Review: Breakout Beyond for Nintendo Switch

Okay, so there I was, just chilling and trying out this game called Breakout Beyond. It’s got this classic brick-breaking style but flipped sideways—kind of funky, right? You get these longer playfields, and while it’s pretty cool to kill time, there’s a twist: a lot of the stuff is locked up tight. Some folks might toss it aside out of boredom, but others? They’ll keep whacking away at those bricks, especially if they’ve got a buddy on board.

Honestly, let’s talk about this co-op thing. Playing alone? Eh, I kinda zoned out after a while. But throw in my wife grabbing the second paddle? Now we’re talking. Suddenly, I was sucked back in. I glanced at the leaderboards and, okay, maybe I’m not like most players, but we’ll figure that out later. Before you get into all the leaderboard action, you gotta dive into this “voyage” thing first.

So, voyage mode – it’s all about unlocking special bombs, powering up your paddle, and you can even slow down the game (though that cuts your score, sadly). Seriously, you’ll want that speed-down for the tougher levels. Especially solo. But hey, it does hook you with that “just one more try” thrill. And don’t be shy about tweaking that paddle sensitivity. Too twitchy or too sluggish? Your game’s toast. With 72 levels in total, my completionist brain was screaming to finish them all. Not a must, but tempting, ya know? Levels are kinda like stepping stones – you gotta beat one to open another.

Let’s get visual now. Breakout Beyond sticks to its roots but all spruced up. They brag about “Procedural audio and visual effects” – whatever that means, right? Anyway, the better you do, the cooler the sights and sounds get. You can tweak the tunes and noises separately, which is a sweet touch.

And yep, gotta circle back to the locked stuff. Like, seriously? Why are features like infinite mode and the original arcade game locked from the get-go? Makes no sense. Such a missed opportunity, really. If they’d been open from the start, the game would shine so much brighter. At least leaderboards got split into global, friends, and modes. Fun fact: my wife and I snagged #1 in co-op. But maybe folks just dig solo more?

Honestly, it’s tough to mess up Breakout because it’s just fun, even after all these years. But these developers, Choice Provisions, came a bit close with their weird lock-everything-away strategy. Still, it works out in the end, and that probably says a lot about their skills and how timeless the game really is.