Arkanoid: frequently asked questions

Arkanoid is the name of a 1986 arcade game by Taito, and many players use it for the whole kind of game it made famous: you move a paddle at the bottom of the screen, bounce a ball into a wall of bricks and try to break them all without letting the ball fall past you. The game on Arkanoid.org is our own brick breaker of this kind, with 36 levels, power-up capsules and a boss.

No. Arkanoid.org is an independent fan site. The game here is our own brick breaker, written from scratch, with our own levels, graphics and sounds. Arkanoid is a trademark of Taito Corporation, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by Taito or Square Enix. Our history page tells the story of the arcade game.

It is free, and there is nothing to download. The game runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, with no account and nothing to buy. The site is paid for by ads shown around the game and between the sections of the pages, never on the playfield.

Yes. Drag anywhere on the game to move the paddle; it moves by the same distance as your finger, so your hand does not hide it. Tap to launch the ball. The whole game fits on a phone screen, and the page does not scroll while you play.

With a mouse, the paddle follows the pointer. On a touch screen, drag anywhere on the game. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys or A and D, and hold Shift for slow, precise moves. Launch the ball with a click, a tap, Space or the up arrow, and pause with P or Esc.

With the spot where the ball hits the paddle. A hit in the center sends it straight up, and the closer to an edge it lands, the steeper it flies off to that side, up to 60 degrees. The direction it came from does not matter.

You start with 3 lives. You get an extra life at 20,000 points and another every 60,000 points after that, and the rare Extra life capsule adds one more; you can hold up to 9. With several balls in play, you lose a life only when the last one falls.

Gold bricks never break, and you do not need to break them to clear a level; only a Fireball passes through them. Silver bricks need several hits: 2 in the first world, 3 in the second and 4 in the third. They show cracks as they weaken.

Colored bricks give 50 to 120 points by color, silver bricks 50 to 450 depending on the level, explosive bricks, Splitters and drones 100 each. Clearing a level adds 2,000, clearing it without losing a life adds 1,000 more, and doing that under the par time adds another 1,000. Bricks broken without the ball touching the paddle build a combo worth up to 200 extra points per brick.

Wide makes the paddle 1.5 times wider for 20 seconds, Laser lets it shoot for 15 seconds, Magnet catches the ball for 20 seconds, Slow makes the ball 35% slower for 12 seconds, Multi-ball splits every ball into 3, Fireball burns through bricks for 8 seconds, Shield saves the ball once, Extra life adds a life and Warp opens a gate to the next level with a 5,000-point bonus. The power-ups guide has the details.

Partly. The paddle has one mode at a time, so Wide, Laser and Magnet replace each other. Slow, Fireball and Shield stack and work together with any paddle mode.

The Daily is one new level each day, the same for everyone, with 3 lives and no Continue; your best score of the day counts, and your streak grows on every day in a row on which you clear it. Endless keeps sending new, harder waves, with a bonus wave every 5 waves, until you run out of lives.

When you lose your last life in the campaign or in Endless, you can continue once per run after a short ad. You stay on the same level with 3 new lives and keep your score. If the ad cannot load, you continue anyway. The Daily has no Continue.

Build it in the level editor and use the share button. The link contains the whole level, so anyone who opens it can play it or edit a copy. You can also save up to 20 levels in your browser.

Yes. Unlocked levels, stars, best scores, your current run, your own levels and your settings are saved in your browser. Close the tab and continue later on the same device.

No. The save stays in the browser where you played. We do not store progress on our server, so we cannot move or restore it, and clearing your browser data deletes it.

Yes. The settings let you turn sound and vibration on or off, switch to a dark theme, reduce motion, add CRT scanlines and change the language. The fullscreen button gives the game the whole screen.

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