It's still fundamentally the same game, but it's a neat bit of visual invention. In other areas, Breakout actually does something different from the original gameplay concept. In a medieval-themed level, your task is to knock out a platoon of knights on a drawbridge, who are guarding the gate to a castle. Just hitting them won't make them go away, though. The knights move around on their own, in an added wrinkle, tending to bunch up when they get spread out, so you have to focus on individual knights when you get them in a vulnerable position, before they run back to the center.
Breakout is buoyed by some of the same visual charm that made Pong fun to look at.
The paddles twist and stretch before a level, just like in Pong, and now they've been given little eyes that widen, narrow, scowl, or smile. The 3D levels have a similar charm, and so do the sound effects - listening to the knights gripe and yelp as you knock them around the drawbridge is fun. This mummy boss is mean, and ugly. Poor little paddle. All these platforms and explosives mean big trouble.