Taito revived the Atari "Breakout" brand in a big way in 1986. That was when Arkanoid reached arcades and swept across Japan and the USA like brushfire. The game's gist is this: Players control a paddle which bats a ball which in turn smacks into colored bricks above. The aim of the game is to clear the bricks on each stage with the ultimate goal of reaching and destroying an entity known as DOH.

Since hitting bricks ain't easy, power capsules would occasionally drop from broken bricks to imbue the paddle with laser fire or magnetic force. Conditional modifiers would also drop which slowed down the velocity of the ball or split it into three balls.

We were hooked on Arkanoid from the get-go and it would take NCS about a decade before we had the wherewithal to buy a pristine condition machine along with an Arkanoid II cab for the 'ol private collection. Taito announced Arkanoid DS a couple of months ago but it was only over the past weekend that preorders were finally opened up in Japan. The NDS Arkanoid game features 140 stages and a Wifi multiplayer mode. A Quest Mode and new BGM soundtracks round out the feature set to make Arkanoid DS a worthy successor to its coin-op forebears.

Jan Code: 4988611207147

View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.

» Press START or tap the title screen and the following options pop up:

1P GAME / Play a CLEAR GAME, a QUEST GAME, or a VS COM game
VS GAME / Go head-to-head against another player in the local vicinity
WI-FI / Go online to look for competitors and see who's the top Vaus
RESULT / View the top scores and ranking of players
OPTION / Adjust settings, buy items in the Shop, and Decorate (see below)

» Tapping on the OPTION setting unveils the following:

• SETTING / Change paddle speed and adjust Sound and Bgm volumes
• SHOP / Use earned game points to purchase goodies such as wallpaper, frames, music jingles, brick replacements (including Space Invaders bricks), and newtype Vaus designs.
• DECORATION / Change the look and sound of the levels across the eight planets to your liking. Note that the items that you purchase in the SHOP are used to provide the backdrops, bricks, etc for each planet's levels. At the outset, since you have no game points, the selections are sparse.

» Despite the "gap" in the viewing area between the two screens of the Nintendo DS hardware, the game plays well. Gamers may use the stylus to swish the Vaus left and right to block the ball and bat it back at the bricks overhead. The early levels are simplistic but as you grind deeper into the game, elaborate brick designs appear - the Space Invader level appears in Round B-5. The sound effects and opening jingle from the original coin-op version are spot-on.

» The purple mega-ball capsule which was originally seen in Arkanoid II occasionally drops from a brick. The mega-ball cuts through entire layers of bricks and can potentially clear a brick-filled screen with a few rebounds. The capsules are usually beneficial except for the miniature black capsule which will induce Vaus shrinkage.

» Note that Taito programmed D-pad movement control in the game in addition to stylus control and rotary paddle control. Right-handed players who hold the stylus with their right hands fire the lasers by pushing down on the D-pad. Left handed players who hold the stylus in their left hands will push the "B" button to fire the lasers after the red "L" capsule is collected.

» Completing each level successfully grants the player a 1000 point Barrier Bonus.

» The planets in the game are: Rhea, Kronos, Artemis, Neith, Operon, Idana, and Deimos. The names are primarily from Greek and Egyptian mythology.

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