xbox live indie game reviews

Break In sounds like a pretty sweet game from it's description. I mean, what's not to love about a game that is an amalgamation of a bunch of old school games that you played in arcades or on the Atari 2600? My imagination conjured an image of Break Out + Pac-Man + Missile Command + Frogger where I dodged blocks and ate missiles to open mysterious doors to other worlds. Arcade action plus puzzles?  I, for one, was intrigued. So I fired up the old Xbox to take a look.

I mistook the apparent first level of Break In for an amusing interactive title sequence, as I bounced my ball dutifully across the screen to spell *ta da* - “Break In”. I thought this was a fun touch, so I maintained my excitement about the rest of the game. Then came level two, which, again, involved me banking my ball blindly to spell out “Black” and “White”. Level three had some lines of colors that I believe was supposed to remind me of some old arcade game or logo, but I didn't recognize it.. Level four had a giant, pixelated “A” button (I have terrible art skills, but even I could make a giant green circle and stick an “A” on it so it didn't look so stupid), which was apparently a clue to hold down the “A” button (which continually made some obnoxious beeping noise that made me think I was making an invalid command) to keep the ball from changing color as I replicated the color wall pattern from the previous level... one block at a time. Level five had some diagonal pattern. You get the picture.

Somewhere along the line, there was supposed to be a giant mystery to unravel. At least that's what I read. Past the game description, there really aren't any actual game instructions. There are a few vague hints that appear when you pause the game, which don't really tell you anything you can't already figure out. Basically, you hit a bunch of invisible bricks that become visible when you hit them and often send your ball ricocheting in some direction you were totally unprepared to travel. Sometimes the bricks change color.  Sometimes the ball does.  So it's like an inverted Break-Out, except for the fact that you have no actual targets and only the most menial attempt at a goal or a purpose.  And sometimes, things change color.

On a positive note, this game has great potential to entertain young, lonely 4-year-olds, as it combines two of their favorite playtime traditions: blocks and invisible friends. For pretty much everyone else, you'll probably wonder why you're playing pong against an invisible opponent.