Collection essentials #346: Arkanoid R 2000 (PS1)

Last year, one of the early games I covered was Super Breakout on the Atari 2600. You’ve almost certainly seen Breakout or one of its clones in some form. The simple yet addictive gameplay involves moving a small rectangle left and right at the bottom of the screen in an attempt to hit a ball around so that it ricochets off all the blocks in each level, destroying them. Since it was so successful, it’s no surprise that Breakout imitators started to pop up before long. 

Among the most notable of these imitators was Arkanoid from Taito, the same people who developed the incredibly successful and important arcade hit Space Invaders. Arkanoid has the same basic gameplay as Breakout, but has new gameplay elements to make gameplay more dynamic and exciting. Certain blocks, when broken, will drop a power-up that falls slowly toward the bottom of the screen for the player to try and collect. These power-ups include slowing the ball down, making two clones of the ball, giving the player the ability to “grab” the ball so they can shoot it back out from wherever they please, and my favorite which is the laser so you can simply blast blocks away! There are enemies that appear sometimes, which don’t serve to defeat the player directly, but instead can deflect the ball in a way that’s difficult to predict.

Arkanoid got a port on the NES that didn’t make my list, although you could argue that it should have. When I got my own NES as a young teenager, Arkanoid was one of the games it came with and I did think it was really cool. But the problem is that it requires a special knob controller if you really want to play it properly, and those controllers are expensive and prone to failure, so I never bought one. I figured there are better alternatives for a home Arkanoid experience. I also considered putting a sequel, “Arkanoid: Doh It Again”, on my list, but also decided against it. Instead, this is my Arkanoid version of choice, Arkanoid R 2000 on the PlayStation.

This is an updated version of the fourth Arkanoid game. Curiously, the third and fourth Arkanoid games released in the same year, within a very short timeframe, and they aren’t all that different. A rather puzzling decision by Taito. The fourth Arkanoid game was originally known as “Arkanoid Returns”, releasing in arcades, and then getting a PlayStation release, but only in Japan. But then a couple years later, they decided to give a massive update to Arkanoid Returns, and thus Arkanoid R 2000 was born, which has all the content from Returns plus quite a bit more. And sadly, this one also only released in Japan. Perhaps that’s because it’s a rather simple-and-unimpressive-looking game with 2D graphics, and publishers figured that Western markets wanted PlayStation games that looked more cutting edge.

Anyways, Arkanoid R 2000 doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, but it’s just dang fun. You will see new little gameplay things thrown in here and there, such as blocks that temporarily vanish, or deadly falling things that you have to avoid. There’s also a mode that lets you create your own levels, which is really cool. But what’s extra cool about this game is that it’s compatible with certain special controllers for the PlayStation, such as the NeGcon and the Jogcon by Namco. The NeGcon, for example, is a strange controller that you can twist in the middle, and moving your paddle by twisting the controller instead of using a d-pad actually gives you a lot more precision, and it’s a really fun way to play!

There are other Arkanoid games and fun ways to play them out there, and this is one of the best. Not the fanciest PS1 game by any means, but good and solid arcadey fun, and that’s enough for essential status in my book.