About Brick Breaker

Three balls, a paddle, and a wall that has to come down. Move the paddle with the pointer, your finger or the arrow keys, and launch with a tap or the space bar. Where the ball meets the paddle decides where it goes: catch it in the middle and it goes straight back up, catch it near an end and it flies off at an angle. That is the whole game, and it is the difference between clearing a wall and watching the ball come straight back to you all afternoon.

Eight walls, each hand-designed: plain bricks that break in one hit, tough ones that need two, and steel that never breaks at all and has to be played around. Some bricks are carrying something — a wider paddle, a slower ball, or two more balls at once — which falls when the brick breaks and has to be caught. The walls then come round again, faster each time.

Bricks are worth more the longer the ball stays off the paddle: the second in a row is worth double, the third triple, up to five times, and touching the paddle puts the counter back to nothing. That is what makes a ball loose in the top rows worth holding your breath for. The daily challenge gives everyone the same walls in the same order and ranks the day by score, once a day; free play is unlimited and keeps your own best.

Tips to win

• Aim with the paddle rather than just catching: a ball sent up the side comes back down the side, and the corner bricks are the ones that outlast everything
• Getting a ball above the wall is worth more than any power-up — it can take a dozen bricks before it comes back down
• Steel bricks are not in the way, they are cover: the ball that bounces off one is often the one that reaches the row behind
• Chase a falling capsule only if the ball is safe; a wide paddle is no use if the ball goes past while you are collecting it