🧱 How to play Breakout (Arkanoid)
By Miguel Arechaga
Breakout, also known as Arkanoid, is one of the arcade classics: a paddle, a ball, and a wall of bricks to destroy. It looks simple, but controlling the bounce angle is a real skill. Here are the rules and how to keep your 3 lives for as long as possible.
What is Breakout?
It's a skill game where you control a paddle at the bottom of the screen. Your goal is to hit the ball with it so it bounces upward and destroys all the colored bricks, without letting the ball fall past the paddle.
How to play step by step
- Move the paddle with the mouse or the ← → keys on desktop, or slide your finger on mobile.
- Press spacebar or tap the screen to launch the ball while it's waiting on the paddle.
- The ball bounces off the paddle and destroys bricks on contact, scoring points for each one.
- If the ball falls past the paddle, you lose a life. The game ends when you lose all 3.
- Destroying every brick levels you up and the ball gains speed.
Strategy: control the bounce angle
The key to Breakout isn't just returning the ball, it's choosing where you hit it with the paddle. If the ball touches the center of the paddle, it bounces nearly straight up; if you hit it with the edges, it comes off at a much sharper angle. Use this to your advantage to steer the ball toward areas with more bricks or to dodge tricky gaps.
When speed increases at advanced levels, get ahead of the ball: move toward where it will land instead of reacting at the last instant.
Quick tips
- Keep the paddle centered when you're not sure where the ball is headed; it gives you more room to react.
- Prioritize opening a side tunnel through the bricks: if the ball climbs up the side, it will bounce between the wall and the bricks, clearing whole rows on its own.
- Don't chase the ball abruptly; smooth movements are more precise than last-second stops.
With some patience and practice controlling the angle, Breakout stops being about pure reflexes and becomes a game of precision.
🏆 Score ranking
Breakout has its own global ranking: your best score is saved. Go to Ranking, the 🕹️ 1 Player tab, choose "Breakout" from the dropdown, and compare your score with other players, synced to your account. For your result to count you need a free account on MundoSudoku (just a username and password, no email required): you can play without one, but without logging in your score won't be saved to the ranking.
