In the days before large-scale games such as Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty, gamers had to settle for arcade classics such as Arkanoid, often known as Breakout.
XtremeBlocks is designed to help you relive those days using nothing more than your cellphone. The game is free to play, although you need to obtain an activation code from the developer's website before you start.
If you've played the original (and let's face it, who hasn't? ) then it's pretty easy to pick up and start playing. You simply hit the Enter button on your phone to set the ball off then use the joystick or the 4 and 6 keys to move the paddle left and right in order to bounce the ball off the blocks.
Once all the blocks are clear then you progress to the next level.
In terms of gameplay it's the same as the original, except in this version all the blocks have different designs rather than just plain colors.
Each design represents a different power-up or obstacle, which can be anything from dual balls, to a sticky paddle, to spiders that come down from the screen.
I'm all for power-ups and additional game elements, and they were a key part of the original, but unfortunately I found there were too many in XtremeBlocks, and they quickly become confusing and irritating.
There are a few options to customize the game, such as a speed setting and an auto-fire option, but I would've liked a feature to customize the gameboard and get rid of some of the annoying power-ups in order to make it more like the block-smashing original.
Graphically too I felt the game was slightly flawed and I'm not a fan of the pink, sky blue and orange color scheme used for the bricks.
Overall, it's a poor recreation of an arcade classic.
