{"id":16571,"date":"2017-06-23T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T00:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16571"},"modified":"2017-05-25T17:39:39","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:39:39","slug":"arkanoid-vs-space-invaders-ios-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/23\/arkanoid-vs-space-invaders-ios-android\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders (iOS, Android)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Space Invaders is one of the most iconic and influential video games of all time.\u00a0 Arkanoid, while not as recognized as Space Invaders, improved the concept of Breakout with better graphics and power-ups.\u00a0 I also have a lot of special memories with Arkanoid because it was one of the few arcade games my dad would play at the nearby Pizza Inn when I was a kid, and it was one of the first NES games I got (I thought the included paddle controller was cool).\u00a0 And yeah, both games were made by the same company, Taito, and they\u2019ve been around for more than half a century!\u00a0 So what happens when you mix the two games together?\u00a0 Well you get Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders, a unique mash-up of the two classics.\u00a0 It\u2019s available to download on mobile devices, but reviewed on iPad here.<\/p>\n

In the game, you control the Arkanoid paddle, called Vaus, at the bottom of the screen.\u00a0 Use your finger to move it left or right.\u00a0 On the top of the screen on each level you will find aliens from Space Invades and blocks from Arkanoid.\u00a0 Your mission is to destroy a certain number of aliens and\/or blocks on each level (it varies depending on the stage).\u00a0 To do this, you must bounce the aliens\u2019 shots with the paddle so they go up and hit them.\u00a0 Depending on the angle you bounce the shots, they\u2019ll go back at an angle as well.\u00a0 But if you pull down on the paddle and fling it up at the right time, you can return their shots straight up and super fast.\u00a0 If you are unable to complete the mission before time runs out, it\u2019s Game Over and you must start the stage again.<\/p>\n

Like Arkanoid, power-ups will fall for you to catch when you destroy certain blocks and invaders.\u00a0 These power-ups can increase your time, give you extra coins, and more.\u00a0 One power-up increases an attack meter on the side of the screen.\u00a0 When it\u2019s full, you\u2019ll be able to bounce a ball like in Arkanoid to destroy more invaders and blocks.\u00a0 When this happens, time freezes, so you\u2019ll want to take advantage of that to zap as many aliens as possible.\u00a0 Another power-up will activate a recruit helper for a short time.\u00a0 These helpers will let you fire missiles, make balls go through blocks, slow down time, extend your paddle, and much more.\u00a0 What cool about these helpers is that they are characters from other Taito games!\u00a0 Some I\u2019ve seen are the dragons from Bubble Bobble, the guy from Parasol Stars, a soldier from Front Line, the spy from Elevator Action, the kiwi from New Zealand Story, Zac from Pu-Li-Ru-La, and many more!\u00a0 Some I didn\u2019t even recognize myself, but you can bet I looked up info on them!\u00a0 Spend coins to recruit helpers as well as buy power-ups before a stage.\u00a0 You can also unlock helpers by completing certain achievements.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of replay value to be had.\u00a0 There are tons of stages, and you can replay them to get a better score.\u00a0 Once you pass a certain number of stages, you can try them in Hard Mode.\u00a0 In this mode, if you miss bouncing back a bullet, your time goes down!\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Speaking of which, the difficulty is the only problem I had with the game.\u00a0 It gets extremely hard pretty early in, and power-ups take a lot of coins to buy.\u00a0 Most mobile games appeal to the causal market, but this one might frustrate them!\u00a0 Or maybe I just suck at the game?\u00a0 At any rate, I still like it a lot, and it’s a good deal at only five bucks or so, and there are no in-game purchases or ads.\u00a0 I think it would make a great arcade game, too!<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, I recently went to an arcade that I may write an article on later.\u00a0 At the arcade, all my favorite titles there were from Taito, the makers of this game as well.\u00a0 Some of those include Groove Coaster, Elevator Action: Death Parade, and Space Invaders Frenzy.\u00a0 Just goes to show you that when it comes to these kinds of games, Taito\u2019s still got it after all these years!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Violence is pretty minimal.\u00a0 You can make blocky aliens explode, and your paddle will disintegrate if you run out of time, but that\u2019s it. \u00a0Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the high difficulty.\u00a0 It\u2019s a one-time purchase game, so there are no in-game purchases or ads.\u00a0 Well, almost.\u00a0 You see, in the options screen, you can click on a link that takes you to Zuntata\u2019s web site where you can buy the soundtrack to the game.\u00a0 Zuntata is Taito\u2019s in-house band that makes all their game music, and while Zuntata is pretty darn awesome, I guess a game having a link to a web site where you can buy soundtracks requires a bit of parental supervision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space Invaders is one of the most iconic and influential video games of all time.\u00a0 Arkanoid, while not as recognized as Space Invaders, improved the concept of Breakout with better graphics and power-ups.\u00a0 I also have a lot of special memories with Arkanoid because it was one of the few arcade games my dad would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16571"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16573,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16571\/revisions\/16573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}