Drawkanoid

[b]drawkanoid[/b] is a fun take on the traditional breakout, with [b]you drawing the paddle[/b] when the ball is about to leave the stage. it's lightning-fast until the ball enters the bottom of the screen, then it goes bullet-time for a bit, letting you do your thing. what's really cool is you [b]don't need to clear the whole board[/b], spending days on hunting that elusive corner piece. if all the marked bricks are gone, the boss comes down from above and hitting it once ends the level. there are also [b]permanent upgrades and equippable power-ups to unlock[/b] with points, plus two more game modes. [i]countdown[/i] has a timer instead of lives (no conundrum though), [i]zen[/i] is completely pointless, as usual. you might think this sounds way too easy, and I'm sure it is for some, but when there's a million tiny moving things on the screen, some spawning right next to the ball, it can get frustrating. seeing where the ball is heading can also be difficult sometimes, with previous trails so close to each other if the ball keeps bouncing back almost immediately. charged power-ups appearing in random places at the bottom of the level is also an issue, as it's very easy to acciden…

This is an interesting take on breakout where you draw the paddle with your mouse. I think the game is a fun time but I have experienced bugs where levels cannot be cleared. This seldom happens and I don't personally mind because I can just start a new run, but I put it out there because I doubt the game will receive any updates.

My computer can't handle the graphics; when there's too many shiny visual effects the game stutters pretty bad. Also this is not what I expected to be a traditional brick-break with some roguelike style twist; my eyes are mainly focused on the line-drawing part and unlike those traditional brick-break games I can't focus on what happens above. I feel like I'm missing what makes a brick-break game satisfying to play in this one.

Giving this a highly tentative recommendation. I do think it's very cool, but I find the wide paddle, increased time slow, and aiming upgrades all basically necessary to make the game playable at all, and even then I find it way too fast to aim consistently, which makes it sort of impossible to apply any strategy, so instead I'm just brain-deadedly bouncing the ball. Which has its fun, but makes it hard to get any depth out of the game. I also find it odd that all the upgrades I listed are, well, upgrades, when all they do is make the game easier rather than change something about how the game works. Personally I would prefer them to be difficulty settings, and then maybe you get bonus points for having them switched off.

Ever since the "Indie Explosion" of games on Steam, I've been attracted to Breakout Clones - games that mimicked Breakout and Arkanoid "paddle and ball" style games but a with a new twist. While I was only marginally entertained at best by these games as a child, these new variants of the genre have been alot of fun for me. Ironically, probably the worst one I've played of these is the official Breakout recharged. Drawkanoid is another one of these games - a name that channels the spirit of Arkanoid plus the ability to redraw your paddle. I'd say the game is a bit more akin to Shatter, as the bricks have physical properties causing them to float around the board if they are loose or come in the form of bullets being shot from a sort of turret brick that shoots out bricks similar to patterns seen in bullet Hell games. In Arkanoid, you slid a paddle at the bottom of the screen to bounce a ball up towards bricks which could randomly drop power ups. In Drawkanoid, you use the mouse to draw a paddle in a field at the bottom the screen. When the ball returns to this area, you have limited time in slow motion to draw a paddle to redeflect the ball back to the bricks. Instead of power up…

Is underwhelming. Not essential: it does not have starting tips or tutorial.