Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders

Arkanoid vs Space Invaders
Arkanoid vs Space Invaders icon
Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	JP: Taito WW: Square Enix
Director(s)	Nanoha Hata
Producer(s)	Nikkou Yamashita
Designer(s)	Taiki Yoneda Nanoha Hata Teppei Moriwaki
Programmer(s)	Teppei Moriwaki Taiki Yoneda
Artist(s)	Nanoha Hata Ken Ninomiya Tetsuyoshi Yamaji
Writer(s)	Daiki Tsutsui
Composer(s)	Hirokazu Koshio Shohei Tsuchiya
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Android, iOS
Release	WW: May 17, 2017 (2017-05-17)
Genre(s)	Arcade, Breakout, Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single-player

Arkanoid vs Space Invaders (Japanese: アルカノイド vs スペースインベーダー, Hepburn: Arukanoido Basasu Supēsu Inbēdā) is a paid mobile game developed by Taito and published by Taito in Japan and Square Enix worldwide. As the name suggests, it is a crossover between Arkanoid and Space Invaders and features gameplay elements adapted from both games. The game was released without any prior announcement by Square Enix internationally on May 17th 2017.

Gameplay

The game includes elements borrowed from Space Invaders and Arkanoid. The player maneuvers the Vaus spacecraft along the blue region located at the bottom of the screen, and must deflect a ball at a formation of bricks and Space Invaders aliens. The player will need to avoid fire from the latter, although the player can deflect the shots at the aliens. The goal of each stage is to destroy the formation of bricks as well as the aliens, and the player will move forward to the next stage once this goal has been completed. The player will need to make his/her way across several different worlds, with each world containing four stages. At the final stage, the player will need to fight a final boss before moving on. Once a world has been completed, the player will acquire a random power-up in the form of characters representing older Taito properties, such as Bubble Bobble, Darius and Psychic Force.

Taito characters

Year	Characters	Origin
1982	Soldier	Front Line
1983	Spy	Elevator Action
	Chack'n	Chack'n Pop
	Monsta
1985	Reika	Time Gal
	Kage	The Legend of Kage
	Ptolemy	The Fairyland Story
1986	Bub	Bubble Bobble
	Bob
	Drunk
	Sayo-chan	KiKi KaiKai
1987	Bubby	Rainbow Islands
	Kunoichi	The Ninja Warriors
	Ninja
	Proco	Darius
	Iron Fossil
	Great Thing
1988	Nancy	Chase H.Q.
	Tiki	The NewZealand Story
1990	Sonic Blast Man	Sonic Blast Man
1991	Zac	PuLiRuLa
1993	Lufia	Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
1995	Tetsu-chan	LET'S GO BY TRAIN!
	Burn Griffiths	Psychic Force
	Emilio Michaelov
	Keith Evans
	Wendy Ryan
1997	Patra-co	Cleopatra's Fortune
	Kaori Tachibana	Kirameki Star Road
	C-mond	Puchi Carat
2005	Mr. ESC	Exit
	Nico	Spica Adventure
2009	Riga Pratica	Dariusburst
	Ti2
2014	Xiaoqiong	K.R.T. Girls
2016	Linka	Groove Coaster 3: Link Fever
	Nadia Vivie	Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders
	Niko Kanzaki
2017	Yume	Groove Coaster 3EX: Dream Party

Reception

Arkanoid vs Space Invaders received positive reviews from critics, with reviews praising the amalgamation of Arkanoid and Space Invaders, and ditching the free-to-play model of mobile applications. The game currently has an 87% score on Metacritic. Eli Hodapp of Touch Arcade states that “the Arkanoid and Space Invaders universes have been duct taped together in a way that actually works quite well” and that it is “A super-solid brick breaker with an interesting twist and no freemium shenanigans”. Chris Shilling of Waypoint describes the game as “Crisp and colorful with an energetic EDM soundtrack, Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders is a fizzy, addictive treat—like a bag of cola bottles but with slightly more nutritional value, and all for roughly the price of a London pint”. Jennifer Allen of Game Zebo commented by saying that “Arkanoid and Space Invaders is one of those perfectly shrewd moves that you had no idea could work so well until, well, it did. Partly skills based and partly a puzzle game, it’s a delightful combination of two iconic classics. Even better, you won’t have to suffer the scourge of in-app purchases to enjoy it.”, however, she did criticise the boss battles by stating that they “Are somewhat lackluster, never quite fulfilling their potential”. Harry Slater of Pocket Gamer described Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders as “a mash up of two of Taito's old arcade franchises. And it's actually pretty interesting. There's bouncing, there are blocks, there are waves of alien invaders trying to destroy the cosmos. While that might sound like a silly mish mash, there's actually a decent amount of cohesion here”. CJ Andrissen of Destructoid praised the game by stating that it is “One of the best mobile games of the year” and that “There is just so much game here to enjoy and with no ads, no microtransactions, and no need to always be connected to the internet, Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders is missing most of the red flags people wave when dismissing the mobile marketplace. It isn’t the best version of Space Invaders out there but it is the best version of Arkanoid currently available”.