Prison break by breaking blocks, In Space



Remember the story in Super Mario Sunshine where Mario convicted for a crime he did not committed on Isle Delfino. His punishment is to clean up the entire island, which Mario is happy to do, he is saving the residents of Isle Delfino and Yoshi after all. In AlphaBounce the story is actually the opposite. You’re playing a prisoner, the higher the difficulty the lesser the sympathy towards the character you’re playing as. The punishment is to clean up the entire galaxy and unlike Mario’s acceptance; you must help the prisoner escape the ordeal by finding the coordinates to Earth. Finally, instead of a platformer, AlphaBounce is an action RPG with a disguise as a block-breaking genre.



The gameplay is all about using the stylus. You start out at the center of the galaxy, controlling a ship known as an Envelope. Before going anywhere, you must first complete a grid on which you’re position at and tap your ship to start a level. Each level presents as an Arkanoid game where the blocks are at the top screen and your ship along with more blocks (don’t worry not at the beginning) at the bottom screen. You control your ship, now act as a paddle, by sliding horizontally with the stylus, successfully follows the tip of the stylus, and your ship teleports into position on where the stylus taps on. Pressing the up, or down depending on the situation, on the Slide Pad (preferably the D-pad) to start the process of your already equip ball traveling back and forth between two screens until all the blocks are destroyed thus completes your first grid. Back to the galaxy map, you have a choice to tackle on any grid that is adjacent to the previous one and the more grids you complete; the closer your personal roadmap will reach towards your curiosity. Creating a roadmap, to put it in a RPG term, is grinding and the real action is at the planets made out of dozens upon dozens of grids. Each planet is infesting with theme blocks that are difficult to break and there are those that can harm your ship, they slow your progression fortunately not mandatory to deal with in order to complete the level. The goal for each grid-made planet is to complete each grid as fast as possible (using just one ball makes this game a chore) by mix and match equipment you obtain on the map and with the help from the falling alphabets that comes out of blocks, beware of some letters. After completing a planet, you’ll be rewarded with a new ship that is more defensive and contains other useful advantages. If lucky, a planet also obtains a clue to the Earths coordinates and once you find Earth, you win freedom and the game ends.



The soundtrack during the gameplay even admits that it’s more rewarding when taking out one-third of level in a blink of an eye. If you’re spending more than a minute on a grid, then find and experiment more unique items and return finishing up a planet. The soundtrack during the exploration grinding brings out a “where to next Captain” vibe. While the soundtrack is all about galactic speedrunning, the sound effects are a resemblance of an action RPG. Hearing multiply balls combining with the ship’s weaponry creating a chain reaction to the playfield is like performing a deadly chain combo. Unfortunately, sometimes the sound effects don’t show up on cue and for a brief moment is just like the sounds of space, nothing.



The presentation is an extraterrestrial feast on the eyes. This game should be experience on the Nintendo DSi XL, demonstrating with fluidly (most of the time) the frantic proportions between the player and the alienated playfield showing off their catastrophic traits. The database, the screwdriver icon, is well organize with the help of showing the progression thus far and viewing the transformation when customizing your ship.



AlphaBounce is an experimentally addictive experience. A RPG game that even requires grinding during the beginning parts of the adventure and throughout while adding the most insane block-breaking experience is a genius combination. Trying to find all the equipment and obtaining all the ships is much better than freedom.

500 Points on the Nintendo DSi Shop / $4.99 on the Nintendo eShop

8.7 / 10 Skyward points

9- Awesome This game has little in the way of flaws, and is a highly enjoyable experience.