How to play Brick Breaker
At the bottom of the screen is your paddle, with a ball resting on top of it. Press Play, then click, tap, or press Space to launch the ball. It flies up into a wall of coloured bricks, rebounds off the sides and top, and comes back down. Your job is to keep it in play by moving the paddle underneath it.
Where the ball lands on the paddle decides where it goes next. A hit on the centre sends it almost straight up; a hit near either end sends it off at a steep angle toward that side. This is how you aim.
Most bricks break in one hit. Bricks marked with dots are tougher: two dots take two hits and three dots take three, and they crack as they weaken. Every hit scores 10 points and each broken brick adds 20 more. Clear the whole wall to earn a level bonus of 100 points times the level number and move on to a new layout, where the ball starts a little faster.
Now and then a broken brick drops a capsule. Catch it with the paddle: <> widens the paddle for 12 seconds, S slows the ball for 8 seconds and +1 gives an extra life. You start with three lives and lose one whenever the ball falls past the paddle. The game is over when all lives are gone, and your best score is saved on this device.
Controls
| Desktop | Move the mouse or use the Left/Right arrow keys (or A/D) to slide the paddle; click, Space or Up to launch the ball; P or Esc to pause |
|---|---|
| Mobile | Drag anywhere on the playfield to slide the paddle; tap to launch the ball |
Tips and strategy
Aim with the paddle edges
The single most useful skill is steering the ball. Because the rebound angle depends on where the ball meets the paddle, you can choose which part of the wall to attack.
- Catch the ball on the left half of the paddle to send it left, and on the right half to send it right.
- Centre hits are safe but predictable; use them when you just need to survive.
- Very steep edge shots are powerful but harder to catch on the way back down.
Dig a tunnel
If you can knock a hole through one side of the wall, the ball can slip behind the bricks and bounce around between them and the ceiling, clearing many bricks without you doing anything. Focus your shots on one column until it breaks through.
Deal with tough bricks early
- Bricks with dots need extra hits, so work on them while the ball is still slow.
- On levels where tough bricks form a shell, open a gap first and let the ball do the work inside.
Use power-ups wisely
- Only chase a falling capsule if the ball is safely high up. Losing a life to grab a power-up is a bad trade.
- The wide paddle is your best chance to take risky angled shots.
- Slow ball is perfect for tidying up the last few scattered bricks on a fast level.
Watch the ball, not the bricks
It is tempting to watch bricks shatter, but your eyes should follow the ball on its way down. On desktop, the mouse gives the most precise control; on a phone, drag with your thumb low on the screen so it does not hide the action. The ball gets a little quicker with every paddle hit, so stay focused during long rallies.
About Brick Breaker
Ball-and-paddle games in which you knock out a wall of bricks became popular in arcades in the 1970s and have remained a staple ever since. The idea grew out of even simpler bat-and-ball video games, adding a target to destroy and turning a two-player contest into a solo challenge.
Over the decades the genre picked up many familiar extras: bricks that need several hits, capsules that fall from broken bricks, special level shapes and faster balls in later stages. The core, though, has stayed the same because it is so satisfying: one ball, one paddle and the steady crunch of bricks giving way.
Brick Breaker on PlayNook is our own original version, designed and coded from scratch for modern browsers. It features six hand-made layouts, tough multi-hit bricks, three kinds of power-up and controls that work equally well with a mouse, keyboard or touchscreen.
Frequently asked questions
How do I control where the ball goes?
The angle depends on where the ball hits your paddle. Hits near the middle go nearly straight up, while hits toward the edges send the ball off at a sharper angle in that direction.
What do the dots on some bricks mean?
Dots show how many hits a brick still needs. A brick with two dots needs two hits and one with three dots needs three. Plain bricks break in one hit.
What happens after the last level?
The six layouts repeat, but the ball keeps getting faster each time you clear a level, so the challenge keeps growing.
Can I play with the keyboard only?
Yes. Use the Left and Right arrow keys or A and D to move, and Space or the Up arrow to launch the ball. Press P to pause.
