BrickBreaker on the Blackberry

After owing a Blackberry Curve for the better part of a year, I finally got involved in the one game that ships with the device after I had some free time during a recent game convention. The premise is simple enough, being like any number of block/brick games which require you to bounce a ball with a little paddle and break through bricks on the screen.

The game is frustratingly addictive, especially once you realize that everything either comes together or blows apart on Level 16. For many months of play (casual play, I’m not playing it around the clock!) I would do well on all the levels up until the dreaded 16th. No matter how many lives I accumulated, it usually sapped them all. However, one day I squeaked past the level only to be greeted with the strange land on the other side – and I wasn’t mentally prepared to overcome them.

Now though, I’ve made it past 16 with enough lives to make a serious run at completing the whole 34-level game. I have one life left, I’m on level 27, and hoping to take these fumes in my tank the whole distance. I’ve realized though that once you’ve gotten past the “hard” level at 16, the game really opens up and becomes easier. It becomes more about ball control as you go along…which usually means just getting the ball where it needs to go and then it follows its own path the rest of the way. Easy!

The secret to level 16 is to get the ball as vertical as possible when it goes over the top brick. For untold games I would shoot the ball sideways up the chimney so that it was shooting across the top and coming back down the other side over and over. If the balls is vertical it mostly does all the work for you. If you are really lucky you will get the gun power up, which allows you to remove the bottom row of indestructible bricks and hit the rest of the bricks from the bottom.

BrickBreaker continues the addiction which is inherent with Blackberry. Play with caution!

UPDATE: I was stopped at level 31. Now I have to start all over!

UPDATE 2: I reached level 33, had one ball left, and only a few bricks left to clear. Bricks were pretty low on the screen but I was feeling confident–until the ball did one of those crazy things and fit perfectly on the diagonal and dropped before I realized what had happened. So close! Oh yeah, in some games I waste 8 lives on level 16, while others I get through without losing ANY! Crazy game…

UPDATE 3: Victory! While some may see this as the ultimate time waster – I feel like I’ve accomplished a heroic feat by getting through all 34 levels.  It happened so fast I barely had time to appreciate it – and I whizzed right through level 34 and back to do level 1 again (it repeats the same 34 levels, but the ball moves faster now).  I told my wife that once I beat it I could finally quit playing it, but it turns out the game is actually more enjoyable now that I’m not stressed to make it to the end.  If I die on level 16 for the 1001st time, no big deal!  At least now I know that victory is possible.