This is a clone of Breakout. It’s a very good clone of Breakout, and hey, it has Mario in it. This was a launch title for the Game Boy. This means it might not be as good as some other games.
It is also a straightforward game. Nintendo didn’t seem to want to rock the boat with it and didn’t add anything crazy. If you have played Breakout, then you have played Alleyway.
At the time, this would have been a pretty good game. Now, it might not be what some people want. The only goal here is to try and get a high score. This is one of the few Game Boy games I had as a kid. I like it.
TLDR: Alleyway is a well-done clone of Breakout.
Gameplay
There isn’t much to this game as far as gameplay. It’s a simple paddle and brick game based on the original Breakout. There are a few things that they tried to do in this game.
Nintendo and Intelligent Systems didn’t add power-ups to this version of Breakout. They aren’t all that creative here. I’m not sure why they were excluded.
There is no battery save either. This is kind of a shame as it means your high score is meaningless unless you want to keep your Game Boy on forever to show random people your high score in Alleyway.
One thing I didn’t know was that you could adjust the speed of your paddle. The way you do this is by pushing the A and B buttons. I thought the only controls were the D-pad, so finding this out was pretty cool. I wonder why I never tried that before? Oh, well.
I think my problem with this would have to be how safe they played it. It’s a fun game with a tried-and-true style. However, they didn’t do much beyond cloning Breakout.
Visuals
It’s a black and white Game Boy game from 1989. There isn’t too much going on here. Alleyway looks like Breakout. There isn’t too much more to say about it.
It does have Mario in it. I guess that is one thing I can bring up.
Mario runs in and hops into the paddle when you start the game. He is apparently wearing a spacesuit. I guess this means the game takes place in space. I wasn’t too sure why it needed to be.
If you look at the cover art, you can see Mario. In the picture, he isn’t wearing the spacesuit. I guess he takes it off when he hops into the paddle ship. I’m probably reading way too much into it.
Knowing this, it doesn’t change much. The game looks like it is supposed to. I wish they had done something else with it.
Replayability
Alleyway is all about replayability! It’s a game where you are just trying to get a high score. You need to practice over and over to try and get it.
This is one of those games that you can pick up and play to waste some time. It’s not meant to be played for hours. Games like this and Tetris are some of the best games on the Game Boy.
Alleyway wouldn’t be as popular as Tetris, and other games are better. It’s a little weird talking about a game like this. It’s fun, you can pick it up and play it at any time, and I think it’s one of the games that has stood the test of time.
It’s probably because it’s a clone of Breakout, and you can find a version of it anywhere.
Alternatives
There are plenty of alternatives to Alleyway. Arkanoid is one of the more well-known games. If you look on your phone, you’ll probably be able to find dozens of Breakout games.
Paddle and Brick games are everywhere. You can find plenty of games like this, and most of them are probably good. This is a style of play that is hard to screw up.
7.5/10
Overall pros and cons
I’m not going to split this out into lists. The game is easy to pick up and play, there isn’t a story that you have to go through, and you can put it down whenever you want.
Conclusion
Games like Alleyway worked well on the Game Boy. These were still the type of video games that some people were looking for at the time. This brought an arcade experience to the Game Boy.
During the late 80s and early 90s, I think this was a good game. It wasn’t anything special, which is probably why Nintendo didn’t do much with it.
They played it safe with this game. If you look at other ports of classic games, the developers tried to do something extra with them. Here, they just ported it and didn’t do anything extra.
I like the game. I have a bit of nostalgia for it because I had it back in the day. I wish they had tried to add something to it.