Top scores
I recently got a new high score of 15,535,296 and somehow I’m still at #85 with my old score!!
Too many Ads
Fun game but there are TOO MANY ADS. Every time i try to play the game it switches to an ad and makes me lose my shot and end the game. RIDICULOUS.
In closable ads
The adds made me close the tab and re open and it would sometimes pop up and turn my game
Fun, when it allows me to play
I like this game. I found it through the USAToday website and used to play on that app. I downloaded this app to see if it would better.
The game itself is fun. I like seeing the balls add up and hit the blocks. Especially when they hit many in a row. Very satisfying. Simple but still interesting. Good for when you just want to chill for a second and want something mindless to focus on.
The app beyond the game is aggravating. Issues:
1. Many ads. Thankfully they are short, but they are numerous and frequent. Multiple per minute, in some experiences. They even interrupt me when I’m in the middle of aiming another turn.
2. The restart game doesn’t seem to work properly. It is fine if you are restarting the game from the lose screen. If you are trying to restart in the middle of the game, it just restarts the turn you just took and you have to wait to lose. This is especially annoying when you actually have lost but you click too early and have to watch your last turn play again, wait for the animation to progress enough, and then restart the game. (And dead with an ad.)
3. Removing ads costs $9.99. That’s laughably high. In no universe would I pay that much for a simple phone game. The USAToday app has its own issues, but at least it shows just one ad per replay, so I might go back to that app. You gotta do what you gotta do I guess but I kind of think the app would make more revenue by decreasing ads because users might stop exiting the app and restarting so often to avoid them.
4. The music also seems slightly broken. For some reason it doesn’t start playing unless I tap part of the screen. Before I figured this out, I jumpscared quite a few times.
5. The graphics and music are nice though.
6. The game requires wifi when it really shouldn’t. I can tell it is purely for serving ads. Do better than this dark pattern.
I would consider bumping up a star if the music and restart bugs were fixed. Until then, I will begrudgingly play anyway because I do like the game that much.
The game itself is fun. I like seeing the balls add up and hit the blocks. Especially when they hit many in a row. Very satisfying. Simple but still interesting. Good for when you just want to chill for a second and want something mindless to focus on.
The app beyond the game is aggravating. Issues:
1. Many ads. Thankfully they are short, but they are numerous and frequent. Multiple per minute, in some experiences. They even interrupt me when I’m in the middle of aiming another turn.
2. The restart game doesn’t seem to work properly. It is fine if you are restarting the game from the lose screen. If you are trying to restart in the middle of the game, it just restarts the turn you just took and you have to wait to lose. This is especially annoying when you actually have lost but you click too early and have to watch your last turn play again, wait for the animation to progress enough, and then restart the game. (And dead with an ad.)
3. Removing ads costs $9.99. That’s laughably high. In no universe would I pay that much for a simple phone game. The USAToday app has its own issues, but at least it shows just one ad per replay, so I might go back to that app. You gotta do what you gotta do I guess but I kind of think the app would make more revenue by decreasing ads because users might stop exiting the app and restarting so often to avoid them.
4. The music also seems slightly broken. For some reason it doesn’t start playing unless I tap part of the screen. Before I figured this out, I jumpscared quite a few times.
5. The graphics and music are nice though.
6. The game requires wifi when it really shouldn’t. I can tell it is purely for serving ads. Do better than this dark pattern.
I would consider bumping up a star if the music and restart bugs were fixed. Until then, I will begrudgingly play anyway because I do like the game that much.
Show more
Ads are too much
I wanted to like this game, I really did. It was a ton of fun at first! The colors are great, the sounds (when they work) are super pleasant… and there’s nothing like seeing a long line of balls just explode behind a line of bricks. 🥳
But the ads are just terribly implemented. They pop up for like 20 seconds even WHILE I’M AIMING!! Even WHILE SHOOTING! 😡 It’s an insult. I get it, you want to give us incentive to buy the game for $5, but let’s be honest, that’s really the only incentive.
And that’s the crux of this review: the ads are the only incentive.
It’s clear there’s nothing beyond this—nothing better about the game lays on the other side of my payment.
A better way would be to offer power-ups, like seeing reflections, or being able to sliiightly adjust the angle after you start shooting, or restarting a move or a level, or even just allowing me to ‘fast forward’ sooner, and making it so the user gets a one-time use of those things after watching an ad. At least then I know when I pay, I can believe there are features to enable better gameplay. So far, only “continue playing after dying” is an option attached to an ad, but that’s hardly a gameplay benefit. As it is, the ads don’t SERVE the gameplay (like “watch an ad to earn a powerup” or something), rather, they intentionally HINDER the gameplay. That’s the strategy here.
And that blows. It’s an inherently antagonistic system that is opposed to its players, instead of serving them. Both the businessman and the customer could have benefitted from a setup like I described, but no, the programmer was only focused on themselves.
It’s clear the creator of this game was satisfied once it was in a workable state. This game is one of many. Just the icon itself gives it away. It’s a screenshot, barely readable.
This game was shiny at the surface, but it lacks a soul deep down. I wound up Googling “Alternatives to Ballistic brick breaker”. There are plenty to choose from.
But the ads are just terribly implemented. They pop up for like 20 seconds even WHILE I’M AIMING!! Even WHILE SHOOTING! 😡 It’s an insult. I get it, you want to give us incentive to buy the game for $5, but let’s be honest, that’s really the only incentive.
And that’s the crux of this review: the ads are the only incentive.
It’s clear there’s nothing beyond this—nothing better about the game lays on the other side of my payment.
A better way would be to offer power-ups, like seeing reflections, or being able to sliiightly adjust the angle after you start shooting, or restarting a move or a level, or even just allowing me to ‘fast forward’ sooner, and making it so the user gets a one-time use of those things after watching an ad. At least then I know when I pay, I can believe there are features to enable better gameplay. So far, only “continue playing after dying” is an option attached to an ad, but that’s hardly a gameplay benefit. As it is, the ads don’t SERVE the gameplay (like “watch an ad to earn a powerup” or something), rather, they intentionally HINDER the gameplay. That’s the strategy here.
And that blows. It’s an inherently antagonistic system that is opposed to its players, instead of serving them. Both the businessman and the customer could have benefitted from a setup like I described, but no, the programmer was only focused on themselves.
It’s clear the creator of this game was satisfied once it was in a workable state. This game is one of many. Just the icon itself gives it away. It’s a screenshot, barely readable.
This game was shiny at the surface, but it lacks a soul deep down. I wound up Googling “Alternatives to Ballistic brick breaker”. There are plenty to choose from.
Show more
