The Block Kuzushi Quest

In the beginning, there was Breakout. Over a decade passed before Taito used the game as inspiration for Arkanoid which added power-ups and enemies to the block breaking action. After Arkanoid refreshed and energized the ball-meet-brick genre, Taito released a few more Arkanoids and inspired other developers to to do the same with Goindol hitting the arcades along with hundreds of retail/shareware/freeware clones released on the PC, Amiga, and other computer platforms of the late 80s. The Europeans were particularly taken with the Arkanoid craze. As subscribers to all of the UK magazines back in the day such as Zzap 64 and The Games Machine, NCS staffers can attest to the Arkanoid feeding frenzy in Europe at the time.

Recently, Taito's D3 Publisher subsidiary has kept the Arkanoid flame burning with its popular Block Kuzushi series which has sold over 450,000 copies on the Playstation, PS2, NDS, and PSP. The latest version of Block Kuzushi for the PS2 is a conversion of the PSP game from a few months back and places players in control of a winged dragon which serves as the paddle. Seven mythical monsters and their underlings are wrecking the peace in the world. They must be stopped and a single champion takes to the skies on a mission of destruction. By invading and smashing the destructive beasts on their home turf, our heroic dragon works to bring peace back in the world. It won't be easy however and much skill and deft handling is required to attack enemies and fend off their counterattacks. «NCS Game Notes»