Arkanoid Eternal Battle Review
Upon starting Arkanoid Eternal Battle you will be presented with four different game modes to choose from. Each of these game modes incorporates the classic, arcade gameplay you expect from Arkanoid but out its own unique spin on it.
The star of the show, Eternal Battle pits you against 25 opponents in a similar way to other last-man-standing/battle royal games such as Teris 99 or Pacman 99. The aim of the game here is to outplay your 25 rivals and come in victorious at 1st place. To be successful, you must consistently keep your score as high as possible as the lowest-scoring players will be eliminated every 20 seconds. You can collect various power-ups to help you out and debuffs that you can use to hinder other players but, bear in mind, the other players can also hinder you.
As you play more games, you level up which unlocks a few cosmetic things such as skins
When you get down to the top 4 players, you’ll face off against the boss DOH which is a lot of fun and can be quite frustratingly hard. Score the highest and do enough damage to the boss and you’ll be victorious.
The mode Arkanoid Neo is essentially a single-player version of the Eternal Battle mode with a heavy focus on scoring. This is where I spent the majority of my time, trying to increase my score and get through each different map/level. There are unlimited continues here but at the sacrifice of half your total score. The music and overall visual style here are pretty nice and it’s a really solid version of Arkanoid.
Versus mode allows you to play 2 – 4 players locally, which is a nice feature. It’s a shame you can’t play this online with friends but is still good fun as a couch co-op game.
The Retro mode is as you expect and allows you to play through the original arcade version of Arkanoid which is a really nice inclusion, however, it is sadly let down by its presentation. The game takes place in a faux arcade cabinet, which in its defence does look a lot like the original arcade machine, but I would have much preferred to be able to turn this off and just play the straight Arkanoid port without any ‘bubble’ CRT effect and borders, perhaps this could be patched in as a toggle? I get what they were going for, but my first reaction was to press all the shoulder buttons looking for a toggle button.
On the main menu, there’s a comprehensive help section that will explain all the different game rules and leaderboards which are always a welcome inclusion. One thing I did find a little concerning was the number of people playing the Eternal Battle mode. I played many games which were completely filled with AI opponents, which is a little worrying considering the game has just launched.
The presentation of Arkanoid: Eternal Battle is perfectly fine; the levels look good and the neon aesthetic of the main modes is attractive and bold without being overbearing. You can always see your ball on the screen, and it doesn’t get covered up by unnecessary particle effects but, I would have liked to see a little more variety in the backgrounds etc.
The music and sound design in all modes are good and make good use of FMOD technology to keep the music dynamic depending on how well (or not) you are doing. I do wish the music was a little more akin to say Space Invaders Extreme, but the music was much more integral in that game and you kind of got into a rhythm there, which is something that doesn’t really apply to Arkanoid.
I did have a few crashing while playing, they were infrequent but worth mentioning, nonetheless. The game ran flawlessly out of the box on Steam Deck with zero fiddling with settings which was nice and that was how I played most of the game. The controls were very responsive, and I played in both handheld and docked using a Switch Pro controller with zero issues there. I also tried out the game on my main machine which worked flawlessly with no issues, as expected.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Arkanoid Eternal Battle is a good game and the classic Arkanoid gameplay feels just like it should, but it is let down by a few issues keeping it from becoming a great game. The lack of a good player base in the main mode is slightly alarming, hopefully, more people will be jumping on overtime. The Neo mode is a lot of fun and a very competent version of Arkanoid which I would say is the main saving grace of the collection. Versus mode, although fun, is local play only and the Retro mode is let down by the lack of screen options.
At its core, Arkanoid is still a fantastic arcade game and its gameplay does lend well to the new modes but I think Neo is the real attraction here that will keep you coming back, not Eternal Battle sadly.
6.5
Steam review code kindly provided by the publisher