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Breakquest isn’t anything new. It’s essentially a revamped version of classic arcade game Breakout, with a paddle at the bottom of the screen being used to bounce balls into breakable objects above. Clear them all and you’ll move onto the next stage. This being a PSP Minis game, however, it’s somewhat flashier than its popular inspiration, although less-than-perfect controls make it an occasionally frustrating experience.
Quest mode presents you with a grid of 100 levels, each with the goal of clearing the screen, but the layout of each is different to the classic formation of bricks found in Breakout, where your targets simply formed a block at the top of the screen. Rather than only bouncing off the bricks, the ball here interacts with all objects that appear on the screen, making the levels feel alive. At times objects are all over the place, you’ve got a ridiculous power up, the ball is bouncing off of everything, and it’s complete chaos. Great fun, but chaos all the same.
As a Breakout clone there would be little to complain about if it weren’t for the overly sensitive or sluggish controls. Using the analogue nub the paddle moves far too quickly, with even the slightest touch of the stick resulting in a huge on-screen reaction – even turning down the sensitivity does little to help matters. Sadly the d-pad offers the opposite problem, with paddle movement being far too slow. There’s just no middle ground, meaning you’ll spend quite a while getting used to one or the other before finally making progress through the levels.
This is a PSP Mini so production values aren’t exactly stunning, but the levels are well designed, colourful and inventive – the very first level is a prime example, using an optical illusion to make the bricks appear in a slanted formation. The bleepy soundtrack becomes a little annoying after a while, but thankfully you can turn it off.
The 100 levels will take a while to work through and there’s an arcade mode with reworked versions to try once you’ve completed a certain number of quest stages. If it weren’t for the troublesome controls we’d be recommending this without hesitation, especially at its low price point; as it stands it’s still worth a look, just be prepared for some initial frustration.
