Avault.com made Brixout XP one of their top Shareware games of 2002.  While I disagree with the term shareware and prefer to use Independent games, I disagreed with the selection of Brixout XP at the time even more.  When Brixout XP was submitted to Game Tunnel for review, I took it on with an open mind.  I figured it had been more than a year since I'd played the game, so I would probably have a different opinion after playing the game this time.

Brixout XP was one of the first 3D based breakout games, and the graphics in the background are considered to be the main interest point in the game.  I played through 70 levels of the game which only got me far enough to see 3 of the 5 different worlds.  (and kept me from what looks to be the best of the worlds, the Elfish Hills)  Each world is well designed are are pretty interesting to look at with moving streams, lava and stars as you watch the level.  The graphics look just a little bit dated, which is likely due to when the game was created, and the general fact that 3D arkanoid games don't lend themselves to being high poly polished graphics due to the fact that you spend the game hitting bricks.

The music in the game quickly became repetitive except for one track that reminded me of an old Berlin song.   For all the goodness that the graphics could be, the special effects for the power-ups was not very inspiring.  The lightning bolts that you would occasionally get to destroy bricks for you were not nearly as interesting as the ones in Rival Ball, and the bricks did nothing special when destroyed unless you had special weapons or balls.

The power-ups in Brixout XP are fairly inventive.  The pass-through ball became an acid ball, which was a very good change on an old theme.  Probably the most interesting power-up was the Alien Spaceship that would appear overhead and vaporize bricks for you. 

The big downside of Brixout is the collision and the physics.  The player has very little control over the ball compared to other breakout based games, and the ball often bounces off the bricks at unlikely angles.  This makes the game frustrating at points as the player tries desperately to get the ball to go a different direction, but the ball doesn't respond nearly as well as it does in other arkanoid games.

Overall, Brixout XP has enough graphics to dazzle with well-created backgrounds and environments that set it above the rest of the pack.  Unfortunately not enough time was spent on game play, and I've never been a big fan of graphics over game play.  This is a good game to check out for those who are arkanoid enthusiasts, but not one of the better titles of the genre.