I was probably more of a fan of Arkanoid/Breakout style games as a kid than I have been in later years, I suppose because I was more willing to put up with some of the more tedious aspects more so when I had the patience for them. In the last few years, with games like the Arkanoid title for DS, and Magic Ball on PSN, I enjoyed playing them up to the point where I'd have about one or two blocks or objects left to destroy, and then I'm stuck batting the ball back and forth in the hopes that I can finally get the right angle to hit that last obstacle and clear the level. It's a pretty stupid complaint in reality, but that always aggravated the hell out of me.
Shatter completely obliterates that one complaint, by giving me the ability to actually control the direction of the ball by allowing me to push or pull gravity using the top R1 and L1 buttons on the Dualshock. That doesn't exactly sound like an amazing advancement in the world of brick breaking games, but it adds a surprising amount of versatility in how you can finish the various stages, and once you get the hang of controlling the ball using those two functions, you'll actually find yourself less likely to even need to bounce the ball off of your platform/board in the first place.
Shatter's main story based game revolves around a number of stages, with a series of levels for each stage. The stages are themed in some way, usually by color or just some overall visual flair, but each level is pretty varied in how the block placement is laid out, along with various block types that cause certain conditions to happen, like the exploding red blocks, or the yellow triangles that trigger a gravitational effect when hit. There's about three variations on how the levels place your main board, either in a standard square/rectangle shaped room that either gives you a vertical or horizontal axis to move on, or a circular room that allows you to glide the board along the bottom half of the circle. Each of the main stages features a boss fight at the end of the level set, and the bosses themselves are pretty damn inventive for this type of game.
Shatter also features one of the best soundtracks I've heard this year, and it's a wonder that the game only costs $8. It's a pretty package in HD, with some bright, colorful visuals, fast movement and little visual quirks that really pop out at you while playing. I'd venture to say the game is worth picking up for the soundtrack alone, and there's plenty of variation between the tracks and stages that I wish more digital content developers would pay close attention to how well executed the entire game is, and not just from a gameplay standpoint.
Outside of the story mode, there's a boss rush mode and a bonus stage mode. Boss Rush is exactly what you think it is, but it'll take a full run through the game to unlock it. Bonus stage unlocks early on, and allows you to take the bonus level mode that pops up after each boss fight and see how high of a score you can rack up with that feature alone. The bonus stage features three moving shapes and no other blocks, and the more you hit them the higher your multiplier extends. However, the shapes quickly speed up, and they can knock against each other to through the trajectory off, so it's a pretty difficult mode to get the hang of.
The game is also very score focused, with online leaderboards to compare against other players, and a variety of bonuses in the stages themselves to help extend your score or add various multipliers on top of what you're already earning. From that perspective players can pull in a lot of playtime with the title, the online leaderboards are already populated with ridiculously high scores, and there's definitely a certain amount of strategy involved when it comes to competing.
All together, Shatter is a fantastic title on the PSN, and one that nobody should overlook. It'll easily appeal to all players, and manages to turn a pretty stale formula on it's ear without really tossing a great deal of new play mechanics your way. It's still an Arkanoid variant, sure, but it's the best damn version of Arkanoid you're going to play.
