Radon Blast review

Radon Blast is a variant of the 1978 game called Breakout which was itself a variant of the 1976 Atari game Pong. Breakout is basically players moving a paddle bouncing the ball and breaking walls of breakable blocks.

So if you’ve played Breakout, you’ll be familiar with the gameplay within Radon Blast. The main difference is that all levels are connected to one another. Instead of clearing a level, moving to the next where, if you died, you restart at the current level, with Radon Blast if the ball gets past your paddle, it goes back to the previous level. You get this safety net so to speak until you return to the very first level. Miss a hit at the first level and you will lose a “life”.

Another difference with Breakout is once you’ve managed to make a path through the breakable blocks, you have to destroy a wall that will require a set amount of hits before breaking and letting you progress forward. Sometimes, depending on block placement, it can feel tediously long or insanely quick. For example, on some level, the ball can just bounce back and forth between the wall and breakable blocks.

There are also unique and familiar twists within Radon Blast. The first, being familiar, hitting specific colored blocks will result in players having to juggle two balls; even three or four depending on your skills. If a ball goes past the paddle, it will be lost, however, if it gets through before another wall, it’ll be waiting for you in the next level.

Presentation-wise, Radon Blast isn’t anything special. Levels are dark blue, verging on black backgrounds; the paddle is a different variant of dark blue along with the ball(s) so the important things for the game don’t really stand out. Breakable blocks are highly colorful and feature different and unique patterns. The soundtrack is definitely the main issue here as the same track will play over and over and over in a constant loop. It’s pretty good hearing a few times, but by the time you reach level 10, you’ll have to reach for the tv remote to mute it.

Radon Blast is blast (pun intended). It’s a simple concept easy to pick up and play and with its various difficulty settings, anyone can jump in for a few minutes. However, simple concept can also often meaning repetitiveness; it can feel tedious trying to reach higher levels and given the same soundtrack repeats, it’s hard to feel like you’re making any progress. If you’re looking for a brief distraction, Radon Blast is for you.