Breakout

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## **Stage Info**

Breakout was an arcade game published by Atari and designed by Steve Wozniak. It took some of its basis from Pong which had been released four years earlier, but instead of pitting two players against each other it instead had the player controlling a paddle to direct a ball to hit and destroy a series of bricks. The ball would bounce off of these bricks and back down towards the bottom of the screen where the player would need to control the paddle and intercept the ball before it could fly off screen. If the ball was successfully hit by the paddle it would bounce its way back up to the bricks at the top of the screen, however if the player missed then they would lose a life. Breakout ended up inspiring a wide array of similar games, which varied in how far they copied or innovated on the concept. This eventually led to a new game genre being created as “Block Breaker” games.

## **Stage Layout**

Battles on Breakout will start out with the fighters on top of 6 rows of Breakout blocks floating above an endless pit. Each block is about the length of one of the floating platforms on Battlefield. All of these blocks are considered to be semisoft platforms which allows fighters to travel up through them, but not down through them. However if two bricks are stacked on top of each other then the fighters cannot pass through them at all. Fighters can still be KO’d below the bricks by being knocked off the side and falling to their death. The paddle at the bottom of the stage can also be used as a platform in a desperate attempt to survive being KO’d, however it’s not exactly a safe platform as the paddle will always attempt to intercept the ball and the ball can damage the fighters on contact.

## **Hazards**

### **Breakout**

While the battle is going on, a paddle can be seen at the bottom of the stage as it bounces a ball from it and into the bricks above. When the ball hits a brick it will bounce off of it as the brick gets destroyed. The paddle will then position itself as the ball comes back down to intercept it and send the ball back up. While the paddle will almost always reach the ball in time, there will be rare instances where it misses and the ball will fly past the bottom blast zones and disappear. A new ball will reappear above the paddle after 10 seconds to continue where the previous ball left off. This is the only way the ball can be destroyed. Attacks made against it will just bounce the ball away and it will also bounce off of the left, right, and top edges of the stage.

While this ball can damage fighters that it makes contact with, the fact that it can destroy bricks is actually more dangerous. As the bricks get destroyed the fighters will have less and less ground to fight on making battle here rather perilous. That said, there are some hidden soft platforms among the bricks which will only reveal themselves when the brick that was covering them gets destroyed. These platforms cannot be destroyed and will always be a safe haven for the fighters. If the ball is able to successfully destroy every brick on the stage then the paddle will disappear which guarantees that when the ball next heads down towards the bottom of the stage it will go away. Once the paddle and ball have both disappeared the stage will remain peaceful as far as hazards are concerned for 20 seconds. After this point all of the bricks will begin to fade back onto the stage. Once the bricks are back all of the fighters who are not already above their area will be immediately shunted above the bricks. This is done in the safest manner possible to the fighters and will not inflict any damage on fighters who would have been smothered by the bricks. Once the bricks are back in place the paddle and ball will return and the hazard will resume. Everytime this stage is loaded, and everytime the bricks return, the locations of the safe soft platforms will be randomized.

## **Soundtrack**

* **Breakout 2000**
	+ Breakout 2000 Medley - A medley comprised of the Intro Theme as well as the various Phase themes from Breakout 2000.

* **Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration**
	+ Menu Music
	+ Neo Breakout
	+ Neo Breakout VS Mode