Atari has steadily been putting a fresh spin on some of their classic games with their Recharged line of titles. So far, we’ve seen Asteroids, Centipede, and Black Widow Recharged and now the fourth entry, Breakout: Recharged, is here. Breakout had a lot of influence when it originally came out and over the years we’ve seen many fun spins on the formula in games like Shatter, Magic Orbz, and many more. So what exactly does the Recharged brand bring to this classic game and is it worth your time?
If you’ve ever played a Breakout game then the core concept here is the same: use your paddle at the bottom of the screen to hit the ball towards the blocks at the top of the screen until you break them all. The game is playable either solo or in two-player local co-op but no online play is included unfortunately. The traditional gameplay feels good to play but things get more complicated with the new power-ups and the different types of bricks. Power-ups that you can use include one that slows down time letting you hit the ball easier, homing missiles, spreadshots, Rapid fire, and many more. The new brick types include bricks that explode when you hit them that will cause other ones to break, enemy turrets that will try and shoot you, multiplying bricks that cause more to appear when broken, and more. I rather enjoyed these new gameplay elements as the different kinds of bricks cause you to have to think on how you are going to go about breaking them. The only real problem I had with these new things is that when a whole bunch of the new stuff starts kicking off it can be hard to keep track of what is going on on-screen due to the business of it all.
If you don’t enjoy those new things though you can play in the classic mode that removes all that new stuff and just keeps the updated visuals and controls. There is also a challenge mode that lets you try to complete 50 different challenges that range from having to destroy so many of a certain brick or reach a certain score. All of the modes also include online leaderboards so you can see how you stack up to others across the world.
The visuals in Breakout: Recharged have a nice clean look to them but also come off a bit basic and boring at times. The audio work is great though as composer Megan McDuffee has created some very upbeat electronic tunes to listen to as you play that really bring the energy. Trophy hunters will find 16 trophies to earn in this game including a Platinum trophy. It’s not a hard list by any means with most of them coming over time as you destroy a certain number of different types of bricks.
Breakout: Recharged is a fun spin on the classic formula but one that isn’t as memorable as some other games in recent years. It plays good and it’s nice that you can play pretty much all the modes with a friend locally. Fans of Arkanoid and Breakout games will enjoy it so long as they aren’t looking for something that changes up the formula drastically.
*Breakout: Recharged is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. PlayStation 5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Breakout: Recharged
$9.99
Pros
- Classic Breakout gameplay mixed with some new power-ups and brick types
- Excellent electronic soundtrack
- Can play every mode with a friend locally
- Challenge mode and online leaderboards help to get more out of this package
Cons
- No online co-op
- Doesn't do a lot that's new
- Screen can get busy at times
