HOT PINK

Good, fast, simple, but with enough random challenges and combos to juggle. It's the perfect start of the gaming session / end of the session little game to play.

If you're even looking at this game out of interest of the the genre, you need to get this. Background: I play tons of games like this, going back to original breakout games and pong, the original Arkanoid games, countless old 80s/90s PC variations and clones, modern installations by Atari and Tatio, budget Steam and mobile games. I own paddle controllers. I pedantically criticize breakout game controls in Steam reviews, and several times, Atari has released updates that address my concerns I alone raised about their their games. This is my house. Most new entries either stick close to the original formula but add a couple new visual or gameplay tweaks, and know well-enough to not stray too far. Other recent attempts will stray wildly away from anything that looks or feels remotely like old Breakout/Arkanoid but do so without definitively, objectively improving the experience, leaving one with a "It wasn't broke, but you you tried to fix it and you broke it" response. Leading one to wonder if innovative breakout games can even still be released, or if the genre suffers the same fate as some music genres, where you can't really go outside the genre's vocabulary without creating something outside the genre, thereby confining the genre to re-doing what has been done. Hot PInk delivers an truly modern experience with non-tradiitional "brick" configurations, game-play that isn't exactly level-based, having an almost rogue-like experience. But it doesn't feel like some roguelike that happens to be breakout/arkanoid. It was clearly made by lovers of the genre, gently pushing the boundaries at the exact right nuance to bring something new that still satisfies that old itch, quite an accomplishment. One of the best choices was to lean into the Bust-A-Move design to make multi-ball more appealing. In a nice relaxing game of Arkanoid, multi-ball can be ignored if the player is too stresesed atm to deal with multiple balls. This game actually fixes that long-standing issue with that pwoer-up. Now, as bricks come crashing down on you, you crave multi-ball like a pinball player. It's touches like these that prove the creators are true, sincere lovers of the genre who happened to have some Eureka ideas about some modest but awesome improvements that really do push the genre, just enough. Love it, my only grip is I can't buy more skins with different visuals/music, and even slightly changed rules/powerups. This is a solid enough foundation to build a platform on. Feature up-and-coming composers, DJs and visual artists, and you'll all cross-promote each other. I'd pay 5 bucks for two more skins, easy. I'd produce music for a skin in a heartbeat. TL;DR - Arkanoid meets Bust-A-Move by Pinball Lovers. with Retrowave vibe. One of the best modern titles in the genre. Room for massive expansion via DLC but is still a masterpiece if they never do that.