Cool Bricks

Last updated
Cool Bricks
Cool Bricks GBC.png
Cover art
Developer(s) Pukka Games
Publisher(s) SCi Games
Platform(s) Game Boy Color
Release1 December 1999
Genre(s) Block breaker
Mode(s) Single-player

Cool Bricks is a 1999 block breaker game developed by Pukka Games and published by SCi Games. The game is an adaptation of the arcade game Breakout for the Game Boy Color.

Contents

Gameplay

A screenshot of Cool Bricks, depicting the high color mode on the Game Boy Color. Cool Bricks Screenshot.jpg
A screenshot of Cool Bricks, depicting the high color mode on the Game Boy Color.

Cool Bricks is a puzzle game requires the player to use a bat to guide a ball to break bricks to progress. Compared to Breakout , Cool Bricks features the inclusion of varied weapons, such as laser guns, missiles, grenade launchers, larger bats or multiple balls, [1] and the addition of power-ups with positive and negative effects, such as a 'poison mode' that causes involuntary player movement. [2] The game features over 150 levels with a password system to allow for returning to certain stages. [3] The graphics of Cool Bricks are programmed to make use of a 'high-color mode' in the Game Boy Color that allows the device to display 2,000 instead of 50 colors on screen, by compromising with reduced animations. [4]

Reception

Cool Bricks received positive reviews from gaming publications. Many reviewers made favorable comparisons made to the arcade games Breakout and Arkanoid , whilst praising the minor additions to the game such as the use of power-ups. [2] [5] David O'Donohoe for Console Domain praised the game as a "perfect port" of the Breakout formula, stating that "with a few new graphics and fresh levels in order to sell it to a new, younger audience [...] the gameplay is as addictive now as it has always been". [6] 64 Magazine praised Cool Bricks as "extremely well suited to the Game Boy Color" and "almost impossible to put down once you've started playing". [1] Total Game Boy Color also praised the game, noting whilst it was not "ground-breakingly original", Cool Bricks was an "addictive, challenging puzzler". [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Cool Bricks". 64 Magazine (44): 54. September 2000.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Cool Bricks". Total Game Boy Color (11): 38. September 2000.
  3. "Cool Bricks". SCi. 1999. Archived from the original on 2000-09-16.
  4. Harris, Craig (23 May 2000). "Cool Bricks". IGN.
  5. 1 2 "On the Shelves". Game Boy Xtreme (3): 61. September 2001.
  6. O'Donohoe, David (2000). "Cool Bricks". Console Domain. Archived from the original on 2001-02-08.