French company Microids is collaborating with Japanese veteran Taito to release a new instalment in the Arkanoid series: Arkanoid: Eternal Battle. It's expected to launch next year, with French studio Pastagames (Rayman Mini, Pix the Cat) in charge of development. No platforms have been confirmed so far, but Microids has been a solid supporter of the Switch for a long time now.
The original Arkanoid launched in arcades in 1986 and is part of the 'block breaker' genre popularised by Atari's Breakout. It was ported to various home systems at the time, and a sequel, Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh, arrived in 1987, while the SNES sequel Arkanoid: Doh It Again and arcade entry Arkanoid Returns both hit the market 10 years later in '97. After another 10 years, Arkanoid DS was published in 2007.
Pastagames founder and owner Fabien Delpiano had this to say:
For me, it was in the French city of Nice, 54 boulevard Jean Médecin, in a dark arcade called ‘Automat’. It was full of neons and highly diverse people, from bikers to middle schoolers. The arcade machine was breathtaking, with its metal ball-bearing paddle, while I was just a regular fifteen-year-old trying to get on with adolescence. We immediately fell for each other, and our relationship lasted several years. We all have our own story with Arkanoid. It feels so good to come together again, after all these years.
Masakazu Suzuki, director and executive officer of Taito, added:
We are very pleased that Microids, a company we trust, will be releasing a modern version of a popular title that Taito released 35 years ago. We’re confident that both old fans and new players will be very satisfied with the game.
Are you a fan of Arkanoid? Are you looking forward to this new entry? Let us know with a comment
Comments 35
That was a weirdly epic trailer for a reboot of... Arkanoid. I grew up with the original, though, so I'm curious to see what this is about.
Arkanoid is definitely the kind of game that seems hard to mess up. But 3rd party developers have muddied up timeless arcade games before. I would like to at least see some gameplay before I look forward to it.
im in! i remember reading the review for "doh it again" in nintendo power... a few years ago and ive always liked these kinds of games.
dxball being the GOAT.
After watching the trailer, I know everything there is to know about the game. ie nothing
The Taito game I want the most - in original form and also a modern 2D (NOT 2.5D) update - is Rastan.
I hope this reboot is in the same style as Space Invaders Extreme on the DS.
Loved the original on NES. Only made it to the final boss once. Had to break out the Game Genie to actually beat it.
Tried to play on an arcade, but my skills did not translate over well.
In terms of Taito... I'm still waiting for a new comprehensive single player campaign + online Bust-A-Move game on Switch!
Maybe even a Bust-A-Move 99 game could work & suffice?
... Wun can only hope.
always think arkanoid totally rules until i play it again and go insane hearing the lack of music, just the pinging of the ball missing the 1 tile wide gap to get the last brick again
Microids? Eew. They released Millionaire with a large amount of content missing from the cartridge, requiring a 2GB+ download (ring any bells, Pokémon Company?), which really left a bad taste in my mouth.
Arkanoid is about as simple as games get, and like Tetris, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders, these arcade franchises never seemed to have changed very much since their inceptions. I'll consider this, especially if it's something akin to the Space Invaders Extreme games (and I'm still bummed that Extreme 2 wasn't included in either of the two Space Invaders collections released on Switch), but there are so many treasures available on the Switch now that it's a little hard to justify spending one's hard-earned money on something as basic as Arkanoid. Surprise me.
In my opinion Arkanoid is the best Block Breaker game out there. It's very simple compared to others but the mechanics of it worked better than others too. If the price is right I'll have to get this.
What an elaborate teaser just to reveal a name
I used to play Arkanoid back in the day.
Used to play on my C64 with a 1541 mouse, wonder it it will have blue tooth mouse feature. Ha! Yeah right
Hopefully it's better than the Amico version.
@syrupdash Space Invaders Extreme, Tetris Effect, and Pac Man CE should be the standard for taking old, simple mechanic games and making them new and vibrant. I hope they pull it off.
"We all have our own story with Arkanoid"
I can just see the suits in an office discussing the marketing tagline to use. Let me go vomit in my mouth, real quick.
We need Homer Simpson for a celebrity endorsement: DOH!!!
(I know, low-hanging fruit, but…)
Looking forward to this! I have fond memories of the NES original!
I LOVE Arkanaoid, but all we have on the system at the moment are very low-budget takes on the game that don't do a lot to improve on its 35 year old game design or aesthetics. Hopefully this gives us a version of the game fit for modern systems.
Played this to death on my Speccy. Great wee game.
Anyone play Strikey Sisters? Thought it was pretty good with nice tunes..
@wuntyme8 The best official online Bust-a-Move game was Puzzle Bobble Online, a six-player version from 2002 with really good gameplay that is sadly resigned to the dustbin of forgotten online games because it was not localized. That game needs to be brought back in a global release!
Wonder if they will implement touchscreen. The Arkanoid vs Space Invaders game on Switch will be hard to top.
I showed my mom the trailer for Pac-Man Museum+ (she loves Pac-Man, but has always had a very soft spot for Pac-In-Time, which has never been re-released) last Friday and she saw it, she said, “That’s so neat! I wish they would bring back Arkanoid, too.”
She probably means the original. though. I remember downloading Arkanoid Plus! on WiiWare and I don’t think she found it as fun as the one she played on NES.
Still super excited for this!
I also think Atari has Breakout: Recharged coming soon, which I imagine will be a lot like Arkanoid since all of the Recharged titles have added power-ups to the original games.
Arkanoid is my wife’s favorite game- she’s great at the arcades and I was able to get a Nintendo version where the controller works good. If they can release a paddle controller for this I’m sold. Especially if it’ll work on an upcoming arcade archives version
Metroid Prime 4 and Arkanoid got one thing in common, no footage released of actual gameplay. At least new Arkanoid got a name and release date. It should be a free offering like Tetris imo. Great game but we're not in 1989 anymore
My first brick breaker game. I remember being smitten by the arcade version, and I've loved Arkanoid since then. Looking forward to hearing more about this latest installment.
Not to be that snob, but Arkanoid really suffers without the arcade spinner knob controls. But I'll play it anyway, I spent many hours zoned out playing Super Break-out, NES Arkanoid, even Alleyway for the Game Boy. Arkanoid would do multiplayer so well, maybe that'll be the refresh that the franchise needs.
I loved playing Arkanoid on the Commodore 64. That said it’s aged and is pretty basic by today’s standards and really needs to be priced at less than $10 to even tempt me today
We're going to need an Atari paddle for this one.
Hey, if it's priced right and plays well I'll love this. I've always had a weird fascination with brick-breaking games since Alleyway on my original GameBoy. It's the perfect pick-up genre for short bursts, aside from tetris or puzzle league.
I want an Arkanoid 99
Excited, but only if there is a paddle controller available.
I imagine the title will be "Arkanoid: The Completely Unnecessary Remake".
The Arcade and NES versions are absolutely perfect, so I'll just stick to my NES Arkanoid.
I really need to break out my Amiga 500 and give Arkanoid some love again! Was such a great port & so great with the mouse controls.
Tap here to load 35 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...