Breakout

About Breakout

Breakout is the ancestor of every brick-breaker that followed. A paddle, a ball, and a wall of bricks — clear the wall, and a faster wall appears. The skill is not reaction time but angle control: where you strike the ball on the paddle determines where it goes next.

Controlling the Angle

Hit the ball with the edges of the paddle to send it out at a shallow, wide angle — useful for picking off bricks near the sides. Hit it with the centre for a steep, vertical return that punches straight up into the middle of the wall. Deliberately aiming for a steep vertical bounce lets you tunnel a single channel up through the bricks and then work the ball along the top row, which is worth the most points and the hardest to reach.