Category:Arkanoid

Arkanoid is a series of nine Breakout-style games that were released by Taito Corporation between 1986 and 2017; the first three games in the series, Arkanoid (1986), Tournament Arkanoid (1987), and Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh (again 1987), were initially licensed to Taito's then-current American distributor Romstar, for manufacture and distribution in the United States, while the fourth one, Arkanoid: Doh It Again (1997), was a direct-to-console title for the SNES which was later converted for Microsoft Windows, and the fifth one, Arkanoid Returns (also 1997), was only ever released in Japan.


 * Arkanoid (1986): The first title in the series was an update of the early "ball-and-paddle" arcade games, in particular Atari's Super Breakout (1978), and it introduced a number of new elements to the genre (including bricks that left powerups behind in the form of falling capsules when destroyed); the fifth round was also made to look like a "Medium Invader", from both the original Space Invaders (also 1978) and Space Invaders Part II (1979).


 * Tournament Arkanoid (1987): The second title in the series was released in the year after the first one, but it was more of an upgrade to it than an actual sequel; the only thing different about it was that all thirty-two rounds had completely different arrangements of bricks, and some of them were much more challenging than those of the original (the fourth one was also made to look like Chack'n, the main character from 1983's Chack'n Pop).


 * Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh (1987): The third title in the series was released in the same year as the second one and differed from its predecessors with the introduction of "Warp Gates"; upon completion of a round or when a Break ("B") capsule was caught, two gates opened at the bottom of the play area on either side, and the player could choose to go through either one of the gates (their choice would affect which version of the next round was presented). The game also showcased two new features for its bricks, as notched silver bricks (much like normal silver bricks) took several hits to destroy, but a short period of time after they had been destroyed, they would regenerate at full strength - and some bricks would even move from side to side if their left and/or right sides were not obstructed by other ones (the US version had an entirely different first-round layout to reflect this).


 * Arkanoid: Doh It Again (SNES, Microsoft Windows, 1997): The fourth title in the series, which was released as just Arkanoid like the original in the European Union and Australasia, was released ten years after both the second and third ones and allowed two players to play simultaneously in one of three modes; it was also possible for players to play the SNES version with that console's Mouse accessory and improve their manoeuvring skills.


 * Arkanoid Returns (1997): The fifth title in the series was released in the same year as the fourth one only in Japan, and also allowed two players to play simultaneously; there would not be another Arkanoid game after it until the release of Arkanoid DS on the Nintendo DS a decade later in 2007, which was in turn succeeded by Arkanoid Live! on Microsoft Xbox 360 and Arkanoid Plus! on Nintendo Wii two years later in 2009, and Arkanoid vs Space Invaders (which, as the name implies, was a crossover with the Space Invaders franchise) on iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch in 2017.