ArkX follows your traditional Arkanoid clone with a paddle, ball and block design in which you must destroy the blocks with a bouncing ball which are returned with your paddle. This game however has a few twists on the genre; time limits, a store, darkness and bosses to name but a few.
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ArkX comes with 40 levels and while it does not seem a lot, they are not exactly your usual run of the mill Arkanoid style clear the bricks and win type levels. Unlike Arkanoid, you are able to have more than one ball in play without having to collect a multiball power up. Thanks to a time limit to complete the level, multiple balls are encouraged and are required to gain the best ranking and in turn the best amount of cash to use in the store. (QXW27) This leads to an almost puzzle like game as you have to carefully control multiple balls on some levels. There are bosses at the end of each set of stages which adds some variety to the game and are a welcome addition, they are not overly hard to beat but the level modifiers do make it trickier.
As you progress through the levels the difficulty increases and some new obstacles such as teleports are introduced and add a challenge to the game as you try to direct your ball into certain areas to reach or avoid them. In addition there are two level modifiers which are Light and Size, the Light modifier slowly dims the screen until it is pitch black and Size slowly reduces the size of your paddle. (8XVMF) Both modifiers can be temporarily delayed by destroying a block, the modifiers adds another element to the game and provide a good challenge to overcome in order to complete the level. A couple more modifiers to add a bit of variety would have been great but its nothing major that here are only two.
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An Arkanoid clone would not be much fun without some power ups and ArkX does not fail. There are over 15 power ups with positive and negative effects ranging from triple ball, increase and decrease paddle sizes, a gun, invert controls and the excellent level clear power up. (WMVQJ) The power ups all work well and are good fun, in particular the triple ball which will split all existing balls into three. If you are good enough to keep the balls in play and collect another triple ball, they will all split into three again which leads to some excellent frantic gameplay!
Other features include a multiplayer mode which allows up to four players locally to battle it out against each other. A shop is also available where you can spend your hard earned cash to unlock extra levels, multiplayer modes and more. This is a good addition as it gives you something extra to play for and collecting the cash necessary to buy everything will take some time. (CJHPB) There are eleven trophies to collect and range from performing a combo, completing the game and killing your first boss. Some are very tricky to unlock and again it gives something to work towards if you like these challenges.
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The graphics are bright and colourful and work well on the game, sometimes the animated backgrounds can be a little distracting but it adds to the challenge. There are a few music tracks to listen to and are overall fine. Sound effects are plentiful and work well in the game. Presentation is done well with moving the ball to select the menu options which makes a nice change from the usual boring menus.
ArkX costs 80 :MSPoints: and is worth the money. The 40 levels will keep you occupied for some hours and then there is the replay value of gaining the best rank on each level which will take a lot longer. The multiplayer mode keeps the game fresh as long as you have some mates to play with. (RDM73) ArkX is a great Arkanoid style game with some good ideas to improve on the classic genre. ArkX gets a thumbs up from me.
You can find more information on ArkX on the homepage here.
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