Reviews

My favourite of all the Breakout clones. It's gameplay was very unique and very addictive, I probably spent hours on this game in one sitting. Great graphics, great music, great game overall. Highly recommended.

This is in fact an excellent Breakout clone, rotated on its side. In this one, your vertical bat moves up and down the side of the screen, instead the more usual configuration of moving a horizontal bat along the bottom.

I only award it four points instead of five though, because the speccy version whilst pretty good, is truthfully not quite as good as the C64 version. The additions in the C64 version of in-game music and scrolling background layers really do enhance the game and the in-game sprites truthfully look better on that system too. There's also a couple of rare bugs in the speccy version where the ball can get trapped indefinitely, overlapping the edge of a brick and another one where the ball can get stuck in an infinite loop. Other ports don't seem to suffer from this occasional problem. (EDIT 23/03/2012: apparently other ports do sometimes show this problem) I'm happy to say though that generally, the playability of the game is just as good on the speccy as on other platforms.

The ball is pleasingly large and although you start off with a tiny bat, the "bat extension" power-up should be grabbed ASAP, particularly on level one. There are a good variety of power-ups and "enemy" sprites. These include floating faces, and wasps that paralyse your bat.

Each level has a different layout and acts as an incentive to keep playing. It always feels compelling to see what the next one looks like. The dual-speed bat mechanism is also a good idea as is the ability to set both bat and ball speed via an options screen. As you get better at the game, it may be to your advantage to start playing with a faster bat, for example.

So, overall a highly recommended, fun and addictive game. The speccy port is not the very best version though, IMHO.

1987 Gremlin Graphics Software (UK)
by Bob Toone, Greg Holmes, Ben Daglish, Andy Green, Marco Duroe and Terry Lloyd

Not my favorite Breakout clone but a very good one indeed. The graphics and color schemes don't appeal much to me, but I fancy the humor in the game, with it's inclusion of classic characters like Jack the Nipper.
The side view functions perfectly, however I still prefer the "traditional" horizontal play area.

Not bad ,,, but I prefer ARKANOID anyday .

This is a great breakout game which still provides a lot of charm today. Sadly though it's better on the C64.

It's another Breakout game but this time from a different perspective. Krakout is played on a horizontal view rather than vertically which most Breakout games implied, I'm sure horizontal Breakout games existed before Krakout but this was the very first time I witnessed the genre on a whole new perspective. So back in 1990 it was all new to me.

Another thing that was new to me in a Breakout game was options that determined how the game played. Arkanoid and Batty were known for their fast and smooth gameplay but in Krakout the player was given a choice as to how fast, or how slow you wanted the ball and bat to be, so you can find the speed that suited you best. This gave you more of a chance than most Breakout games, given the gameplay was fixed most of time and if you found it too fast you had to live with it, while in Krakout you can just make these adjustments to suit your tastes. The view can also be changed, either play from the right or the left side of the screen.

The game itself contains the same colourful graphics as in Arkanoid and Batty, but suffers slightly in having far fewer powerups and the level design isn't as clear cut. It also has its share of baddies to distract you, one such baddie is a wasp which freezes you when you touch it, which can lead to much annoyance when a wasp and your ball are close together. The game's music is jolly but quite painfully repetitive, not a patch on the highly impressive Commodore 64 version, it pains me to mention that but it's the truth.

Krakout is a worthy Breakout game, but I did tend to enjoy Arkanoid and Batty more, and thus it fails to capture the Breakout crown. But it's still great fun.

From the 'inappropriate' loading screen through to the sting of each sticky wasp Krakout looks and plays like the work of a Breakout enthusiast who has whacked off a hot knock off version, played, just like cricket, from a side on perspective.

In principle I'm onside with sideon ball batting and can only suggest that the gravitational threat of dropping the ball evoked by this game's vertical cousins is more suggestive of a good time to some.

Krakout will offer a lonely old man a chance to perform a defensive display like Chris Tavare and so it should be at the top table with the better of these intentionally hit and miss games.

Krakout from the loading screen makes me think yes indeed, as in crack one out, that's a mighty funny looking truncheon...

Some would say it's a Breakout clone, me personally would call it Evil Pong.

it's a great game in it's own right, but it's not that well implemented. The power-ups are what kind of make it shine, sadly that's a big factor in having any fun. Once the ball speeds up it's borderline unplayable...Unless you've got the extend power-up. One thing I do like about this game is when you uncover a power-up it stays there, basically back to that the ball rebounds off it, and it doesn't move, you've got to hit that spot again to get the power-up.

Now let me say why I made a big deal about the extend power-up, the game is practically fucking unplayable without it, fortunately it pops up practically every 2 bricks you hit, and I'm assuming the programmers knew this, because if it wasn't so common this would be a really, really, shit game.

Graphics are nice, sound is OK, presentation is decent with options available. You can even switch the side of the screen you play on, you don't like the bat on the right, flip the game backwards. That's a pretty precise preference right there, shit you think the game's easy flip it backwards for shit's n' giggles..

Overall, it's a good game, a little frustrating, a little annoying, but still a good game.

Not sure given the perspective, and the way it plays it's 100% fair to call it a Breakout Clone, but if that's what it is it's one of the good ones.

Playability wise, this is very good.



Of all these 3 ' Arkanoid Impersonators ', this one might as well be the best. But nothing like the mythical and original Arkanoid ;)

Krakout is specifically the best Arkanoid clone (or is it said Breakout, with which it rhymes and has phonetic and semantic similarities?).


They also had the courage to make a major change in perspective!

After Batty, turn for Krakout


It was a very funny game.It wasn't one of the very best overall, but well done, and true to be representing with dignity the Arkanoid style.

In fact it was already one of the best in its genre