Hyper Bounce: Brick Breaker

FIRE BALL The eighteenth power-up. Every brick the ball touches detonates and takes its neighbours with it. Bedrock still holds, so the board layouts still matter. It looks the part now too: a molten ball with a flame trail, instead of a tinted marble. POWER-UPS DROP MORE OFTEN Roughly twice as many good power-ups now, and no more long dead stretches where nothing useful fell: a good drop is guaranteed within a few bricks. Fewer duds in the mix, too. PARK A RUN AND COME BACK Leaving from the pause menu keeps your score, lives and level. Next time you play, the game asks whether to pick that run up or start fresh, and Level Select marks the board you left off on. FIXED The ball trail was drawn behind the background, so it was never actually visible. The power-up icons, the ball, the paddle and the gems carried a faint dark halo. The combo counter overlapped the level line in portrait. A single run could leave several entries on the local high-score board. A rare case where losing a ball at the same instant a power-up landed could leave you with a ball you could not see or control.