Gamers my age may remember the days when we were kids, whiling away the summer hours playing rented NES games when it was too hot to go outside. It was fun to rent and discover unknown NES gems back then, like Kickle Cubicle or Pinball Quest (the latter mixed pinball with RPG elements and yes that game did exist). All those memories came flooding back to me recently when I tried Wizorb, a new PS Minis downloadable title for play on PSP and PS3. It’s a brand new game, but styled to look like a retro 8-bit title. And this one is a cross between an RPG and…BreakOut?!?

In Wizorb you play as a bearded old wizard who has the power to turn himself into a ball and paddle and break blocks to save the day. That’s one thing about retro game logic. You don’t question it. Anyway, a village has been ransacked by bad guys and it’s up to your wizard to do his thing and save the day. If you’ve played BreakOut or Arkanoid you’ll know what to expect here. Volley the ball to hit all the bricks in the stage to move on to the next. You’ll break bricks in a village, forest, mine, and other RPG style areas. Each area has 12 stages for you to clear, with 3 continues to do that in. But you can buy extra continues, too, if you need them. Watch out for roving enemies and at the end of the 12 stages you’ll battle a boss.

Like Arkanoid, sometimes when you break bricks, power-ups and other goodies will fall out. Catch them with your paddle to receive them. Keys unlock hidden doors in the stages that can take you to shops or bonus levels. Collect gold to buy other power-ups or use the money back in town to rebuild the village. You can also get extra lives and magic potion to refill your magic meter. Your paddle can shoot fireballs and change the direction of the ball with wind, but it takes magic to do that. So try and get as many magic potions as you can! Just watch out for curses that fall out of the blocks. They’re generally purple in color and make the stage temporarily harder by making your ball go faster, making your paddle shorter, or hindering your movement for a short while. When you are not paddling around a ball, you can visit the overhead RPG style town and donate your gold to rebuild the houses and make the villagers happy. You’ll want to re-build the shop as soon as you can so you can buy items there. Other houses may give you rewards like an extra life.

There are not really any major problems with Wizorb, just small personal quibbles I had with it. It’s a great game, but not QUITE as good as Arkanoid. It also would’ve been nice to exit the stages in the middle to go back to town, but I guess that might make things a little too easy. Or maybe they could’ve broken of the long stretches of 12 stages into 6, to make it easier for pick up and play style gaming. But again those are just minor problems. It’s still a great game and a must-play if you enjoy retro-styled ball and paddle brick busting. I think it’s also available as an Xbox LIVE indie game, so you can pick it up there, too. So no matter what system you have, you should give Wizorb a try.

Kid Factor:

Wizorb is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence. You can hit enemies with your ball, but they just disappear when defeated. Reading skill is helpful for the text in town and gameplay instructions, but even young players can enjoy the game with a little help. Some might get bored with the rudimentary graphics and slower paced gameplay, or frustrated at the challenge level in later stages. But at the same time, I’ve known lots of kids that have taken to these kinds of games quite well. In fact, one of the first games my brother Jeff completed as a kid was the PSOne update of BreakOut.

Tags: Game Reviews