Poing

A variation on the basic Breakout theme of having a bat at one end of the
screen, using it to direct a ball into hitting each of a grid of blocks. In
this adaptation the game is unusually played from left to right. Your task is
not to eliminate every block, but to gain access to the back wall, by removing
the blocks in front of it, and hit it 10 times, at which point you can go
through it onto the next screen.

Sets of 8 screens are grouped together, and when you lose the ball on that
level you get hurtled back through the previous ones (an idea seemingly taken
from the MSX game Break In) at high speed. If you manage to catch the ball on
one of them, you can continue from that level, trying to force the ball back
through the end of the level, and get back to where you were.

On each level, the value of the different colours of blocks varies – the
points schedule is listed a the side of the screen. Some blocks score onto
your bonus rather than directly, others require multiple hits to be removed,
and most sets of blocks will regenerate once all are removed – which gives you
a chance to increase your score, and also adds points to your bonus.

The levels also contain a variety of bonus bricks, which are revealed as you
remove the blocks on top of them and must be hit again to activate. These
include bonus multipliers, extra balls, transformations to the ball’s physics,
and extra lives. There are 5 skill levels, and 2 players can play alternately.

Poing