Brick Breaker

About this test

Brick breakers appeared in arcades in the mid-1970s as a single-player twist on the paddle game: instead of an opponent across the screen, a wall of bricks to demolish. The idea aged well because it rests entirely on geometry — the ball's exit angle depends on which part of the paddle hit it, and on nothing else.

That's what separates good players from the rest. A beginner returns the ball with the middle of the paddle, sending it almost straight up, which never changes the shape of the wall. An experienced player deliberately hits with the edge to send the ball flat toward one side, digs a vertical tunnel through the bricks, then lets the ball enter that tunnel and ricochet behind the wall for several seconds. One well-placed ball can be worth more than thirty careful returns.

The second trap is edge panic. When the ball heads into a corner the instinct is to run after it and stay pinned against the wall — exactly when the next return becomes impossible. Always drift back toward the centre as soon as the ball travels upward: that's the position from which every angle is still reachable.

How it works

Each brick is worth ten points and clearing a full wall adds a hundred more, with a faster ball on the next level. You get three lives. The 0-100 score starts at zero and caps at 900 points, a little over four complete walls.