Arkanoid came out well over 30 years ago, and if that isn’t enough to make most people feel old, various attempts to make the game itself into a genre should. It is no longer simple twists that people are putting on the old classic, as most of the games have to have some kind of lasting appeal. This leaves the question whether Drawkanoid manages to change enough to make it stand out.
Watch our stream of Drawkanoid embedded below:
The main thing that changes Drawkanoid from any other clone is that the player literally draws (get it? DRAWkanoid) the paddle for the ball to hit. There is an, decreasing, amount of bullet time that allows the user to produce an instrument, but in the end it is very much not as easy as it sounds. Between blocks that shoot things, moving blocks, and other annoyances, the game finds a way to not make things easy.
That is also not to say that the player is without advantages. Between plays rewards are granted in the way of credits that can be cashed in for permanent power-ups. While not all of them are created equally, some of them do break the game ever so slightly more than others.
At the end of the day Drawkanoid does not hide exactly what it is, Arkanoid with enough thrown in to keep the itch from taking control. It neither reinvents the game, nor is it a basic remaster. It is a happy middle ground, and it knows that. It is also fairly priced. Feel free to pick it up on Steam, because there isn’t a ton of reason not to.
Rating
Our Rating - 7
7
Total Score
A modern take on the ball vs bricks simulation.