How to Play Brick Blitz

What it is

Brick Blitz is a neon brick breaker. You slide a paddle along the bottom of the screen and bounce a glowing ball up into a wall of bricks. Clear the whole wall and a new one appears, with a faster ball. Let the ball slip past you and you lose a life.

How to play (rules)

Each wall has 40 bricks in five colored rows of eight.
The ball waits on your paddle until you launch it.
Every brick breaks with a single hit.
Where the ball hits your paddle matters. Hits near the edges send it off at a sharp angle, and hits near the center send it more straight up.
The ball speeds up a little every time it bounces off your paddle.
Clear every brick to move to the next level. The wall refills, the ball returns to your paddle, and it launches faster than before.
You have three lives, shown as hearts at the top. Miss the ball and you lose one, then serve again. Lose all three and the game is over.

Controls (desktop and mobile)

Desktop: move with the arrow keys or A and D, and press Space to launch. You can also move the paddle with the mouse and click to launch.
Mobile: drag your finger across the game to move the paddle, and tap to launch. Your phone also shows left, launch and right buttons under the game.
P pauses, R restarts and F toggles full-screen.
M mutes or unmutes the sound.
Two toolbar buttons control sound and motion. Mute sound (M) turns the sound effects off, and its label changes to “Unmute sound (M)” so you can switch them back on. Reduce motion turns off screen shake, flashes and particle bursts, and the paddle no longer squashes when the ball hits it. It starts out matching your device’s reduce-motion setting. Each button has a short text label next to or under its icon. Your choices are remembered on your device and shared by every game in the Arcade.

Scoring and high scores

Bricks are worth more the higher they sit:

Top row: 50 points
Second row: 40 points
Middle row: 30 points
Fourth row: 20 points
Bottom row: 10 points

That makes each full wall worth 1,200 points. The levels keep coming, so your score can keep growing as long as you hold on to a life.

Your best score is saved in your browser. When a run ends, the game-over screen shows your score next to your best and adds ”★ New best!” when you beat it. If your score would make the global top-10 board, the screen tells you where you’d rank and lets you enter a name and press Submit. If the board is full and you fall short, it shows the score you need to get in. When Brick Blitz is the daily challenge, the goal is to clear 30 bricks without losing a life.

Tips to beat your best

Keep your paddle under the ball, and move early rather than lunging at the last second.
Use the edges of the paddle to steer the ball toward the bricks you want.
Try to open a gap up the side. A ball that gets above the wall can clear lots of bricks by itself, and the top rows pay the most.
The ball speeds up over time, so give yourself a little more room as a level goes on.
Take your time with each launch. The ball stays on your paddle until you’re ready.