Reviving old and forgotten genres of games seems to be the new thing as of late. We have Geometry Wars reviving the duel-stick shooter genre, Braid and Trine bringing back 2D platformers and well… whatever other old lost genre. Shatter is the newest attempt at this, with Sidhe Interactive attempting to bring back the long forgotten and dormant brick-breaking genre. Some of you may remember past games like Breakout and Arkanoid being major games in this genre. So how does Shatter hold up?
Shatter actually does have a story, albeit a very simple one. It focuses around a bat (no, not the kind that flies) called Bat 1138 breaking free of it’s cell at the Kinetic Energy Harvest Plant and going on to take revenge on the Xenon, evil robots that took them over and forced them to work. That is about as deep as the story gets, and even then it’s based on a bit of guesswork. There is no spoken dialog, no written dialog after the opening cut scene and no cut scenes until you beat the game and see the (rather humorous) ending. The game is, honestly, better thanks to this. There is really no way on earth they could have done anything with what they had. Really, if you’re looking for story then this is not the game you should be playing. Granted, I’m sure most of you can tell that from just watching a trailer, but for those that can not then here’s your warning.
The gameplay in Shatter manages to be rather simple, yet it’s pretty engrossing. Like most block breaking games the objective is hit the ball with the bat into the blocks, and don’t lose the ball. Unlike most block breaker games, Shatter lets you blow and suck the ball to give you some control over it after it’s left your bat. Get your giggles out now. Blowing and sucking balls. Tee-hee. You can also launch multiple balls, so long as you have extra lives to spare. So yes, you will be blowing and sucking multiple balls over the course of your adventure. This manages to give you control of the ball after it leaves the bat, making things a bit easier, but also giving you something to do other then wait around.
Adding to things would be the fact that some blocks can float around the play area, even able to hit you. To counter this you have two special abilities that you can charge up by sucking up shards the blocks leave behind. The first is a shield, which can destroy any blocks that hit it, or the shield can be used to reflect the shards back at the blocks. Your other ability is the shard storm, which shoots a ton of shards at the blocks in a form of ultimate attack. Also, to mix things up a bit, Shatter has 10 boss fights that are easily the high points of the game.
Presentation wise, Shatter has nice clean graphics that look great. The effects are pretty nice. The soundtrack stands out too, with fun techno music that fit the theme of the game. Actually, the techno music is really good, and I’m not even a fan of techno. It’s just that good.
The game does suffer from two pretty big issues though, and that would be it’s short length and low replay value. After you beat the story mode, something that could take 3-5 hours, that’s pretty much it. You can aim for higher scores, and you do unlock a boss rush mode, but otherwise there is little reason to go through the game again. Still, for $8.00, it’s really worth it.
Overall, Shatter manages to meet its goal of relaunching the brick breaking genre of games. With it’s simple yet fun gameplay and great presentation, Shatter should be a definite buy for those that are looking for something on the PsN and have the money to spend.
