Have you ever sat down to play
Arkanoid, Breakout, or a similar game and thought: “What this game
needs is plot; a sense of adventure. I need a reason to hit a ball
with a paddle and break things”? Neither have I, but for anyone
that has, or is just curious to try a different take on the classic
genre, Devilish is a thing that exists.
Released in 2006, Devilish, like many
early DS releases, is a revitalization of an older series, and can
be found on the Sega Game Gear and Genesis. In contrast to something
like Arkanoid with fixed-screen levels, Devilish features sixteen
levels spread across five worlds which require players to navigate
maze-like corridors, break down walls, defeat monsters, and collect
powerups with the goal of finding the warp at the end within the time
limit. For veteran brick breakers, the first two or three worlds will
be a cakewalk, and as the motivation to continue comes into question,
remember that Satan needs to be defeated in order to reclaim the
kingdom... or something like that. There are a few lines of
unmemorable story to read between each world, none of which really
matters and is very ignorable, but upon setting paddle into world
four, I found a new motivation: pure rage.
Devilish has not one, but two paddles.
The top one can be moved in all directions, and the bottom follows
along the X axis. Despite being able to move the top paddle freely
and having eight directions of rotation, once the ball picks up speed
it becomes frustratingly stubborn and pretty much goes where it
pleases. I found myself really only using the forward-facing flat
position and the left and right 45 degree positions. In fact, I
cleared the majority of some levels without even touching the d-pad.
The ball would repeatedly bounce off a wall, hit the paddle, bounce
off at a 90 degree angle, hit a wall, bounce back, and so on.
Whenever I stumbled upon one of these sweet combinations, I didn't
touch the paddle unless it was completely necessary. There's nothing
like spending ¾ of your time trying to pass a single obstacle and
then with less than thirty seconds on the clock, the sacred
combination manifests, taking the ball through the rest of the level
in a matter of seconds.
Counter-intuitively, each world's boss
battle is actually a reprieve from the rest of the game and are
ridiculously easy to defeat. They're all fought on a fixed screen, so
there's not much difficulty in keeping the ball in play, even while
they're actively trying to throw it off course. I was a little
disappointed that none of the bosses or enemies affected the paddle
directly, either by temporarily stunning it, spinning it around, or
something along those lines. Instead, they hurl debuffs, which among
other things detract time, shrink the paddle, or speed the ball up.
Powerups can be found in chests to counteract these, which slow down
the ball, increase its damage, or turn it into a rocket able to tear
through multiple layers of obstacles, to name a few.
Devilish can be completed in little
more than an hour, and while it isn't as solid as some of the other
brick-breakers, I found it unique enough to be worth a shot, and for
only a few bucks, I wasn't disappointed.
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