Review: Breakout Beyond for Nintendo Switch

Alright, so here’s the thing about Breakout Beyond… It takes this old-school, tried-and-true game formula and kind of flips it on its head, you know? Suddenly, you’ve got these extended playfields — it’s like, brick-breaking with more real estate. But man, so much stuff is locked at the start. Like, come on! Some folks might just peace out before getting to the good parts, but others? Yeah, they’ll just keep at it, especially when they’ve got a buddy to play with.

Honestly, the two-player co-op? That’s where it’s at. Sure, playing alone can get dull — at least it did for me. But then my wife jumped in with her paddle — what a game-changer! I peeked at the leaderboards, and maybe I’m an outlier here. Whatever. Anyway, before you’re even in leaderboard-land, there’s this “voyage” thing to tackle.

So in this voyage part, you can pick up bombs, juice up your paddle and balls, even slow things down (but that costs ya points). You’ll need all the help ’cause, man, it gets tough real quick, especially solo. But it’s got that “just one more go” vibe. Oh, and play around with the paddle’s sensitivity — it can make or break a run. There are 72 levels, and my inner completionist was like, “Gotta beat ’em all,” but you can just take it easy. It’s linear though, so beat one to move on to the next.

Presentation-wise, it’s like Breakout’s classic beauty got a facelift. “Procedural audio and visual effects” — sounds fancy, huh? Choice Provisions flaunts that. The better you play, the cooler it gets. You can even tweak the music and sound settings if that’s your thing.

But, back to the locked content, ugh. Like leaderboards and stuff? Why aren’t they unlocked from the start? Infinite mode and the original game too. Seriously, who thought locking these was a smart move? Having them open from the get-go would add so much more flavor. At least the leaderboards are split by global, friends, and modes. Oh, fun fact: my wife and I are topping the co-op boards — but maybe that just tells you everyone else is flying solo.

Breakout’s hard to mess up, right? It’s still a blast after all these years, but Choice Provisions almost blew it with the locked stuff. The game still rocks though, so kudos to them and the classic formula.