Walls & Balls by RU0 Games, Price: $6.95
Reviewed October 2003 by Tony Peak

If someone was to come up to me and ask what I would like in a traditional, yet solid breakout game, my answer would be quite similar to Walls & Balls. Developed by RU0 Games, W&B doesn’t seek to break the mold, but instead delivers a great experience with its solid gameplay.

The game will be instantly familiar to any fan of breakout or Arkanoid. The basic goal is to simply bounce the ball off your paddle into the bricks above. Clear the field and move on to the next. Both helping and hindering you is power-ups and power-downs hidden in the field. Catch one of these labeled capsules and the magic begins. Your single ball could instantly split into 5, or become super charged. Catch a power-down and your paddle might shrink, making things all the more difficult.

There are two main things that determine how fun the gameplay in this game will be, to me: the layout of the levels, and the thrill of the power-ups. Thankfully, Walls & Balls offers plenty of both. The 100 levels are each quite unique and well thought out. Some offer fun themes, while others have clever traps and challenges to overcome. You won’t simply be fighting through drab random blocks time and time again. The power-ups keep things very entertaining, and there are a few surprises along with the standard crop. My personal favorite is the M capsule. This will cause the ball to split into three, but the twist is that whenever one or two of the triad is missed, the remaining ball will clone itself to keep three in play at all times. Little surprises like this keep things fresh and add strategy to an already tried and true game concept.

Another area W&B really shines is in the options. The game is extremely flexible, and the control schemes are no exception. With four control methods, it’s very easy to find a control method that fits your style of play. You can either control the paddle via customizable hardware keys, or with the stylus. They offer the choice between drag, tap, and even “fast tap”, which will instantly move the paddle to where you tap. While some may say fast tap breaks the spirit of the game, I’m glad the developers decided to include it nonetheless.

The graphics of Walls & Balls are quite solid, though nothing eye popping. In yet another bit of flexibility, you can even select the amount of particles that spark when you smash a block, and tweak the FPS for smooth gameplay. The effects are amusing to watch and things flow nicely even when the action heats up on screen. The ball effects are really fun, especially when you have 5 or 6 on screen at once and chain a few power-ups. Attention was obviously paid to detail, as little animations such as the paddle initializing at the start of each round show the effort that went into this title.

The sound is quite solid and about what one would expect -- arcade like, yet subtle. The music won’t exactly have you tapping your foot, but nonetheless it’s really quite good. I like the fact that both the sound and music volume can be adjusted separately. In the end the sound is rather average, but still only adds to the experience rather than doing it any harm.

Whether you’re new to the breakout genre or an old pro, Walls & Balls has the solid gameplay needed to deliver to such a diverse crowd. It sticks close to the original formula, while making small but precise improvements. W&B is by far the best Arkanoid clone I’ve played in ages, quite possibly since the original.

Playing Hints and Tips

Since the gameplay is rather straightforward, I’ll cover a few of the powerups you’ll see along the way. It may not be a complete list, but it’ll give you a start. I have no idea what they stand for, but I’ll guess a name so that you can remember them easier:

B: Bail – The exit will open and you can head for the next level.
C: Control – Catch and hold all balls that touch the paddle for a few moments.
D: Duplicate – Going one step beyond Multi, this one splits the ball into 5, but only once.
E: Extend – Extends your paddle a notch. More E’s mean an even larger paddle.
L: Laser – Fire dual lasers from your paddle to break the bricks above.
M: Multi - This handy power-up will split a ball into three, and constantly keep 3 balls in play.
O: Omnipotent – All balls on screen become super charged and can bust through anything without stopping.
P: Player – Extra life
S: Slow – Slows the speed of the balls a little
R: Reduce – Shrinks your paddle down a notch.

?: Random special effects – Random special effects such as a huge paddle or a tiny paddle.