A brick breaking bat and ball game for PC
Brick Smash in Games by Zaweba is bat and ball against a wall of bricks, with capsules for a wide bat, multi-ball, a laser and more. Twelve walls.
Bat and ball against a wall of bricks is the idea behind Brick Smash, the brick breaking game in Games by Zaweba. You keep the ball in play, smash every brick to clear the wall, and catch falling capsules for a wide bat, extra balls, a laser and more. It's free, original and offline, drawn in a 16-bit home computer style.
There are twelve walls, and then round again faster.
The bat and the ball
Move the bat with the mouse or with Left and Right. Click or press Space to launch the ball, and later to fire the laser.
Where the ball hits the bat sets its angle. Hit it near the middle and it goes up steeply; hit it near the edge and it goes off at a sharp angle. That's your main tool: you aim by choosing which part of the bat meets the ball.
Bricks that fight back
Most bricks break with one hit. Silver bricks take several hits, and gold ones never break at all. So you need to clear the breakable bricks around the gold ones, and treat the gold ones as part of the wall's shape.
Getting the ball above the bricks is the best thing that can happen. A ball bouncing around behind the wall clears bricks on its own while you wait.
The capsules
Falling capsules give power-ups. W is a wide bat, M is multi-ball, L is a laser, S is a slow ball, C lets you catch the ball, and P gives an extra bat. Catch the ones that help you right now.
The laser is great for clearing silver bricks. Multi-ball clears walls fast but is hard to keep track of. Slow ball and catch help when the game gets fast. Not every capsule is worth chasing if it means missing the ball.
Twelve walls, then faster
After twelve walls the game goes round again, faster. That's where a good score is made, so keep spare bats for the second round if you can.
The 16-bit style gives Brick Smash bright, shiny bricks and smooth movement, the look of the 16-bit home computers. It suits the game: the ball is easy to follow, the capsules are easy to read, and each wall looks different as you go. Twelve walls is a good length for an evening, and the faster second round gives you something to aim for once you can clear them all.
When a wall is down to its last few bricks, take your time. It's easy to lose a ball chasing a single brick in a corner, so aim with the edge of the bat and let the angle do the work.
Opening Brick Smash
Brick Smash is on the Retro arcade shelf of Games by Zaweba. Press Ctrl+F and type brick to find it. The title card explains how to play, F1 explains it again, Esc pauses and F11 fills the screen. The game pauses itself if you switch windows.
Your best score and plays are kept on the tile, in a scores file on your own PC. There are no adverts and no accounts, and every brick and bounce is drawn and synthesised in code. If you like this, Bubble Pop on the same shelf is another 16-bit game of aiming and bouncing.
