets flattened, and there's no steady sense of escalation or improvement. factor this with the game actually getting slower or more cumbersome towards the end of any given stage rather than faster (since players might take haphazard shots or struggle to demolish the last brick), and it's easy to see why players are turned off from the genre with ease.
strikey sisters isn't nearly as blisteringly fast as arkanoid. its stage layouts have more obstacles, but generally ask you to make less complicated shots. screen real estate is arranged slightly more horizontally rather than vertically, which gives it a bit more of a cramped feeling. but the core feature that makes strikey sisters such a compelling take on the arkanoid formula is both a greater degree of consistency than arkanoid juxtaposed with a greater degree of randomness.
these two contradictory tenets - strict order, and total variability - seem like they represent an inherent paradox, but this isn't really the case, and to explain why, it's worth discussing what makes strikey sisters different. the most apparent difference is that you don't control a paddle in strikey sisters - you control one of two sisters, both of whom have the same kits (for fun co-operative action, but i played the game solo). you might argue it would be a bit more difficult to hit the ball with the sprite of a character rather than the sprite of a horizontal paddle, but that's why strikey sisters has not one, but three ways of hitting and manipulating oncoming balls. hitting the ball directly with your sprite in classic arkanoid fashion guarantees a shot that is slower, but a little more difficult to aim. but hitting the attack button lets your character slice in a parabola arc - on contact, the strike makes the ball travel faster and the nature of the arc means you have better, more intuitive control over your aim than in other breakout titles. and finally, charging your attack shot will make the ball travel at the fastest velocity possible, and also guarantee the destruction of a brick, which would otherwise take two shots (something true of every brick in the game, unlike arkanoid's variable hp bricks).
taken together, these elements underscore far more transparency in the game's set of mechanics (no one would argue that arkanoid isn't a fair game, just that its unrelenting speed and errant physics somewhat obscures this and has the detrimental side effect of stopping would-be interested players). but these components of strikey sisters intersect with the way it handles its bestiary and powerup mechanics. throughout its many stages, strikey sisters has a full-fledged bestiary of enemies designed to trip you up at every turn while you try to break bricks. some fire projectiles that slow you down. some strike the ball right back at you. some fire projectiles at you in varying speeds and quantities. some will summon tornadoes to block the path of the ball. some will shake the earth and alter the arc of the ball when you least expect it. and all of them, upon hit, will alter the ball's direction. since enemies will randomly spawn in and try to thwart your efforts right up until the last brick is broken (by which point you just have to mop up the last few enemies remaining), this means that your progress is continually and organically impeded by a constant barrage of foes, which brings the juggling quality that defines breakout at its best to the forefront. importantly, your charged attack will destroy enemies in one hit and repel projectiles back into either enemies or bricks, and the attack more generally has a close-quarters function should enemies get a bit too close.
threading these systems together is the nature of powerups. you gain no powerups from destroyed bricks, but every slain enemy will drop a randomized powerup which either affects the ball (for instance, double balls or an iron ball which, while significantly weightier, will plow through bricks undeterred), the player in passive form (shields, an hp point, or speed), or spells which are offensive or defensive in nature (traps, projectiles, and so on). managing every power up you get effectively is often the key to victory on a stage, and leads to any number of insane interactions. the double ball powerup is particularly enjoyable this time around since the control you have over the ball's speed and arc means skilled players can more reliably keep both balls in rotation, whereas the multiple ball upgrade in arkanoid felt more like a single use shotgun if anything.
as if all this managing of various systems wasnt enough, the final key to the puzzle is how far strikey sisters goes in the completionist angle. it's one thing to clear a stage, but to clear it well means collecting coins dropped from every brick you destroy, which effectively means players have to intelligently manage a ball in rotation, enemies attempting to trap or kill them, and coins falling from destroyed bricks at any given moment. it's a tough balancing act, but with every tool at your disposal it can be made fair. the more coins you've amassed, the more likely it is you'll get other collectables as well from chests which you still have to hit to open - emeralds, keys which unlock secret levels, and a tarot spell which, if successfully used, destroys enemies and adds them to your bestiary. breakout as a genre is at its best when there are several components interwoven with the core mechanics of keeping a ball in rotation, and for those pursuing mastery strikey sister presents an incredibly compelling solution.
like many great games, strikey sisters threads together order and chaos to brilliant effect. it's a smart and tightly designed title with a great deal of miscellaneous content to dig into. i've always had a fondness for these kinds of coffee break games you can play in between long days spent working - i wouldn't have put as many hours into the first risk of rain as i did if this wasn't the case - but strikey sisters is so, so easily the gold standard of this branch of design. bravissimo, dya games
2 Comments
would be interested to know your take on this vs Wizorb tbh as that's the game it immediately reminded me of
PZT
1 year ago