So somewhere in the pockets of time and space there's a tournament held that is only for the strongest competitors to survive. It is overseen by a mysterious man named Arkano, and the competition itself... is Arkanoid. This is definitely one of the more ludicrous setups for a brick breaker but fans of the genre will see that this is indeed a solid entry.

For those who've played any brick breaker on the iPhone, the controls should be familiar. The paddle (called the Stinger in this game) is controlled by dragging your finger to and fro under it. The ball can be aimed by touching anywhere on screen, and a double tap sends it into play. Some bricks rain down upgrades which can give you multiball, speed up or slow down play, and even turn your ball into a flaming meteoroid of destruction. The points acquired from level completion (with bonuses for clearing the level before the timer runs out) can be used in the Arkano shop to purchase additional bonuses to be housed in upgrade boxes as well as weapons for your stinger that can be fired anytime during play to help destroy bricks.

The art style has a steampunk look to it, with washed out color and a mechanical overtone. Another nice touch is that upon restarting a level the background changes to provide some visual variety as you attack those bricks for the umpteenth time. The game contains fifty levels with both survival and time trial modes so there's no shortage of brick breaking content available.

Arkano Arena presents the classic gameplay of Arkanoid with some impressive visuals and sinister overtone, which is quite appropriate seeing how unforgiving this game is. Those looking for another brick breaker would do well to pick this title up.