Amazing Brick Breaker (Nintendo Switch) Review

Amazing Brick Breaker works. It looks as if it was developed over a few weeks, but it works. There is not a single flaw here. Then again, it's hard to make many mistakes with something that's just a tad more complex than Minesweeper. Playing like a mix of Breakout and Puzzle Bobble, the player aims with a directional arrow, and shoots a ball towards the bricks in the top of the screen, with these having an number on them that is the amount of hits they need in order to break.

The longer you play, the higher the numbers on the bricks get, thus you need to plan your moves accordingly, to avoid having one reach the bottom. Apart from bricks, you can also gather the extra balls that occasionally appear. This means that you'll soon be throwing a volley of balls. Watching these bouncing all around, destroying bricks by the dozen, and listening to the accompanying sound effect, is a weird kind of enjoyment, and getting more balls can be surprisingly addicting… for about an hour.

Amazing Brick Breaker is fun, but it's far from amazing. The concept isn't bad, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The problem is that nothing ever changes during a game. Players break bricks, these keep coming down, and the number on them increases - that's it. No "special" bricks that need an alternative tactic, no power-ups, hazards, or whatever, and more importantly, no additional modes! Arcade is the only one available, and it plays exactly as one would expect it to: you give it a go, get a score, and then try to beat it on your next attempt.

…and that's the issue with this. There's nothing 'Amazing' about it. This is way too simplistic, even when compared to similar, hyper-casual titles. It will last for an hour, and by the end of it, it will probably put you to sleep. No, honestly, this happened to this critic after the third attempt at a higher score. Oh, sure there's also a local-only, split-screen versus mode… but it's basically Arcade-for-two. In other words, it's perfect for falling asleep next to a significant other or best buddy.