Recently I’ve been searching for a game like BrickBreaker to download and play on my PC. Luckily, I discovered Strike Ball 3 by Alawar Entertainment. Strike Ball 3 is a highly entertaining take on the BrickBreaker concept, and I recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable brick-blasting experience.
You can try Strike Ball 3 out for free. Just click here to visit the Strike Ball 3 page on Alawar’s Website and then click “Try It Now” to download the free trial, which allows you to play the game for 30 minutes. You can download the game immediately from their Website — you don’t need to go through a signup process or anything like that.
After just a few minutes of playing the free version, you’ll know whether it’s for you. If you like the game, you have the option to buy it.
Strike Ball 3 is actually one of many games that Alawar offers in the BrickBreaker genre. All of their games offer a free trial, so you can try them out before buying anything. Click here to view all of Alawar’s BrickBreaker-style games.
Installation
Once you download the Strike Ball 3 installer file, double-click it to install the full game. The game installed on my PC very quickly, and in just a few seconds it was ready to try out. Happily, the installation process does not require a restart of your computer.
When you open the game, it will take a few seconds to load up, and then you are presented with a menu. You can just click Start Game to get going. By default the game will launch in full-screen mode; if that bothers you, you can change this setting by visiting the Options menu first.
Gameplay
Once you begin your game, you get to choose your paddle color: Blue, Red or Green. This is purely aesthetic and doesn’t have any impact on the gameplay that I could tell. Second, you choose your difficulty level: Normal or High. I found both difficulty levels to be relatively easy.
Level 1 gives you a good feel for the game. You’ll quickly zoom in on the board and find yourself looking at a complex 3D scene. You’ll see a structure in the center of the board constructed of red and gray bricks, as well as trees, grass, and even a few mushrooms scattered about. Looking closer, you’ll see a train with a locomotive and six cars circling the structure. It’s quite a snazzy graphical display, especially if your comparison point is BrickBreaker on your BlackBerry.
You can use either the the mouse or the keyboard to control your paddle. I found the keyboard method wasn’t very smooth, so I just used the mouse. This worked well.
Click the mouse to launch the ball, and soon you’ll be breaking everything in sight. On the first level, you can break the bricks, trees, the train — everything. Many objects are destroyed on the first hit, while others take a few hits. Certain items, like the train, can only be destroyed if you pick up some of the many power-ups that fall during the game.
Speaking of power-ups, Strike Ball 3 offers a dizzying assortment of them: machine guns, heavy cannons, rocket launchers, an “orbital strike” that destroys things from above, special shields, multi-ball, an energy blast, and much more. There are also several power-downs that make your life difficult, such as the highly annoying “crazy ball” that spins around wildly. As you advance to higher levels in the game, you can purchase upgrades to each weapon. These upgrades either increase the destructive effects of power-ups or minimize the negative effects of power-downs.
If there’s a downside to Strike Ball 3, it’s that there’s not much nuance to it. There’s so much action in the game that it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of it all. You are firing away with different guns, helicopters are flying overhead and dropping power-ups onto the board, towers are collapsing, little creatures are walking around, and more. Furthermore, the game is relatively easy. I was rarely worried about running out of lives. Strike Ball 3 basically feels like a Hollywood summer blockbuster: lots of fun, action, and explosions, but not too challenging.
Overall, I think Strike Ball 3 is a fun game and I recommend it. It offers a free trial, so there’s really no downside to trying it out. I hope you enjoy it!
Click here to download the free trial or purchase the game.
Buying the Game
If you decide to buy the game, you simply visit Alawar’s Website and then click on BUY IT NOW. Within the game itself there’s also a “Buy Full Version Now” button that will take you to the correct Web page to purchase the game. I found the checkout process to be smooth and easy.
Once you complete the checkout process, Alawar will email you a registration key that unlocks the full game. This process is pretty self-explanatory, but if you run into any trouble, Alawar’s Website has complete instructions on how to enter the registration key into the game.
About this Review
I decided to recommend Strike Ball 3 because I enjoy the game and I think BrickBreaker fans will like it. I joined Alawar’s affiliate program, which means if you end up liking the game and buying it through the links on this site, I might make a buck or two. Sweet! You’ll pay the same price for the game regardless of whether you click through from this page or visit the Alawar site directly. Thanks
