Review: Antonball Deluxe

• Platforms: PC
• Developer:  Proponent Games
• Publisher: Summitsphere
• Release Date: March 6th, 2021

There isn’t exactly a plethora of modern Brick breaker games out there, so whenever one does come along it’s nice to mix things up as a palette cleanser between major AAA releases and enormous open world experiences. Antonball Deluxe is exactly that, a nice throwback arcade game that melds classic brick breaking action with gameplay from a 2D platformer. Antonball Deluxe pairs these two genres quite nicely, although it doesn’t do anything particularly revolutionary in either its brick breaking or platforming.

Antonball as a series began as a retro-inspired mash up of genres that looked and played like a game you would have seen on the Game Boy in the early 90’s. Antonball Deluxe packages Summitsphere’s two previous releases, Antonball Classic and Punch Ball Antonball, breathing new life into them with updated visuals, online play, and plenty of extra goodies. Antonball Deluxe’s main mode is the titular Antonball, and in this mode players will control a character on the left side of the screen and must break all of the bricks placed on the right side of the screen. The player must whack the ball using their character’s body and prevent the ball from passing through the opening on the left side of the stage. There are poker chips that will spawn which act as your currency to unlock goodies like new character skins, but they also lure you away from the opening you’re trying to block. Occasionally a gun power up will also spawn, which the player can use to blast away bricks to get through each stage quicker. So where does the platforming come in to play during all of this? Well, the left side where the character is stationed typically has an arrangement of platforms, some that help the player out to reach the ball in upper portions of the screen, as well as some that can actually hinder the player’s movement and block them from simply jumping straight up to hit the ball. As the stages progress, enemies are introduced, which add another wrinkle of difficulty and something else to keep an eye on while also tracking the ball.  

Aside from the Antonball Mode, there is the other previously mentioned single player mode, Punchball, which is similar to classic Super Mario Bros. arcade stages. Enemies will spawn in from sewer pipes on each side of the stage and the player must pick the ball up and throw it at the enemy to flip them upside down, then follow up with the kill shot. It’s a fun little mode, but Antonball is easily the star mode of the package. There is also Vs. Antonball and Online versus as well, with players having to protect the brick wall on their side of the stage while destroying their opponent’s. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review the state of the Online mode is spotty at best. Matches can range from perfectly smooth to choppy and virtually unplayable, but when it works it is an absolute blast. The online issues are definitely something that can be patched and improved over time, but as of now the online performance is one of Antonball Deluxe’s biggest flaws.

The other issue with Antonball Deluxe is that because it combines two genres it doesn’t really excel or do anything revolutionary in either. The stages all feel a little too samey from a platforming perspective, and there isn’t much variety in the enemies that you encounter. On the brick breaking side of things, it would have been nice to see a few additional power ups, other than the classic multi-ball and gun power ups mentioned earlier.

One thing that Antonball Deluxe absolutely nails is its retro look and feel. While the original titles resembled the Game Boy generation, Antonball Deluxe is a generational leap to the Game Boy Advance aesthetic, with bright, colourful stages, excellent pixel art character designs, and a pretty solid soundtrack.

Overall Antonball Deluxe is a good brick breaker/platformer hybrid, with just a few minor blemishes preventing it from being a great one. It’s easy to learn but difficult to master, and once the online capabilities are a little sturdier this game will be a hell of a time with a group of friends. If you’re a brick breaker enthusiast who doesn’t much care for online experiences, Antonball Deluxe is an easy recommendation.

A Steam review code for Antonball Deluxe was provided by Proponent Games