Steam has offered a lot of classic indies over the past couple of decades, giving way to some especially fantastic experiences by indie developers who otherwise would never have been given the same spotlight back in the early 2000s and before. Wizorb is one of many early indies in this regards, recreating one of Atari's most famed games from the ancient era of the 70s, this being the iconic 'Breakout' that released almost half a century ago on the 13th of May 1976 in the arcade scene as the concept of video games was beginning to become a household name in the growing entertainment industry.
Naturally then we have to ask what this game brings to the table as far as improving on the original that it is based upon. I should note here that I have enjoyed my time with it overall, but I've also came to recognize certain faults of trying to work with a game concept that, at its core, is too rigid in its gaming mechanics and arcadey in its general premise to expand the concept much further.
This much I aim to explore in this review here though before I cover the gameplay of Wizorb, the first thing that most people glancing at this indie for the first time will notice is the artstyle that the developers behind Tribute Games Inc have chosen to go with as it is quite pleasing to the eye whilst also being faithful to the older games by keeping the graphics to 16-bit in order to maintain that pixelated 'look' which many retro-inspired indies seek to replicate in their own worlds.
Now to delve into how the gameplay works here, since you would be correct in assuming that the core gameplay of Breakout is carefully maintained here in that you have a paddle in the form of a wand that guides a ball (this being a magical orb) which is used to destroy the various coloured blocks that inhibit each of the game's sixty levels spread across five themed worlds.
Wizorb expands upon this by introducing new threats via enemies that slowly wander the map and engage with the player in different ways (some are harder to hit due to smaller hitboxes or faster mobility, others can teleport out of the way or even deflect the ball from the front!) to make the gameplay more engaging where obstacles are concerned alongside the inclusion of bigger blocks and stone blocks requiring multiple hits to destroy as well as gem blocks which only shatter when all of them match the same colour when hit to change said colour of the gem block.
To balance this out in the player's favour, one can make full use of the wizard's abilities that they control via the usage of black and white magic. These spells have different uses on the playing field that can aid you in clearing a level quicker, the four spells being separated into two tiers of offensive and supportive sorcery although these will cost a certain amount of magic to use.
For the basic tier of spells that cost just 10% of your magic bar to use when the orb is bouncing away from the wand, one can either summon a whirlwind to redirect the orb in a preferred direction to keep it bouncing on blocks longer or cast a fireball to directly destroy or harm blocks/enemies ahead of the wand. As for the advanced tier of spells which require 40% of the magic bar that can only be triggered right as the orb is about to hit the wand, the player can directly control the orb briefly to shimmy it into tight spots on the level or coat it in fire that will instantly destroy any enemies or blocks it comes in contact with for the several seconds it is active.
Alongside this the player can gain several items that are dropped by specific blocks, these include potions to refill magic and coins/gems which grant the player money that can be spent in shops and at the main hub to rebuild a broken village for progress. Although not all of these are good as several blocks hold traps or 'curses' which will inflict the player with debilitating effects if collected, including having your magic/money drained and speeding up the ball on the field among other things.
Though this can be offset with a careful building of 'charms' that the player can buy in the shops I spoke of earlier, which require a key to unlock that almost always can be gained in the same level itself, as these are little bonuses that range from a bigger wand and having three orbs at once to dealing double damage and even starting off at slower speeds to make the traditional 'Breakout' gameplay much more manageable for new players! These charms disappear when you lose a life, however skilled players can build up these charms and become not just good at the game but also have a mighty wand at their disposal if they can acquire all five charms together.
With the inclusion of 'boss battles' that have you dealing with a powerful foe requiring multiple hits and avoiding deadly attacks of their own alongside secret levels available upon revisiting older worlds, I'd certainly say that there is a decent amount of content on offer for veterans of the genre alongside casual fans who'd like to see the classic arcade brought back with newer mechanics and other fancy additions seen in modern indies here on Steam.
However one key issue that I have seen others raise that I can relate to here is how long some of the levels can take as far as clearing out all of the blocks, this largely stemming from how a standard wand with no charm upgrades can result in needing to 'lock in' at times just to survive. Considering the limited lives the player has before needing to start from the beginning of the world again on top of not receiving any gold should they run out of continues, I can see why this would pose a significant issue for those not familiar with the Breakout style of gameplay.
If I may offer some words of advice on how to make this more enjoyable, asides from playing on the easy difficulty to reduce the starting ball speed alongside providing a 'rampart' that acts as a barrier at the bottom which can take several hits from the orb if your wand misses it, playing with the mouse is the best way of quickly catching a speedy ball as each level progresses since using a keyboard is fairly sluggish even at the 'paddle 2' speed that I tested with for the first several hours.
Also worth noting is that one can restart a level, not by going onto the menu and backing out or saving and quitting but by instead force closing the game and then going back into it to resume gameplay. This preserves the player's lives alongside any charms they have up until that point but doing so will reset the score for that current run, however this can also serve as a reliable crutch for newer players to hang onto as well as for more experienced players, should they test their skills on the hard difficulty for that prestigious achievement!
Outside of knowing how to guide the orb via careful positioning of the wand to keep it hitting forward or pushing it at a steeper angle on the side, it is quite possible to learn how to clear the levels quicker though it is still a valid criticism that some levels are more tedious to clear through than others. Another problem that I had personally is the lack of things to spend money on past a certain point in this game, this easily could have been solved with several expensive upgrades to both the wizard's four spells and the ability to expand the magic bar that players could choose to save up for early on or wait until later on to begin improving the wizard's skills as they also improve their own 'breakout' skills during gameplay whilst also speeding up the flow of gameplay too.
No doubt there are things that could have been worked on and improved upon here although, given the fairly low price point of just £1.99, I would argue that this is one indie that can be enjoyed when going into it with the right expectations as Wizorb does a good job at faithfully adapting the Breakout formula whilst improving upon it in certain aspects without changing too much of what made it a classic to begin with.
