Blitz Breaker
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    08-17-2022 07:42 AM

Hugely fun and massively addictive.

Eastasiasoft have been knocking it out of the park recently with their publication choices. Trigger Witch was an unexpected surprise, and now this. Let me get this out the way upfront: Blitz Breaker is the best high-speed die-and-try-again platformer you can buy at this price point.

A platformer at heart, Blitz Breaker is a little different from contemporaries in the hardcore sub genre, such as N+ and Super Meat Boy. Yes, the world is out to destroy you and the time limits represent a challenge to get the greatest score, but you can't actually run around here. You can jump on the spot, but not walk.

You see, every push of the D-Pad sends you hurtling uncontrollably - literally - along the direction you press until you hit something. When you hit a wall, you bounce away from it a little before going into a free fall, at which point you can hit the D-Pad again to careen off in another direction. Levels are short but tightly crafted sequences of corridors, with an exit portal you need to fly through to move on to the next.

Of course, it's not as easy as that - most of the walls are covered with spikes or spinning blades or moving platforms, and each stage challenges you to reach the exit portal in record time to obtain that level's special star. As the complexity of these levels increases, it becomes a game of muscle memory and reflexes as you hurtle through the smallest gaps, timing your dashes after bouncing off walls, jumping on the spot to avoid rockets, clinging to gravitational platforms, riding conveyor belts, grabbing keys to unlock routes, and picking up little secret collectibles along the way.

Gameplay is tight, snappy and intense, but incredibly fun and rewarding as you play the rhythm of the level across the surface of the D-Pad. Controls are instant, with no input lag or terrible physics to worry about - it all just works perfectly, creating that frustrating but familiar feeling of the aforementioned N+ and Super Meat Boy, as you know that when you screw up, it's your fault, not the fault of the game.

Presentation is great too, with a relatively small vertical screen space to work in that enhances the feeling of desperation without creating artificial difficulty or an unfair disadvantage. There are also multiple game modes to play in with different objectives, including a story mode with bosses to beat / avoid and a gradual difficulty increase as you progress.

Achievements
Don't panic! There's nothing too taxing here for those going for the completion. Like most EAS titles, the list will take you less than an hour to get through, and only requires completing a handful of levels and gaining "star" times. You'll also need to die a hundred times over, but that's easy done as you play.

Overall
It's a shame that some people will miss most of the game as they will stop playing after unlocking the final achievement. I don't have a single negative thing to say about Blitz Breaker. Controls are tight and responsive, the game looks, plays and sounds fantastic, progression is well managed with an excellent difficulty curve, and it only costs a fiver and you don't have to worry about achievements. Above all, it's absolutely fun to play, and you'll be eager to replay levels to get the perfect run and earn those stars.

Everything this game sets out to do, it hits dead centre. Hugely fun and massively addictive.
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