All about Brick Breaker
As the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony Playstation 3 vie for sales in the “next generation†of console gaming – the Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry would seem to pale in comparison, if one were to look only at raw gaming power. Yet the BlackBerry has quite the fan base for a mobile device. In fact, some users refer to the device as a CrackBerry because of its addicting nature, however this is mainly because of its email and web features.
As BlackBerry users can attest, the game Brick Breaker, included by default, is itself an addicting game despite its 256 color, 2-D graphics and single-button game-play. This passion for Brick Breaker extends to the highest levels of corporate America – the CEO and Chairman of one of Wall Street’s largest investment banks had to have Brick Breaker uninstalled from his BlackBerry after finding it “too distractingâ€, only to have it put back on shortly after! His high score – about 16,000.
Basic Game Play
The premise of Brick Breaker, like the million other Breakout copy-cats for those who have been living in a cave for the last 35-plus years, is that bricks are arranged in a pattern at the top of the screen. The player controls a paddle that can move left and right. Players start with three lives.
The game begins when the player launches a ball towards the bricks. Each time the ball hits a brick it breaks the brick and deflects away. If the ball deflects back towards the paddle, the player must maneuver the paddle so that the ball will deflect back towards the bricks. If the player lets the ball fall past the paddle, a life is lost.
Bricks can take one or more hits to break, depending on the type of brick, as indicated by its color. Silver bricks are obstacles, and the ball cannot break them. Each direct hit to a brick is worth 10 points. The ball speeds up periodically as the game proceeds, however after a certain speed, the ball returns to its original slow speed. If the paddle and the ball strike each other a certain number of times, all bricks on the board shift down, although once the board shifts a certain distance down, it ceases to shift down further.
Occasionally, when a ball breaks a brick, a bonus pill will fall down vertically. If the player catches a pill, they receive 50 points and some game-play change. There are nine types of pills:
- Bomb (ball) – the ball becomes a bomb. When it hits a brick, it will explode, breaking neighboring bricks.
- Catch (paddle) – the ball sticks to the paddle when the player catches it. The player can then aim the ball back upwards, and launch the ball with the spacebar.
- Flip – perhaps the most hated bonus pill in Brick Breaker, the flip pill inverts the controls such that left becomes right and vice versa. Catching any other pill returns the controls to normal.
- Gun (paddle) – gives the player three missiles (“ammoâ€) which can be fired by the space button. Only one missile can appear on the screen at any time. If the missile breaks a brick, the player receives 50 points. Missiles can break silver bricks.
- Large (paddle) – extends the paddle, making ball control slightly easier.
- Laser (paddle) – gives the player the ability to shoot lasers by hitting the spacebar. Lasers fire from the left and right sides of the paddle. One direct laser hit is equivalent to one-half direct ball hit. So two laser hits are required to break a brick, and only 5 points are awarded per hit. Only two lasers fired per side can appear on the screen at any given time, for a maximum of four lasers on screen total.
- Life (paddle) – gives the player an extra life, but resets the paddle to the basic paddle without any bonuses.
- Multi (ball) – puts four balls in play. The player must only keep one ball in play at any time to continue play. If the player catches the multi pill while the ball is near the bottom of the screen, the balls reverse and launch upwards automatically.
- Wrap – allows the player to move the paddle past the screen edges, onto the opposite side of the screen (in other words, wraps the left screen edge to the right edge and vice versa). The caveat with the wrap pill is that the paddle must move all the way past the edge of the screen before appearing on the other side.
Note that some pills affect the ball or paddle only. Catching one ball bonus after another ball bonus will cancel the first bonus, which is true for paddle bonuses also. However, ball and paddle pill bonuses can be in play simultaneously. So for example, if the player catches a Large pill followed by a Multi pill, they will have both a large paddle and multiple balls in play. If the player then catches a Bomb pill, they will still have a large paddle, but will only have one ball remaining in play.
Advanced Game Play
While Brick Breaker is extremely easy to learn, it is deceptively hard to beat. Few players ever reach the end of the game (which actually returns them to the beginning of the game, carrying over their points to the next round). The core strategy is obviously to gain the most points before all lives are lost. To achieve this, there are a number of sub-strategies to keep in mind during game play.
- Learn to stay still. Move the paddle deliberately when you do move it. Also, set up the game to suit your style of play. The game options screen allows players to choose their paddle speeds and enable or disable paddle acceleration. Choose according to how you prefer the paddle to react.
- Pick up all pills! At 50 points each, this is the easiest way to assure the most points are collected.
- Beware the Flip pill. There is some controversy over taking the flip pill, as it can result in lost lives if the inverted controls confuse the player. Learn to deal with it, if possible, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Also, remember any pill will reset the flipped controls, so if a flip pill is in your reach, and another pill is following, try to grab both, even if you don’t feel comfortable with the flipped controls.
- If you get a Gun pill, try to use your ammo before picking up another pill. Aim for silver bricks first – since these cannot be broken without the gun, this can result in an extra 150 points per Gun pill, not to mention it can help clear the board of unnecessary obstacles. If the board has no silver bricks, aim for bricks that are ready to break next, since they would otherwise be worth only 10 more points each.
- If you get a Laser pill, learn to sweep the laser across the level as you play. Keep firing, even if you have no particular target. Clear out as many bricks as you can with the laser. Note that the laser does not penetrate silver bricks, which may leave some bricks in play even with skilled use of the laser.
- Decide whether a life pill that is out of reach is worth grabbing anyway. Sometimes, it is possible to get the life pill or the ball, but not both. In this case, decide whether you have the rest of the level under control, and react accordingly. Taking the extra life nets you an extra fifty points and leaves you with the same number of remaining lives – provided you don’t lose any more lives.
- Have a strategy for each level. The only way to develop this is through repeated game play. Some levels, notably including level 1, can be defeated without the ball ever returning to the paddle, depending on how the player launches the ball. For level 1, cast the first throw all the way to the right. Occasionally, this will result in an instant win. Don’t forget to grab the falling pills!
- Level 16 is – hands down – the most difficult level in the game. Level 16 is a set of silver bricks, arranged in a “U†shape, filled with bricks of varying colors. The most obvious strategy is to simply get the ball into the “U†and have it break as many bricks as possible. This turns out to be quite difficult in practice, however, as the bricks shift down during game-play, eventually resulting in a one-brick sized margin between the paddle and the ball, making it virtually impossible to maintain any degree of control. The key here is to have ample lives to spare so that you can beat the board without keeping track of exactly how many balls are lost. Alternately, once the board shifts down one level, dropping the ball intentionally can stop the board from shifting down further – potentially saving lives for later boards.
- Level 13 is also quite difficult for the same reason as level 16 – there is limited access to the bricks, but there are plenty of silver bricks. The level falls as the ball is played until the player is unable to manage the ball with only a brick or two of clearance. Again, intentionally allowing the ball to drain can help avoid this. Another strategy is to control the ball carefully as it returns down the left chute. Return the ball with the most oblique angle possible, trying to let the falling ball hit the left-most edge of the paddle. Typically, this will return the ball on the same trajectory, allowing it to clear more bricks.
- Maximize your backlight timeout. This will drain your battery faster, but will prevent the screen from blanking during a crucial moment of game play.
- Submit your high scores! Find out your rank and brag about it to your friends. If you don’t, no one will ever know how great you are at Brick Breaker.
- Take a Brick Breaker break occasionally. If you take Brick Breaker too seriously, you may end up with no friends to call on your BlackBerry! Try to maintain a healthy balance.
Good luck, and happy brick breaking!
119 responses so far ↓
1 BRAD // Jan 7, 2009 at 6:17 pm
ONCE AGAIN, AFTER MY PREVIOUS GAME ERASED I GOT BACK UP TO 1,200,000 THIS TIME AND MY GAME IS GONE AGAIN. I AM NOW DONE WITH BRICK BREAKER.
2 Cain // Jan 8, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Yeah, me too. No matter how careful I try to be, the damn BB just resets at some point by itself for whatever reason and erases my game progress completely. I was close to a million when it did it again the other day. I’m done with it too. Bleck.
3 benjamin // Jan 15, 2009 at 5:11 pm
what do you do when the ball disapears at the top of the screen. I was on level 23 and it went off of the screen and i had 4 lives.
4 Lou // Jan 25, 2009 at 12:41 am
My high score was 67k before i lost my friggin ball! I confirmed with RIM that this a bug and the ball will never come back no matter how long you wait. The good news is that a patch has been issued and it’s been fixed. The bad news is that it can only be downloaded from my carrier’s website and my carrier (Att) won’t make it available for my 8800. Only the newer models get the version which fixes this bug… Does anyone know where I can buy (download) the latest version for my 8800?
5 juan // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:13 am
Is there any way that I could save the game while playing. This way I wouldn’t loose the score once I start playing. Omg I had 299,000 and I lost everything I don’t know how but that really sucks.
6 Charlie // Feb 5, 2009 at 11:37 am
Am I the only one that uses my bluetooth headset so I can play while talking on the phone?
If you havent found out how to do this, it is a god send. lol
7 Beth // Feb 9, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Level 16 will be the death of me!!!! I had 10 lives and still couldn’t make it off. That “U” is about to make me lose my mind!!!!!!!!!!!
8 Cain // Feb 24, 2009 at 11:18 am
Lou, that’s not true. The ball does indeed come back. You just have to wait sometimes for many many hours, letting the game run overnight while you’re not using the phone. I’ve had the disappeared ball return dozens of times now, you just have to be patient.
9 Mark // Mar 11, 2009 at 8:35 am
How are you getting so many points. My high score is 14,000+ on my 8330. Maybe there is a difference in each model.
10 James // Mar 14, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I’m at 30,000 points. I finished the game but I lost the second time around at level 18. Level 16 drained me out of 10 lives (had 15 when i got there). But there is hope since I hear that the game gets exponentially easy after you finish the game the second time around. I know people whose score is in the millions, and who have played the same game for months now.
On the other hand I keep telling myself: You finished all levels whats the point of playing anymore. ADDICTION!!! Can’t get enough of this game. I thought I was the only one but I guess I’m not alone. Maybe there should be a rehab center for people addicted to crack-berry and brickbreaker and some day we can all beat our addiction… LOL
11 Ben Mero // Mar 16, 2009 at 8:44 am
my friend got over 1,000,000 before the game just keeps going on until you lose all ur lives
12 gup // Mar 27, 2009 at 2:43 pm
huh i thoght theres going to be games but nooo there is not any arrrrrrrrrgh
13 gup // Mar 27, 2009 at 2:44 pm
oh now i get it
14 Babyboyy // Mar 29, 2009 at 3:29 pm
how do you get a million plus score on 1 to 4 levels. Can someone look at the high scores and tell me how do you get 3 million and only on level 8…… but the top scorer has 10 million and he’s on level 26
15 Morgan // Apr 9, 2009 at 11:10 am
BabyBoyy,
The levels loop, so while a high scorer may appear on level 8, they have probably completed all the other levels hundreds of times.
16 denetteb // May 6, 2009 at 6:59 am
how in the world are you guys scoring that high? the most lives i have had at one time was 8…is it a difference on the bb? heck, i’m just trying to make it out of level 16!!!
17 jose // May 30, 2009 at 2:34 pm
hi everybody, I reached 1,430.000 points, and 170 lives. At that point, I can’t continue playing, because each time the ball hits the wall, it appears an error saying “tray again”. Also I can´t finish the match, and I can´t count my record. I´m broken.
18 Steven Trustey // Jun 2, 2009 at 11:08 am
Can somebody offer advice? My internet is not working on my BB Storm. It’s happened before, and if I take the battery out and put it back in, the problem is solved.
The only issue is I have 100,000+ on Brickbreaker (my previous high was 30K…its true, once you pass through twice, it’s a cake walk). If I take my battery out, I will lose my game correct? Any suggestions? I’ve tried turning the internet connection off and back on, but no dice.
19 taylor // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:26 am
im at level 34 the last one and its so frigin hard.
please can you help me get to the end of the game because it is very hard to win and i have een trying for like ever and its way to hard for me but level 34 is very hard if you did not get to there yet cause you will have allot of trouble cause there is like 900 bricks its way to hard but i think when you beat it you
20 Brad // Jun 10, 2009 at 10:45 am
Each time I recharge my battery, it resets my brickbreaker game. Is there a way to recharge and not lose your current game? Thank you for supporting my addiction!
21 Jim // Jun 13, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Wow wtf, made it past level 16 three straight times and on the following levels the balls disappeared every time!!! This is so ridiculously frustrating, as that tiny space between the top brick and the wall seems to be the problem. This is so ridiculous
22 Pat // Jun 14, 2009 at 8:48 am
How do you get all these lives? Someone said 200 – 53 – etc.? I’ve only gotten 12 for the highest amount. Is there some trick or way to get more????
23 jose // Jun 16, 2009 at 2:59 am
hi Pat,
There’s no trick, you have to preserve your current life, and get new ones…
24 jose // Jun 16, 2009 at 3:01 am
Hi Jim,
You should try to beat the ball twice before sending it up. Then you will not have problems any more…
25 Darrell // Jun 16, 2009 at 11:45 am
Was up to 2.8 million with 1151 lives when phone crashed. Back up to 1,285,320 with 831 lives.
26 Pat // Jun 17, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Thanks Jose – are you up at 3AM playing? I guess I’m not that talented at this game when I see this Darrell guy with 1151 lives— what do you mean when you say beat the ball twice in response to Jim??? Maybe I’m missing something.
27 jackson // Jul 1, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Why cant you guys score in the freaken BILLIONS That almost KILLS me. Mimi,how to use the gun,well,try pressing the space bar. My dad could not get past level 16. However I have done it a million times. After you get over 500000,the battery is dead. That freaken sucks. In 2008, the game was gone and I was doing well. That darn sucks because the phone died. After the phone died,I began doing it online. But the dang computer shut down.I AM OFFICILY DONE WITH ANY TYPE OF BRICKBREAKER FOREVER. DO NOT BUY ANOTHER BLACKBERRY AGAIN. I HEARD SOMEONE PUTS LIQUID OVER THE BATTERY. IT MAKES SHUT DOWN A LOT. NEVER.
[Editor’s reply: Thanks for posting 12 different comments one sentence at a time, no wonder you never figured out how to charge your battery.]
28 keith // Jul 5, 2009 at 5:30 am
i also, got upto like 300,000 a load of times with around 50 lives each time and when i drop the phone the batter must move and it resets. rather annoying but when the levels start to slow down again after a few times round lets be honest we could all just keep going forever. the only real challenge is getting past the 2nd time round the levels so for those of you still to do it don’t be too impressed by anyone with 40,000 plus hi score, it’s really easy after that anyway!
29 Jim // Jul 5, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Jose,
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been using that strategy as much as possible, and it always works. The hard part is guessing as to when the bricks are going to start to move down, and sometimes i’ll lay back and hit the ball back and forth off of a silver brick until then so I can avoid the problem. Just before I came here, though, the bricks moved down before i thought they would and i sent the ball up and of course it went out of play… lol. Was on level 30 with 15 lives (my best chance yet). Oh well though thanks for the help.
30 Andrew // Jul 8, 2009 at 9:00 pm
this game is quite simple i assure you of this. i got to level 111 and im still playing as i am typing. i am a proffesional at this. i have 200 lives left and still beating levels. now i am on level 112. i am a genius please, do not tell me otherwise or i will be very furious. thankyou.
31 Tom // Jul 21, 2009 at 6:00 pm
“this game is quite simple i assure you of this. i got to level 111 and im still playing as i am typing.”
“i got to level 111”
“level 111”
0/10, would not troll again
32 Mohamed // Jul 27, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hi
Guys I can’t believe the millions part its “insane”, I’m sure its on a Pearl or something.
Getting a score beyond 100,000 on a curve is really brutal and nearly impossible. I just got a curve three weeks ago and I’m so addicted to the game and i am on level 17 with a highest score of 10,170!! If you watch videos on YouTube on Brick Breaker it clearly illustrates the different version of the game whereas the curve, bold, and storm don’t exceed the 100,000 range and the screens are old, plus they are posted a year ago where the new blackberries have not arrived yet.
My Hint for the guys that stay on the game with hours, is to stop and have a long-interval before continuing to play and remember the pace of the game next time you continue because you might “un-pause” the game and find the ball going really fast beyond your expectations which will reduce important lives.
Good Luck for all of you and have a nice time and try to only play the game in your spare time.
Kind Regards,
Mohamed
33 Ando // Aug 17, 2009 at 7:28 am
Level 16 is by far the most difficult of the 34. However, I think I found a bit of an unorthodox way of making it much more simple. On my first shot, I move the direction all the way to the left and shoot. This will make the ball hit the brick in the top middle (which also gives you a pill). then when the ball comes back down, let it go. I know it sounds crazy, but just let the ball go and sacrifice that life. Then take the exact same shot with the direction all the way to the left. This will destroy nearly all the bricks in the U in one shot. But of course, don’t try this method if you get a “catch” on the first shot.
34 PH // Oct 29, 2009 at 3:52 pm
There are in fact ten blue bonus pills: you didn’t mention slow… Great guide otherwise
35 PH // Oct 30, 2009 at 4:25 am
Great guide.. but there are actually 10 blue bonus pills.. you didn’t mention SLOW.
36 Zack // Nov 12, 2009 at 2:41 pm
FUCK LEVEL 16
37 shabs // Nov 13, 2009 at 7:44 am
man!!!
my highest score is only 2700
38 Boogaloo2 // Dec 16, 2009 at 11:56 am
Ando, if your tip for level 16 works I will give you $1 million and name my next child after you!!
39 mingo // Dec 20, 2009 at 4:31 am
Hi!! I’ve just reached 1.000.000 points!!!!!!
yes, you read it correctly ONE MILLION POINTS! 58 times all 34 levels!! and still counting as I have 117 lives to go…..I’m playing the same game since more than 3 months now!
The first 3 x 34 leves were really hard but then the ball slowed its pace and now its just keeping it in play. Level 16 is still a piece of s..t
Does somebody know what AMMO on the right side means? thanks and keep playing
mingo
[Editpr’s reply: Congratulations! My girlfriend’s game is at a similar score right now – watch out! Don’t forget that in order for your high score to be posted, your game actually has to end normally. Beware of the Berry crashing! Ammo tells you how many shots you have left when you get a “Gun” pill power-up.]
40 Chris // Dec 25, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Hey. Mingo AMMO means how many bullets you have left from your gun. Im pretty sure im rite. Do you know were I could go to a website to get walk thres on each level and that they will show me were to hit the ball and what all the levels look like? Thanks!
41 mingo // Dec 26, 2009 at 2:15 am
thanks for the comment! in the meantime I’m at 1.111.770 65 x 34 and 134 lives to go. Since the BlackBerry was first used by another person in the company there is some kind of password and I cannot send the max score….which really piss me off! if somebody has a cue how to to revert it without losing my game?
Thanks, Domingo
42 James Litvany // Jan 5, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Currently at 860000 with 110 lives. Playing over a month. If your BB goes to SOS, DO NOT REMOVE THE BATTERY. Just power it off and the game will be saved. Most “difficult” levels can be overcome if you start one notch over from far left and realease. BBreaker is the official noningested laxative.
43 Mike // Jan 17, 2010 at 4:22 pm
anyone – does anyone have a suggestion as to what is the best paddle acceleration level? I’m stuck at 32,000 – only a few games away from completing the second cycle. I’m trying the “fast” accelleration level but am finding it hard to get used to. desperate.
[Editor’s reply: Paddle acceleration seems to me to be a personal preference. Just out of curiosity, are you using a BlackBerry Curve? Many of the high scores seem to come from BlackBerry Pearl handsets.]
44 Steve // Jan 24, 2010 at 11:29 am
I have discovered a cheat. You can actually skip levels. I read all those cheats and could not do them. I discovered something, you can skip from 1 to 16 levels. I call it jumping because it is not an exact science. Sometimes, it jumps more or less than I think it is going to. I skipped level 16, skipped as many as I could in second round of playing and got to 3rd level. Easy after that. I still skip 8, 10, and 16. They are boring, no lives and hard.
[Editor’s reply: Yes, *you* discovered it.]
45 mo jo // Jan 28, 2010 at 3:48 pm
so, what is the cheat?
[Editor’s reply: I believe he’s referring to this, which does not work on all versions: http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-blackberry-discussion/121160-guide-skipping-levels-brickbreaker.html ]
46 Rick Thorne // May 17, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I’ve been working on one game for over three weeks. I’ve gone through all 34 levels 75 times I have 1,476,354 pts and 107 lives left. I’ve been as low as 18 lives and as high as 140. Sometimes it is very challenging. I recently got down to 67 lives and felt as though it was coming to an end, however,I am back up to 107 lives. Sometimes all of the pills are your friend and sometimes they all can be your enemies including extra lives. They could be there to trap you.
47 Zack // Jul 28, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Great addicting game
48 Jake // Jul 28, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Zachs right
49 Noah // Jul 28, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I agree, zachs right
[Editor’s reply: Just to be clear, these were all posted within 5 minutes from the same IP address. But since I laughed out loud at “Zack”s audacity, I approved the comments as-is.]
50 jake // Aug 16, 2010 at 2:42 pm
How do you get so many lives?
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