Arkanoid

Arkanoid is the game that rescued the block breaker from being a curiosity. Taito took Breakout's basic idea, gave the paddle a name and a personality (the Vaus), and added power-ups, a boss and thirty-three levels of designed layout.

The power-ups are the real addition. A falling capsule changes the game: Expand (E) widens the paddle, Disruption (D) splits the ball into three, Laser (L) lets the Vaus shoot, Catch (C) grabs the ball and releases it on your timing, and Break (B) destroys everything in a straight line. The level design uses indestructible silver and gold blocks to build actual shapes, and the last stage ends with DOH, a wall-shaped boss that fires at the ball and has to be beaten with it. Arkanoid also started the tradition of the paddle dying to its own ball - the Vaus is destroyed if the ball lands past it, not just if the ball is lost. Sequels and clones followed immediately, and the whole genre of brick-breaker games traces here.

• ▸Power-up capsules with real, different effects
• ▸DOH - a boss that shoots back and must be beaten with the ball
• ▸Silver and gold indestructible blocks used as level design
• ▸The paddle is destroyed by its own ball landing past it