The EG Readers' Game Tasting Society

Cosmic Smash (DC)

by Hyoushi

Cosmic Smash was released in the arcades and on the Japanese DC in 2001. Developed by Sega Rosso (formerly AM5), it's the quintessential arcade game: Easy to get into, simplistic and supremely addictive.

The game can be described as being the bastard child of Virtua Tennis and Breakout/Arkanoid. Your objective is to control a weird, semi-transparent humanoid as he swings his racquet at a small red ball, bouncing it around small chambers to break the various blocks that appear in them. Blocks are broken with single or multiple ball hits, but there are indestructible and moving blocks as well. The control setup resembles that of Virtua Tennis, but the lob button is replaced with a jump button and a "Trick Smash" button. You'll need the jumping ability, since the spacey gravity in the chambers of times makes the ball bounce all over the place. Your movement is also restricted to two axes, so you can't move in and out in the rooms. The variety of acrobatic "Trick Smashes" can be very useful, since they make the ball penetrate blocks and take out several at once. They also reward you with score bonuses. The drawback? When trick-smashing, the game timer depletes at a far more rapid rate.

The game starts out in a relatively simple chamber, obviously to get you familiarised with the controls. When the ball is struck for the first time, the ever-present timer starts counting down. When you've hit all the blocks in each chamber, the score is tallied and you receive a time extension. Eventually your path through the chambers branch into separate paths, which are selectable at your leisure. Of course, some paths lead to harder chambers but also to a potentially higher final score. In total, there are 50 chambers on the game "map".

The overall design of Cosmic Smash is very stylish and minimalist. Colours and effects are used to a minimum, but the game still looks very good. The music and sound effects are equally well produced, and fit the style of the game perfectly. The packaging alone is enough to make you drool: a proprietary, semi-transparent DVD case which displays the bright red game disc through the printed logo on top... a true collectors item.