Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh
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| Arkanoid - Revenge of Doh | |
|---|---|
 European cover |
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| Developer(s) | Taito |
| Publisher(s) | Romstar |
| Designer(s) | Yasumasa Sasabe and team |
| Platform(s) | Arcade Game, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, MSX, PC, ZX Spectrum, Apple IIGS |
| Release date(s) | 1987 (Arcade) 1988 (Computer conversions) |
| Genre(s) | Breakout |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Input methods | Optical rotary, 1 Button; keyboard, mouse and joystic on the PC version |
| Cabinet | Vertical |
| CPU | Z80 |
| Sound | YM2203 |
| Display | Raster, 224 x 256 pixels, 512 colors; CGA, EGA, Hercules and Tandy on PC |
Arkanoid - Revenge of Doh (a.k.a Arkanoid 2) is an arcade game released by Taito in 1987 as a sequel to Arkanoid.
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[edit] Description
The mysterious enemy known as DOH has returned to seek vengeance on the Vaus space vessel. The player must once again take control of the Vaus (paddle) and overcome many challenges in order to destroy DOH once and for all. Revenge of Doh sees the player battle through 34 rounds, taken from a grand total of 64.
[edit] New features
Revenge of Doh differs from its predecessor with the introduction of "Warp Gates". Upon completion of a level or when the Break ('B') pill is caught, two gates appear at the bottom of the play area, on either side. The player can choose to go through either one of the gates - the choice will affect which version of the next level is provided. The fire-button is only used when the Laser ('L') or Catch ('C') pill is caught.
The game also featured two new features for bricks. Notched silver bricks, like normal silver bricks, take several hits to destroy. However, after a short period of time after destruction, they regenerate at full strength. Fortunately, clearing a level does not require that any notched bricks be destroyed. Also, some bricks move from side to side as long as their left and/or right sides are not obstructed by other bricks.
The US version features an entirely different layout for Level 1 that feature an entire line of notched bricks, with all colored bricks above it moving from side to side.
The game features a mini-boss in the form of a giant brain, which will help you practice for DOH. You must aim for the brain's mouth to defeat it.
Home versions of Revenge of DOH also featured a level editor, where players could create their own levels or edit and replace existing levels, with the exception of two levels: the mini-boss and DOH.
[edit] Pills
Arkanoid 2 offers a much greater range of power-up pills, which drop from the bricks as they are destroyed by the energy ball. The capsules are:
- B (Pink) - "Break"
- Opens the warp gates at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to bypass the level even when it is unfinished.
- P (Dark Grey) - "Player Extend"
- Gives you an additional Vaus.
- C (Light Green) - "Catch"
- Enables the Vaus to catch the energy ball, move to another position, and relaunch it by pressing the fire button. If you hesitate too long, the Vaus will release the ball on its own.
- D (Light Blue) - "Disruption"
- Splits the energy ball into eight particles (unlike in the original game, where this pill split the energy ball into only three particles).
- M (Purple) - "Mega"
- Turns the normal energy ball into a red (black in the PC version) "mega energy ball", which can destroy even indestructible bricks and will only bounce back after hitting the sides or ceiling of the chamber.
- E (Medium Blue) - "Expand"
- Expands the Vaus to double its size.
- R (Black) - "Reduce"
- Shrinks the Vaus to half its size, but every block you destroy doubles in point value.
- L (Red) - "Laser"
- Enables the Vaus to fire laser beams that destroy most bricks.
- T (Dark Blue) - "Twin"
- Gives you two Vauses instead of one. Not a particularly helpful one, as it limits your maneuverability and the energy ball tends to fall between the Vauses.
- S (Orange) - "Slow"
- Temporarily slows down the speed of the energy ball. The energy ball will speed up upon hitting the ceiling of the chamber, making this pill unhelpful in some levels. On the other hand, the energy ball speeds up much more quickly and rapidly in this game than in the original, making it helpful to extend a normal playing speed.
- I (Dark Green) - "Illusion"
- Creates a transparent grey shadow at the bottom of the screen that follows the Vaus around. It will deflect energy balls (though with no control of the rebound direction), greatly expanding the functional area of the Vaus.
- N (Light Grey) - "New"
- Continually splits the energy ball into three particles until the Vaus catches another pill. This is very helpful on some levels.
- Flashing pill
- This special pill will reward you randomly with one of the following four powers : 1. 40 energy balls; 2. 25 mega balls; 3. 8 regenerating energy balls; 4. Continuous laser fire. On most levels, the first three powers are enough to clear the entire board. The fourth, however, can make it extremely difficult to see what's going on and won't help on levels with lots of indestructible blocks. Finally, instead of yielding one of the aforementioned powers, a flashing capsule will occasionally result in a regenerating swarm of 15 floating enemies passing through the portals in the ceiling and flooding the screen. While these enemies are worth 100 points apiece if destroyed by the energy ball, having to battle so many at once is usually more of survival challenge than a scoring opportunity.
[edit] Trivia
- Zack Hample holds the official world record for this game with 3,120,570 points. [1]
[edit] Series
- Arkanoid (1986)
- Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh (1987)
- Arkanoid: Doh it Again (1997, Nintendo Super NES)
- Arkanoid Returns (1997)
- Arkanoid DS (2007)
