This review was published on 04/19/2015.

Alleyway is a video game published and developed by Nintendo for the original Game Boy. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, North America on August 11, 1989, and Europe on September 28, 1990. This was one of the Game Boy's launch titles in North America and Japan. Also, this was one of Mario's first appearances on the Game Boy, although the initial box and cartridge art didn't advertise this fact. Many years later, the game's designer, Gunpei Yokoi, reused a lot of the game's source code for another similar game on the Game Boy called Kirby's Block Ball. Despite the name, there are absolutely no alleyways to be found in this game. Apparently, the reason the game is called such is because there's a gateway known as the Alleyway that your spaceship must pass through. So if it has nothing to do with actual alleyways, then what is this game about? The answer will astonish you with disinterest; this is nothing more than a cheap Breakout clone. There's not much that stands out about it, either.

In this game, you control a small spaceship that's being piloted by fat Italian plumber extraordinaire, Mario. The ship is shaped like a horizontal paddle and it can only move left and right. Holding down the A or B buttons while moving the paddle will speed it up or slow it down, respectively. Alone, the paddle is incapable of doing anything, but with a ball, the paddle's existence suddenly has meaning. When beginning a stage, you press the A button to make a single ball appear. At that point, you will be moving the paddle horizontally to bounce the ball around. Depending on where and how the ball hits the paddle, it will go at different angles. An advanced technique useful later in the game is to hit the ball while the paddle is in motion, further altering the ball's trajectory. These methods are the only real control you have over the ball, and therefore, your destiny. The controls are precise and the ball's movements are handled well, though it'd be surprising if the game messed any of this stuff up.

Your objective, should you choose to accept it, is to bash bricks broken. This is accomplished by using the paddle to bounce the ball into the bricks. Once all bricks have been eliminated, you move on to the next stage; rinse and repeat until you complete the game. If the ball falls below the paddle, you lose. The primary stages feature blocks that remain stationary, but that's not always the case. Every second stage has blocks that mysteriously move to the left and right on their own, every third stage contains blocks that slowly move in a downwards motion towards the paddle, every fourth stage is a bonus level, and then the cycle repeats. While these variations prevent things from growing dull too quickly, the game gives you the same block pattern for three stages in a row, only altering their movements in between. That means you only get a new block pattern every three stages, which sucks. Even if every stage were to feature a different pattern, things would still get old fast, as the basic mechanics never really change. Additionally, there's no music, only sound effects.

The game will begin to add extra stipulations to make things more difficult as you progress. For example, beginning with stage four, hitting the very top of the screen with the ball will shrink the size of the paddle until either the stage is completed or a loss is sustained. This is incredibly annoying and kind of unfair, since it's an unavoidable fate most of the time. Another irritating gimmick is encountered on the stages with blocks that move downwards; instead of dealing with a single pattern, the game makes you clear two layers of the same one in a row! That's difficulty achieved through tedium and it's dumb. Other things that appear later in the game to cause further hindrance are indestructible blocks. There are 24 stages; 32 if you count the bonus ones. If you lose all your lives, you're sent all the way back to stage one. You'd need the patience of a thousand saints to finish this game. Good luck.

After slogging through the same block pattern for three stages, you're treated to a brief respite in the form of a bonus stage. The rules for these stages change ever so slightly. Instead of bouncing away upon impact, the ball will be able to effortlessly pass through whatever bricks it breaks. Due to that, the bonus stages go by much quicker than the normal ones. As for the block patterns in the bonus stages, they are all designed to resemble familiar faces and objects from the Super Mario series. Unlike the regular stages, the bonus stages task you with demolishing all blocks within a certain time limit. There's no penalty for failing to succeed at a bonus stage other than losing points, however. Also unlike the main game, bonus stages have music, though it isn't terribly good. Still, even with all these differences, you're basically doing the same thing as the main game, which is breaking blocks. The bonus stages don't alleviate the game's repetitiveness.

There's not much else to say about Alleyway. This is a straight up Breakout clone with no real twists or anything unique to set it apart. Recycling each block pattern three times makes the game exceedingly repetitive. If you do the math, there are only eight block patterns in all, not including the bonus stages. Having the blocks move around and the occasional bonus stages don't do anything to solve the game's overly repetitive nature. The game is certainly playable, but it gets boring far too quickly. If you want to play a Breakout clone done right, then try Kirby's Block Ball.

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