How to play Brick Breaker

Bounce the neon ball, smash every brick, and don't let it slip past your paddle.

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Brick Breaker is the paddle-and-ball arcade formula: keep the ball in play, clear the wall of bricks above.

The rules

A ball bounces around the arena. You move a paddle along the bottom and bounce the ball back up. Every brick the ball touches is destroyed and scores, with the higher rows worth more.

Let the ball fall past the paddle and you lose a life. Clear every brick and a fresh wall drops in with the ball moving faster.

The one thing that makes you good at it

The paddle is not a wall. Where the ball hits it changes where the ball goes.

Hit the ball with the centre of the paddle and it returns close to straight up. Hit it with the outer edge and it leaves at a much sharper angle. This is not a quirk of this version — it is the mechanic the entire genre is built on, and it is the difference between reacting to the ball and aiming it.

Once you know that, you stop chasing the ball to wherever it is going and start deciding where you want it to go next. Need to reach a brick in the top left corner? Take the ball on the left edge of the paddle so it leaves steeply to the left.

Angles, walls and the ceiling

The ball reflects off side walls predictably, so a bank shot off a wall into a cluster is a real play rather than luck.

The best outcome in the game is getting the ball above the wall. A ball loose in the gap between the bricks and the ceiling ricochets around clearing brick after brick with no input from you at all, and carving a narrow channel up one side to get it there is the single highest-scoring thing you can do.

Speed, and why steady beats frantic

Each cleared level speeds the ball up. Because the ball's speed rises but the paddle's does not, the game eventually beats everybody — the score is how long you delay it.

The practical consequence is that you should not drift. Return the paddle towards the centre after every hit, because the centre is the position from which the next unexpected angle is reachable in both directions. Players who camp where the ball last was lose lives to the shot that goes the other way.

Losing a life

A lost life is nearly always one of two mistakes: being out of position after a wide return, or trying to steer the ball with the paddle edge when a safe centre hit was what the situation needed.

Edge hits are for when you are in control. When you are scrambling, take the ball flat and reset.

Controls

Move the paddle with your mouse, finger, or the Left/Right arrow keys. Keep the ball in play and clear all the bricks.

Strategy tips

Use the paddle to aim, not just to block. The centre returns the ball steeply upward, the edges send it out at a sharp angle — that is the whole skill of the game.
Return to the centre after every hit. It is the only position from which both sides are reachable, and drifting is what loses lives.
Carve a channel up one side. Getting the ball above the wall lets it clear bricks on its own, and it is the highest-scoring thing you can do.
Take the ball flat when you are scrambling. Fancy edge angles are for when you are in position; a safe centre hit resets the rally.
Use the side walls deliberately. A bank shot into a cluster is a real play, and the reflections are predictable enough to plan.
Clear the low bricks under a cluster first. Removing the support opens a path upward for the ball to exploit later.
Watch the ball, not the bricks. Your score comes from staying alive, and the wall cannot hurt you.
Expect the speed to win eventually. Every level is faster, so play for the longest run rather than the perfect one.