Cybernarium Review

In the future, when machines rule the world and humans are running out of energy, the only way to get more energy is to wrest it from the future by having players in the past play a brick breaking game. This isn't just a run-of-the-mill brick breaker, though. Cybernarium is a block breaking game in 360 degrees, and with all those extra degrees players will need to be on their toes to keep up.

Cybernarium plays like a brick breaking game on a carousel. Players control a paddle that is used to bounce a ball towards the bricks and when the ball hits the bricks they are cleared from the screen. When all the bricks are cleared, the level is complete. Instead of the standard bricks above and paddle below though, the brick formations in this game sit in the middle of a circular track on which the paddle moves. Depending on the game mode the player has selected, some of the track may be closed in with walls leaving only a portion of the circle open where the ball can escape. In other modes the entire circle will be open and the ball can escape in any direction, and the player then has to move the paddle around all 360 degrees of the track to keep the ball in play for as long as they can.

True to the genre, each level has a new formation of bricks to clear and some bricks will drop power-ups (or power-downs) that can be collected with the paddle. Other than the circular nature of Cybernarium, it plays very similarly to other brick breaking games. While the difficulty of the game might appeal to some, it can quickly become frustrating when the paddle gets stuck because the player has moved their finger faster than the game can track.

This game is a competent homage to the classics of the genre and it brings some unique mechanics to the table, but the execution is fairly bland and the controls are sticky. The visuals are well done, but aren't interesting or varied enough to hold a player's attention for very long. Cybernarium is fun, it's just not super fun.