Shatter



Shatter is an indie action-puzzler game developed by Sidhe Interactive and released on the Playstation Network in July of 2009 and later on Steam in March of 2010. It is a Breakout-style game. You control a paddle-shaped spacecraft, the "bat", and use a ball (though its really more of an arrow) to destroy rows of bricks and other geometric objects. It adds gravity-alteration mechanics called "Suck" and "Blow" to the mix, allowing you to alter the trajectory of the ball

The game's story mode begins with the bat escaping from a "Kinetic Harvest" facility full of many such bats and embarking on a mission to destroy evil bricks everywhere through ten worlds made up of eight waves. At the end of each world is a Boss Battle, some of which require you to use the gravity manipulation to expose their weak point.

In addition to the standard vertically-aligned Breakout -style setup, the game also features horizontal stages where your "bat" maneuvers up and down the left-hand side of the screen, and even circular stages where you maneuver along roughly a 45 degree arc at the bottom of the circle. Each setup requires a different approach to manipulating the ball.

Other modes include Bonus Mode, where you play through all three types of bonus levels in an attempt to get a high score, as well as Endless Mode, Time Attack and Boss Rush. There are also two-player modes of Endless and Time Attack.

Shatter provides examples of:

 * Alien Geometries: The various environments shown in the background are this, especially the Xenon Homeworld- a shifting mass of blocks suspended inside what looks like a small Dyson Sphere.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield
 * A Winner Is You: The story mode ends with the bat flying back to the "Freon" world to join some other bats in a friendly game of bouncing a ball back and forth.
 * Bonus Stage: At the end of each world. You're given three balls to try and keep in play, without the aid of "Suck" and "Blow."
 * Boss Rush: Unlocked after completing the story mode.
 * Breaking Out
 * Charged Attack: The Shard Storm, usable when your power meter is full. The game enters Bullet Time while you rain a hail of glowing orange shards on anything in front of the bat. Very useful against most bosses.
 * Charge Meter: Filled by simply having the ball hit the bat, albeit slowly. To do so quicker, you must collect glowing blue S-shaped "shards" left behind by destroyed bricks. You can vacuum them in with the "Suck" ability.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Take your pick, courtesy of electronic musician Module.
 * Neon Mines
 * Amethyst Caverns
 * Deflector Shields: Your bat can use some of its power meter to put uf a defensive shield. Any blocks which hit it are destroyed as if hit by the ball instead of stunning your bat. You can also combine the shield with the shard-sucking to create deadly ricochet bullets which act like a wide-area Shard Storm.
 * Endless Game: The aptly named "Endless" mode, where more and more blocks are added to the screen. Unless you keep smashing them reasonably quickly, they can fill the screen and overwhelm you as you will have no room to manouevre the ball.
 * Evil Counterpart: The "Bad Bat." Of course, it's larger and more powerful then your bat, and the balls it uses knock yours aside and hit your bat as if a brick had, stunning it briefly.
 * Giant Space Octopus From Nowhere: The boss of Aurora, OctoBlock. You have to punch through his tentacles to hit his body, but careful- they grow back. Fond of charging at the player.
 * Recurring Boss: When you defeat the Bad Bat, it pays to notice that it merely flies away instead of blowing up like the other bosses. Guess who the Final Boss is? That's right, Bad Bat's Back!
 * Power-Up: These include score multipliers, a boost to your power meter, as well as mutually-exclusive upgrades to the ball. The Manuveraball makes it easier to manipulate, and the Unstoppaball makes it simply smash straight through bricks instead of bouncing off them.
 * Puzzle Boss: Every boss, to an extent, as the only way to damage them is to get the ball to bounce into their weak spot. Some bosses take this further, however, requiring you to destroy some type of protective layer or use Suck or Blow to expose the spot. The boss of Argon Refinery, for example, requires you to destroy four shield generators behind him in order to drop his shield.
 * Scoring Points