Shatter Remastered Deluxe

Genre: Arcade Brick Breaker

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Shatter is an Arcade Brick Breaker originally released on PlayStation 3 in 2009 and then ported to PC in 2010, with this remastered version coming in 2022 to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game has players going from level to level in futuristic environments, breaking blocks while trying to avoid having their rebounding ball touch the side they’re defending with a paddle.

While that above description applies to countless games within the genre, Shatter actually brings with it multiple innovations. First and foremost, players are outright shown where an incoming ball will land, making it far easier to defend that spot. Further assisting them are “suck” and “blow” abilities to draw in or push out objects, including the ball itself. While it might be tempting to just constantly blow the ball away and remain safer, sucking can draw in shards of broken blocks to charge a barrage attack and increase your score. At the same time, some blocks can get drawn in too, and if they strike your paddle it can knock you out for a brief moment, though you can defend against this using a shield ability. Furthermore, the arenas you’re defending can come in multiple shapes that can alter the physics and strategy of the situation. And for those who like to take risks, you can unleash multiple balls at once to get a greater multiplier, though you must be careful not to lose the balls you put into use.

That is… quite a lot, actually, and it is very much to this game’s credit that all of this doesn’t come across as overwhelming. You never have to use your blow/suck ability, nor do you ever have to launch multiple balls at once – you can treat this as a mostly-mundane entry in the genre, though you’ll still have to contend with blocks threatening to strike your paddle. However, the potential to demolish a game board by using these abilities is enticing enough that you won’t likely take long before you start making use of them.

The presentation all of this happens in is very good too, with a nice mix of slick 3D visuals and 2D visuals that works very well, and this is all backed by some catchy techno-style songs like Kinetic Harvest HQ, Aurora HQ, and Granular Extractor HQ. All of this works together to give this game a great futuristic presentation, though I will note one small caveat on Nintendo Switch – I noticed a few brief moments of slowdown here.

Overall, I feel like Shatter is a solid entry in the Brick Breaker genre. It doesn’t do anything to revolutionize the genre outright, but it does make use of numerous well-crafted gameplay elements that combine to make this one of the better entries this genre has seen in recent years. And for only $10, this is an easy pickup for anyone who enjoys Brick Breakers.

tl;dr – Shatter is an Arcade Brick Breaker that makes multiple innovating additions to the genre, such as the game’s signature “suck/blow” abilities that interact with the physics in various ways. This game doesn’t do anything to revolutionize the genre, but it is nevertheless an outstanding Brick Breaker that should definitely be played by anyone who enjoys the genre.

Grade: B+

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