Brain Breaker: Toward a Damaged Horizon

So, ignoring the old-fashioned difficulty, Brain Breaker is turning out to be really intriguing. For one, the backdrop and general setting is fantastic, especially for a game this age. The sparse city has a texture and depth that wasn't found in the minimalist graphics from Montezuma's Revenge. Additionally, as I get further in, the game opens up more and more, and new items become available, and new graphics are unveiled.

An empty bliss beyond this World

It's not easy to tell from the pictures, but the scale of the city is huge, and buildings can stretch for several screens in either direction. That's another thing that's changed since my last post: I got the first non-combat item, the jet-pack! It took a few tries: there are infinite flying robots that get in the way and take every chance to gun you down, and your lives are limited. That being said, the controls aren't great, but they mostly get the job done and the enemy density isn't too high.

It's a pretty nice set-up to getting the jet-pack as well: you are running and running, and eventually come across a broken robot who you simply pass through, instead of killing. I love the little dystopian touches like this in Brain Breaker: ruined machines litter the land, occasionally blocking progress, but most often functioning simply as back ground. You make your way to an building with what appears to be an elevator, and ascend up and acquire the jet-pack, seemingly abandoned. The jet-pack isn't perfect, since you can only fly a limited amount before having to land again and it's hard to gain horizontal momentum mid air, but it's great for opening up more gameplay.

I guess I'm floating

The jet pack compounds my existing feelings of being lost. I don't know if the original manual or the scrolling text offers anything in terms of assistance, but I am currently stuck wandering around and hoping I don't miss anything. When I first got the jet-pack, I headed further left and was gunned down by a larger than normal group of flying bots. Reloading and getting back to the jet-pack, I decided to head up and see if I found anything. The elevator in the building with the jet-pack was apparently broken: it doesn't go up all the way, so to get to the roof I had to fly. It's the nice little touches like this in Brain Breaker that I'm enjoying so much.

I kept on going upwards, and found the objects that the various columns that were littering the cityscape to be holding a large forested platform, with a lonely gas pump and non-interactive ruin. When I attempted to use the gas pump, the "ID CARD" function key was activated, but pressing on it did nothing. I'm not sure if using the gas-pump or pressing ID CARD sent a wave of new and more deadly robots at me, but these robots quickly killed me.

The Difference Between Reality and Delusion

I'm also enjoying the more abstract narrative structures of Brain Breaker: as you begin, you have the choice of entering a city, or wandering the endless plains. The complete emptiness and desolation of going right is contrasted with the frantic action in the city. But, once you get the jet pack and are able to fly, you find you can largely avoid the difficulties in the city. The background, while expansive and colorful, ultimately is as desolate as the world. There are no other humans, but the intro text suggests that this is a fairly sentient world of robots. I mean, I feel a certain level of intelligence and forethought is needed to build the elevators and skyscrapers that make up the game. Their complete hostility is disconcerting considering the level of planning in their construction of the city. On the other hand, there is useful gear just laying around, waiting to be discovered by the occasional traveler, no matter how far they have to traverse.

At this point I'm left confused about a number of things, namely what to do and where to go from here and hoping I'm not missing anything in the scrolling Japanese text. I'll continue trekking on, and seeing where this strange game leads me.