Dungeonoid

Genre: Arcade Brick Breaker

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Dungeonoid is an Arcade-style Brick Breaker released on Nintendo Switch in 2020 and ported to PC and PlayStation 4 in 2022. This game has players using their paddle to smack a ball around inside a dark fantasy castle filled with monsters spouting magic spells with status effects that affect your paddle, and stages where players must collect a key to open a chest to unlock the exit door.

The presentation in this game makes use of 2D pixel art visuals that while in no way impressive, still manage to have a lot of personality. This is backed by a decent but somewhat repetitive chiptune theme.

When it comes to the gameplay, there are a few gimmicks here, as mentioned above. You even get “level up”s to increase your health (how many balls you can afford to lose in a level), power (how many hits it takes to down monsters), magic (energy to power spells you earn later in the game) and luck (how often good bonuses appear from broken blocks). This adds up to make for a fun and thematically-appropriate addition to the core gameplay here.

However, for the most part this is pretty straightforward and traditional Brick Breaker gameplay, and it’s pretty well-crafted, too. Unlike many games in this genre, I felt like I had complete control over my paddle at all times (outside of negative status effects), and the level designs here are creative and varied.

While Dungeonoid absolutely doesn’t reinvent the Arcade Brick Breaker genre, it is an excellent example of the genre done well, with good theming, solid gameplay, and good level design. Fans of the genre with a Nintendo Switch will definitely want to grab this one.

tl;dr – Dungeonoid is an Arcade Brick Breaker set in a dark Medieval fantasy castle filled with monsters that shoot status effect magic at your paddle, and with levels where you must collect a key and use it on a chest before you can head to the exit. Clever gimmicks like these aside, Dungeonoid is just an all-around well-crafted Brick Breaker, with good controls and some excellent level design. Fans of this genre will definitely want to pick this game up.

Grade: B

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