64 blocks I believe. It's like those break out games with powerups (don't know if they were in the first break out or added later). It has a world map consisting of a grid with each square being a level, some squares have items in them that you can equip your paddle(s) with (if you want to have more than one life you need to have more than one outfitted paddle) and there are planets around that you have to "explore" (they take up a certain number of squares on the map and you beat those levels to explore the planet) to find new paddles and clues to the position of Earth (getting there is your ultimate goal). The levels seem to be procedurally generated (with the claimed number of 16 million that's probably the only way) but they aren't completely random, e.g. the planet levels tend to have specialties depending on what the planet is like, one planet is fortified by an enemy nation and that means there are gun turrets around that try to shoot your paddle. A level is fixed, it has the same layout every time you play it (at least within the same game, no idea if they change when you start a new game) so it's not like those console roguelikes that generate their levels on the fly. Powerup densities vary between levels, many of the ones near my start had insane numbers of powerups but now I'm in areas that have a much lower number of them.
Hmm, gonna give this a whirl when it comes out in NA Monday. Just one more question: Do you ever have to download any levels online? Not that it's a problem, I just want to know.
Not to my knowledge. There are long load times for some reason but no online stuff AFAIK.
EDIT:Oh man, the pulse cannon is overpowered. Most lasers take 4 shots to break even a normal block, this thing breaks three blocks with one shot even if they can take multiple hits from a ball and fires as fast as regular lasers.
Had a nice 2 hour + play session when it came out today, and so far it seems to rank among the better DSiWare titles. The sound of the ball hitting the blocks occasionally drops out for minutes at a time, but that's about the only issue I've encountered. I'm still learning which items to avoid (mainly the "D"s that shrink your paddle, and those HORRIBLE "I"s that add a ton of blocks to the field).
I got this a while ago and love it. I also just opened up a alphabounce account. The online version is fun too. If you want try before you buy, try the online version. http://www.alphabounce.com/ Joek
This ESRB gave this game a Teen rating for violence and drug references. Does anybody know what the drug references is all about?
Alcohol counts AFAIK, there's a Whiskey power"up" that makes your balls drunk (and when it wears off they all become normal balls, no matter what kind of crazy upgrades you had...) and there's a ball that comes drunk by default. It also mentions that the inventor of that ball must've been seriously drunk.
Had a nice 2 hour + play session when it came out today, and so far it seems to rank among the better DSiWare titles. The sound of the ball hitting the blocks occasionally drops out for minutes at a time, but that's about the only issue I've encountered. I'm still learning which items to avoid (mainly the "D"s that shrink your paddle, and those HORRIBLE "I"s that add a ton of blocks to the field).
There's also some weirdness with the collision physics (sometimes the ball collides with the wrong side of a block and rockets and pulse canon shots collide unpredictably) but nothing major so far.
When I 100%ed the planet Xolt I got a paddle that is immune to negative effects, pretty useful for the barrage of powerups my fire ball releases on Rosanhyde. Too bad it's vulnerable to P because it goes autopilot then.
@ Slyerstone- I agree with you about the trailer, this game really does look like a winner for the DSiware service. Depends on how the review turns out I may have to pick this one up because I dont have anything else like this in my DS collection.
@ joeko- Thanks for the link. Good info for those of us who are unsure about this one....
By the way, does anybody know what the "production boost" variant of the P powerup does? One of my paddles got that as its ability but I have not seen anything happen when I collect it.
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