How to Play
Brick Smash is a classic arcade game where you control a paddle at the bottom of the screen. A ball bounces off the paddle, walls, and bricks. Your goal is to break all the destructible bricks on each level to advance. If the ball falls below the paddle, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and the game is over.
Controls
- Mouse / Touch — Move the paddle by moving your mouse or sliding your finger across the play area
- Left / Right arrow keys — Move the paddle left or right
- Click or tap — Launch the ball at the start of a level or after losing a life
- P or Escape — Pause or resume the game
Brick Types
- Normal bricks — Colored bricks that break in a single hit. Each one is worth 10 points.
- Strong bricks — Darker bricks with a visible crack pattern. They require 2 hits to break and are worth 25 points.
- Unbreakable bricks — Metallic bricks with a hatched pattern. These cannot be destroyed and the ball simply bounces off them. You do not need to break these to clear a level.
Power-Ups
When you break a normal or strong brick, there is a chance it will drop a power-up capsule. Catch it with your paddle to activate the effect:
- W (Wide Paddle) — Expands your paddle width for 10 seconds, making it easier to keep the ball in play.
- M (Multi-Ball) — Splits each active ball into 3 balls traveling in different directions. More balls means faster brick-clearing but harder to track.
- +1 (Extra Life) — Grants one additional life, up to a maximum of 5.
Scoring
- Normal brick — 10 points
- Strong brick — 25 points
- Level clear bonus — 100 points × the level number
Levels
The game features 10 handcrafted levels with unique brick layouts, introducing strong and unbreakable bricks as you progress. After level 10, the game generates new levels procedurally with increasing difficulty. Ball speed gradually increases with each level.
Tips
- Aim with the paddle edges — The ball bounces at a wider angle when it hits the edges of the paddle, and straighter when it hits the center. Use this to aim.
- Catch every power-up — Wide Paddle and Extra Life power-ups are especially valuable in later levels.
- Use Multi-Ball wisely — When you have multiple balls in play, focus on keeping at least one alive rather than chasing them all.
- Watch for unbreakables — Plan your angles around unbreakable bricks. You don't need to break them to clear a level.
- Stay near the center — Keeping your paddle near the middle gives you the most reaction time to reach balls heading to either side.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different brick types in Brick Smash?
Normal bricks break in one hit for 10 points. Strong bricks (cracked pattern) require 2 hits for 25 points. Unbreakable metallic bricks cannot be destroyed — the ball bounces off them, and you don't need to break them to clear a level.
What power-ups are available?
Three power-ups can drop from bricks: Wide Paddle (W) expands your paddle for 10 seconds, Multi-Ball (M) splits each ball into 3, and Extra Life (+1) grants one additional life up to a maximum of 5.
How do I aim the ball?
The ball's bounce angle depends on where it hits the paddle. Hitting the edges sends the ball at a wider angle; hitting the center sends it straighter. Use edge hits to aim at specific bricks.
How many levels does Brick Smash have?
The game features 10 handcrafted levels with unique layouts. After level 10, the game generates new levels procedurally with increasing difficulty and ball speed.
How is the level clear bonus calculated?
You earn a level clear bonus of 100 points multiplied by the current level number. So clearing level 5 gives a 500-point bonus on top of your brick-breaking score.
About Brick Smash
Brick Smash is inspired by the arcade classic Breakout, created by Atari in 1976. The concept of bouncing a ball off a paddle to smash rows of bricks became one of the most influential game designs in history, inspiring countless variations and spiritual successors including Arkanoid, DX-Ball, and many more. The genre combines quick reflexes with strategic aiming, making it endlessly replayable.
From the build: the paddle-angle math is the soul of any Breakout clone, so we kept it old-school — the bounce vector is derived from where on the paddle the ball lands, not from the physical reflection angle. That's what lets you aim, and it's what most modern Breakout knockoffs get wrong by simulating "real" physics. We ran the game loop on requestAnimationFrame with a fixed-step accumulator so the ball doesn't tunnel through bricks on a 144Hz monitor or a backgrounded tab.