It can be a very difficult game to put down. DX-Ball would be fun for a few minutes on its own, but the assorted abilities you can receive at any time seal the deal and increase the replay value. Other times, it could take a good while before anything decent comes your way.Įither way, you could easily call this game the Super Mario Bros. Sometimes a level will be over in a flash because you got a good combination of abilities. You have no idea just what’s going to pop up on every screen. The power-ups and power-downs of DX-Ball make it far more dynamic and unpredictable than your usual Breakout clone.
They can have all sorts of negative effects one can shrink your paddle, one will cause the blocks to sink lower every time the ball bounces, one will increase the movement speed of the ball, and one will even outright kill you! Just to mess around with you, DX-Ball incorporates a variety of power-downs that can make things harder if you make the mistake of grabbing them. However, not all power-ups are so benign. Powers stack as well, so if you’re able to nab each one that comes your way, keeping that ball up in the air can be a piece of cake. You can increase the size of your paddle, add more balls to bounce around, get the ability to catch and strategically re-launch the ball at your whim, or equip your paddle with a pair of blasters to shoot and destroy blocks in an instant. Some blocks will release a power-up when they are destroyed if you catch it with your paddle, you can benefit from any number of boons. It may not sound exciting at first, by DX-Ball manages to mix things up with its variety of power-ups. Some blocks are indestructible, some blow up at the slightest touch, and so on. Some are invisible and will only appear once the ball collides with them once. In the meantime, you have to use the ball to destroy an array of blocks above you. Failure to do so results in you losing a life. You control a paddle with your mouse and use it to keep a little white ball aloft in the air. Like all the various clones of Breakout that came before and after it, DX-Ball plays like a combination of pinball and Pong.
Besides, you could do a whole lot worse for a game that’s completely free to play. Even so, DX-Ball still has a few tricks up its sleeve that help it stand out in the crowd. However, that does not mean it can’t be just as fun its progenitor. At first blush, it might look really derivative, and you would not be entirely wrong in thinking so. It’s very similar though.ĭX-Ball is an independently-made game that was developed in the ‘90s that operates under a lot of similar design principles as Breakout. Somehow, he managed to find a way to combine the two passions.Īre you familiar with the old block-breaking game of Breakout? It was a challenging little classic that had you break apart rows upon rows of shiny little blocks using a ball that you had to ensure never hit the ground.
The full version of the game, referred to as Super DX-Ball Deluxe, features a total of 230 boards, expanding the demo board packs to their entirety of 30 boards for Challenge, Surprise, and Fun, and 75 boards for Retro.Dave Galvin is a freelance writer and avid gamer. Notably, the DX-Ball board pack also used to be an easter egg, prior to version 1.1, in which it could be obtained by clicking the grey Amiga Ball on the title screen. This easter egg can be discovered by clicking on the Mega Ball power-up on the title screen. The game also features a tribute to Mega Ball for the Amiga, including a hidden Mega Ball board pack, which contains the 20 boards from the original game.
The shareware version comes with six different board packs: DX-Ball, Super Boards, Challenge (demo), Surprise (demo), Fun (demo), and Retro (demo), and features a total of 77 boards. Among new features since the original, Super DX-Ball introduces refined graphics, irregularly shaped bricks, board pack selection, board selection, board shuffle, difficulty settings, and in-game music featuring original tunes by DNA Groove. With similarity in style to games such as Breakout and Arkanoid, it's the latter of two direct sequels to the original DX-Ball, the first being DX-Ball 2 by Longbow Digital Arts.
Super DX-Ball is a one-player PC shareware game by BlitWise Productions, released on November 10, 2004.