Breakrusher: Breaking Boxes without Breaking the Bank

Breakrusher Windows Phone

Breakrusher is a Windows Phone 7 take on the classic of using a paddle to prevent a ball going out of play, making it hit and break boxes whilst in play to (hopefully) clear the level of all boxes.

The paddle is controlled by dragging your finger. I found this to work well with no issues during my playing of it. The interesting part in this game is that movement is not limited to horizontal scrolling; you are free to move the paddle anywhere on the screen. This enables use of the paddle to break boxes (this often requires multiple ‘hits’) whilst the ball does its thing elsewhere on the screen. Doing this, however, now means you have to be highly aware of the ball’s positioning so that it does not creep out of play whilst you are trying to gain an advantage. By squeezing a ball into a box you are even able to play it through that box. I found this to be a nice twist on the classic horizontal scrolling that I personally have not seen elsewhere.

Other than that, the game plays rather as expected. It is fair to say that is its one stand-out feature – although a rather good one. The game features leaderboards for its multiple levels, although it is unclear to me how many there are (but the game description in Marketplace claims 150). One thing I really feel this game lacks is a level selection menu on screen; you merely progress from one level to the next with no option to go back that I have seen.

Returning to the gameplay, another interesting aspect – although this may possibly have been done before, but not in anything I have seen – is that the boxes can all of a sudden scroll downwards – and, to really mess with you, back up! This will keep you alert – or catch you napping – and extends the length of levels beyond the initial screen real estate. One feature that has definitely been done before in all manner of games is power ups, and these are scattered across levels hidden in boxes. This aspect is well-implemented and can, amongst other things, increase paddle size or slow the ball down.

The graphics are neither spectacular nor poor; they are, however, slightly mediocre and could perhaps do with some refinement. The game looks a bit bland, but then they are just boxes and the gameplay is the critical aspect, which it does reasonably well.

The game plays nicely and the free-moving paddle is a nice addition which serves the game well. Overall, it is a fun game to distract from doing other things, but the apparent lack of level selection renders obsolete the leaderboards and means you will not be repeating levels to better scores and it seriously diminishes replayability. It offers quite a few levels, but I definitely suggest going for the Trial first before moving on to the paid version. This is a decent start, and small improvements and changes would make a big difference.

Breakrusher Video Demo

Breakrusher Screenshots

Version Under Review: 1.1.0.0

This game costs $0.99, and there is also a Trial version available which offers 6 levels in one mode and 1 bonus level. Only score awards are given. In the full game there are 12 awards that may be given as bronze, silver or gold.

Small easter egg: you may touch screen with four fingers in menu and emit more particles, totally useless but fun. Version 1.2 will introduce level background preview when level is finished.

Our Rating for Breakrusher

Scan this QRcode with Bing vision ( Hit the hardware Search button and click on the small icon that looks like an eye ) on your Phone to download the App to your phone.

Price : $0.99