Review – Ricochet HD

Posted by Ben on March 14th, 2011 | 0 Comments | Tags: Ricochet HD

Ricochet HD is a PSN version of a brick breaking game from 2004, which saw release as a web game and on various PDA’s. I’m not sure who decided that the time had come to give the game an HD upgrade and a PSN release, but I question their sanity. Ricochet HD does absolutely nothing to stand out in an already crowded genre, especially on a platform where games like Shatter already exist, and have moved forward the entire genre. Ricochet HD feels like a dinosaur, in a land where animals have evolved past its primitive nature.

The problem mainly stems from the game’s mechanics. The built in tutorials do an extremely poor job of explaining what is expected of the player, with the initial tutorial introducing a mechanic that I barely utilized, which is the player’s ability to draw the ball back towards their paddle with the holding of a button on the controller. The tutorial had me attempting to guide the ball into blocks without it touching the sides, and I was completely lost for the first few minutes, thanks to the plethora of tutorial text that greeted me, which was almost unreadable on my TV. I like to think that I can read most small text, mainly due to the fact that I made it though Costume Quest without any problems. However, Ricochet HD was unreadable even by my standards, which really is quite the achievement.

Even if I had been able to read the text, the rest of the game wouldn’t have impressed me with its ingenuity. Ricochet HD is a brick breaker through and through. There isn’t anything new or exciting to it, and the visuals scream 2004, with dull, muddy colours, along with an entirely forgettable soundtrack. Ricochet HD simply doesn’t do anything new, and the ball physics make it even worse. The ball appears to move far too slowly, and hitting it with the side of paddle doesn’t produce the expected effect, leading to many moments where I simply couldn’t get the ball to move in the direction I wanted it to. This would have been a fine moment for me to use the mechanic I mentioned earlier, but unfortunately I couldn’t get it to activate. It appears that the mechanic uses up some sort of energy, which is a sure fire way to frustrate.

Ricochet HD isn’t terrible, but it certainly doesn’t do anything new. It’s the very definition of mediocre, and I’m honestly confused as to why TikGames thought that it would be a good title to put out on PSN. It’s a boring brick breaker on a platform with titles that do a far better job with the mechanics it presents. The multiplayer helps make things slightly more interesting, but it’ll only sway your attention for a moment, before you realise that you’re just sharing the pain with another person.

For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation 3 version of the game.