The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

In the Browser RPG front, I’ve been playing new stuff! (Well, besides Legends of Zork, which I still keep playing constantly. It’s so flawed, but I love how quick and easy it is to play. Shame on me.) And that new stuff is Alpha Bounce, the Breakout RPG. It’s proven to be a fairly completely compelling experience, and it has the benefit of not taking much of your day, either. I see that as a benefit, anyway.

Yeah, so, there’s some plot about how you’re a prisoner and you can gain your freedom by doing a dangerous job: mining in a “Mining Envelope.” This envelope happens to look like a Breakout paddle. So you go around the big map, buying upgrades for your ship so you can move farther, and just generally breaking blocks, getting money, etc.

There’s a fairly large world map. Every area you’ve cleared before it slightly highlighted, and every one you haven’t is darker. So you slowly work your way out, trying to clear the whole map. Meanwhile, you get missions. “Clear all these areas for a cash reward” seems to be the most common, but there are also ones like “check this space for salvage” or “answer a distress call from here” or whatnot. They basically end up being the same thing: Playing a game of Breakout. But at least you always have something to work towards, which is something I insist upon.

The Breakout-play itself is pretty solid. There are many different types of blocks, some of which require different strategies or upgrades to your Mining Envelope to take down. These blocks drop a staggering array of different power-ups. There are the standard ones, like Multi-ball and Extension, of course. Some power-ups, though, are completely game-breaking, like Spawner, which lets you spawn a new ball whenever you click the mouse, or Laser, which lets you fire lasers that destroy blocks for the rest of the level. Still, I don’t think that’s a problem. It feels GREAT when you get one of these uber-powerups and the stage you’re on goes from difficult to done in like 5 seconds. There are also plenty of other power ups with weird abilities that you have to quickly compensate for. I got one that turned my ball into a beam of light, and when it hit my paddle, it just teleported to the top of the screen and came back down again, instead of bouncing off of it. It really changed what I was doing. It was neat.
The controls itself are sometimes iffy, though. You move the paddle with your mouse. (You can move it with the keyboard, but I found it moved too slow to be effective.) This causes problems because, if you get too excited and zip the mouse to one side, it’ll move outside of the play area and fuck up your control. That’s the main unfortunate part of the controls. Otherwise, left click launches the ball and uses any power-up abilities you may have. Escape or P pauses. Space fires a missile from your missile stock, once you get that upgrade. And that’s it. I mean, it’s breakout. It’s not THAT complicated.

The main problem I have with Alpha Bounce (and it’s not really a problem, more a concern for a, I assume, small company that made a game I’m enjoying) is its business model. Like most Browser RPGs, you get a limited amount of plays per day. Each day, you’re supplied with three “Liquid Hydrogen Capsules” which let you make three trips, and play three levels. Liquid Capsules apparently only last for one day, so you can’t stock them up. However, you can buy “Solid Hydrogen Capsules” in game, which persist until you use them. You can also slide the company a little money to get a huge cache of Solid Capsules, so you could play all day. The first transaction scores you a permanent extra life, too, to make the game a little easier.
The main problem with that is I will never pay for extra turns. The reason I love this games is because I love how they don’t demand much of my time. I am COMPLETELY fine with only playing three levels a day. Overjoyed in fact. And since they don’t have any other ways in place to get any money from me, I probably won’t be throwing any cash their way. Which is a shame. I enjoy supporting these games, especially when I get perks for it. But I dunno, if it’s not something that will make the game more fun, it’s a harder sell.

But yeah, overall, I’m having a lot of fun with Alpha Bounce. I recall hearing that at some point, the game takes away all of your free lives, which will… probably kill the game for me. I often need all three lives to clear a stage. But yeah, if you need a breakout fix, Alpha Bounce is a great way to get it. Yep!