Brick Breaker Tips: Aim Better and Clear Every Level
Brick breaker games are simple: move the paddle, bounce the ball, break the bricks. But level after level the ball gets faster and the paddle gets smaller. These tips show you how to aim with your paddle, stay under the ball, get it behind the wall, use bonuses well and deal with walls that move or fight back.
How it works
You move a paddle at the bottom of the screen. A ball bounces off the sides, the bricks and your paddle, and every brick it hits cracks or breaks. Break all the bricks to finish the level. If the ball falls past your paddle, you lose a life, and with no lives left, you start the level again.
In our games, you slide your finger anywhere on the screen and the paddle follows, so your finger never hides the ball. You get 3 hearts, then 2 from level 9. You earn up to three stars: finishing quickly without losing a heart gives the most.
Aim with your paddle
Where the ball lands on the paddle decides where it goes next. In the middle, it bounces straight up. Near an edge, it shoots off at a slant toward that side. Your paddle is a steering wheel, not just a wall.
So do not just catch the ball: place the paddle so the ball lands on the part that sends it where you want. Want to hit the bricks on the left? Catch the ball with the left part of the paddle. Practice this on the first levels, while the ball is still slow.
Stay under the ball
Watch the ball, not the bricks. As soon as it starts coming down, move toward where it will land instead of chasing it at the last moment. In our games, the paddle cannot jump across the screen instantly, so moving early matters more and more as the ball speeds up.
When the ball is high up, bring the paddle back near the middle. From there, it is never far from any landing spot. Slide smoothly: wild finger moves make you overshoot. At the start of a level, the ball waits on your paddle and launches by itself after a moment, or as soon as you tap.
Break through to the top
The best trick in brick breakers is to open a gap in the wall and send the ball through it. Once the ball is above the wall, it bounces between the top of the screen and the bricks, breaking many of them while you rest. The sides of the wall are often the easiest place to open a gap.
Some bricks need two or three hits, and they look different so you can tell. Others never break, like metal blocks: do not waste shots on them. You only need to clear all the breakable bricks to finish.
Catch the right bonuses
Sometimes a bonus falls when a brick breaks. Catch it with your paddle. Our games have three: a giant paddle that makes catching easier, multi-ball that adds two more balls, and a fireball that goes straight through bricks.
Never let the ball fall just to grab a bonus: a lost heart costs more than a bonus gives. With several balls in play, follow the one that is lowest. You only lose a heart when the last ball drops.
Walls that move or fight back
In some brick breakers, the wall slowly comes down. Then break the lowest bricks first. In Ice Breaker, if the ice wall reaches the red line, you lose, so keep the bottom of the wall clear.
Others hide a boss behind the wall. In Pirate Cannonball, Captain Redbeard repairs his wall when no ball has got behind it for a while. Open a hole, then send the cannonball through it fast and hit him again and again.
Out of hearts? Our games offer one extra heart for 20 coins, once per try, but finishing that way earns only one star.
Try our brick breakers
Choco Boom is the classic one: candy walls in ever-changing patterns, with tin boxes that never break. Ice Breaker brings a wall of ice sliding down toward Pingo the penguin, and in Pirate Cannonball, Captain Redbeard keeps fixing his wall of crates.
