We’ve been playing block breakers since Atari first released Breakout in 1976. Since then we’ve seen thousands of games perpetuating the ball-bounces-off-paddle-and-breaks-things formula. I mean I haven’t actually counted but thanks to the good folks at newly formed Tribute Games’ Wizorb, we can increment that count by one.

Gameplay

Early impressions of Wizorb (based primarily on trailer footage and screenshots) were that it was a fresh and sexy RPG brick breaker mashup. The reality is strikingly different. Though it isn’t entirely devoid of RPG elements, to label it as such would be an unreasonable exaggeration.  There are many of the genre’s trademark features, like a world map, vendor shops, a city in need of your help, and even a story that happens to make an appearance in Wizorb. While all these features don’t make it an RPG, they do considerably expand the game’s scope. They’ll also serve to compel you by expanding your purpose in the game beyond high scores — though there is a score board if that’s your thing.

The town in Wizorb is sort of the hub of the world. It starts out somewhat unlike most cities, towns, and villages in games. Rather than being destroyed in the first few cutscenes, it’s just already wrecked to begin with. Your mission as Cyrus the wizard is to transform into a ball and smash the forces of evil thereby collecting gold and paying to rebuild the Kingdom of Gorudo. While that all sounds pretty RPG like you won’t be gaining much beyond the satisfaction of rebuilding the city and it is more or less the closest thing to character development in the game. Which is to say once you’ve rebuilt the shop, you can use it. I guess that is a development?

Now that we’ve reigned in our once rampant expectations we can evaluate Wizorb for what it is and take note of just how well made a game it is. The classic brick breaker mechanics are all masterfully implemented: solid controls, unshakable frame rates,  all the standard power-ups, and of course some frenetic multiball action. In addition to the classical elements, there is also the slightly less common Arkanoid element of the game, which lets your staff-paddle blast off some fire balls. Which adds a very lovely dimension to what is otherwise an overly ball-centric genre.

I did encounter a few bugs in the game. I played the game for probably around seven hours and during that time I managed to crash it twice. This isn’t particularly gamebreaking and on the PC it is common place, but it may disturb a few of the console purists. There is also the issue of unlimited continues. You are intended to be limited to three continues, and then have to buy them with gold youve collected until it is exhausted and you must restart the world. If you simply select the save and quit option then select the “Resume Quest” option you’ll hop right back into the game at the level you died on. I actually found this “bug” to be a saving grace and think they should just go ahead and give infinite continues anyways as restarting a world can be quite frustrating due to their length.

Audio Visual

A delicious treat for your eye orbs is essentially the best way to describe Wizorb. The gorgeous pixel art by Jonathan Levine combined with the boss art and animations by Paul Robertson are masterful tributes to the NES generation. There is really a lot of love that went into the art, you can tell that everyone who touched the graphic design did so with the intent of making a beautiful game that appeared seemless despite having at least three different people manipulating pixels. I also want to specifically mention the animation of the wizard transforming into the orb as it is particularly bad ass.

Jean Chan and Justin Cyr are responsible for all the things that hit your ears. The composing that Jean did is pretty exceptional. The music has a really great feel that matches the visual of the game to perfection. I always feel that the mark of really great arcade game music is how it loops during long sometimes frustrating play sessions and Wizorb’s music holds up well in these situations. That said I may not go and jam out to them independently like I’ve been known to do with some of Danny B’s work. As far as the sound effects go, they are spot on. As you can imagine hearing an orb ping around back and forth could get really irritating if it weren’t precisely the right sound but none of that is an issue here.

Summary

So there’s no RPG element to this game– get over it. If you only slightly enjoy this style game you should absolutely pick this up. Even if, like me, you’re terrible at this style game but you love pixel art you should probably give it a go just for the pleasure of providing your eyes with a feast. All that said, it won’t light up your life and change your perspective on the universe with an innovative approach. But it will give you the satisfaction of repairing a poor puppy’s house, which happens to be the only person in that town who deserves your charity — who do they think I am? Habitat for humanity?

Wizorb is available now on XBLIG for 240 Microsoft Points.