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Every brick you break nudges the ball faster, and the game is upfront that this is deliberate - it is meant to get harder as a level empties out. What it does not advertise is that the increase is not constant. Each hit adds less speed than the last, following a curve that flattens out as the ball approaches roughly one and a half times its starting pace, and it never goes past that.

The practical effect is that the panic point comes earlier than you would expect and then stops getting worse. The scariest-feeling stretch of a level is usually the middle, once the ball has picked up real pace but before the increases have tapered off. The last few bricks, despite being the fastest the ball ever moves, are not accelerating anywhere near as quickly as the first dozen did.

Knowing that changes how you should play the opening of a level. There is no reward for rushing early bricks before the ball 'gets away from you' - it never truly gets away from you. Taking clean, controlled shots at the start costs you nothing in difficulty later.

Where the ball meets your paddle decides where it goes next. Catch it near the centre and it comes back close to straight up; catch it toward either edge and it leaves at a much sharper angle. That is standard for the genre, but it is worth stating plainly here because the game gives you no on-screen reminder of it.

This is the tool for reaching bricks a straight shot cannot get to. A cluster tucked into a corner is often easier to clear with an angled edge-hit than by trying to line up a direct bounce, and it is also how you deliberately avoid sending the ball into a crowded area you would rather not stir up yet.

It is also the source of most unlucky-feeling drops. A ball caught right at the paddle's tip can leave at an angle steep enough to clip past you before you can react, so precise centre hits are the safer choice whenever you are not trying to aim for something specific.

There are eight built levels in total, cycling through three named colour themes - Arkanoid, Pastel and Vintage - so consecutive levels rarely look alike even when the brick layout is similar in spirit. The layouts themselves are hand-arranged rather than generated, and several move past the plain rectangular wall into deliberate shapes.

That variety changes the read on a level before you have thrown a single shot. A dense, unbroken block rewards patient center shots that carve straight through it. An irregular shape with gaps and outliers rewards using the paddle's angled hits to pick off the stragglers a straight shot would leave stranded.

You are not locked into playing them in order - the level select screen lets you jump to any of the eight directly, so there is no need to replay an easy one just to reach a later shape you want another attempt at.

You start with three lives and can build up to a maximum of five, gaining one each time you clear a level. Losing the ball costs you a life and puts a fresh one back on the paddle - it does not reset the bricks you have already broken, so a dropped ball inside a nearly finished level is a setback, not a restart.

That is worth knowing because it changes how conservative you need to be near the end of a level. There is little reason to play cautiously once only a few bricks remain; a dropped ball there loses you a life but keeps every brick you have already cleared, so a slightly risky shot for the last brick is rarely the wrong call.