One of the first games we reviewed when we started reviews was Lillymo Games’ Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure. That game was a retro inspired brick breaker akin to the classic arcade game Arkanoid with a sci-fi story and its own twists on the brick breaking formula. Now, nearly five years later, a new brick breaking adventure has arrived from Lillymo with Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey, and this time the game is far more than what you would expect a brick breaker to be.

Right from the get go you see how much Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey is a step up from its predecessor. You’re introduced swiftly to the game’s biggest new addition with the ability to steer the ball within a level. This mixes up the classic brick breaker formula as you now don’t always have to wait for the ball to come back to the paddles and can get extra hits in by steering the ball as long as you have fuel to do so. Most levels are the classic brick breaker where you’re defending either the bottom or sides of the screen with the two paddles using the analog sticks. There are 40 levels in the game and each level has an objective, usually breaking bricks, as well as a bonus objective, to clear within a time limit as you rack up a score for each level and a letter ranking. This gives the game a ton of replayabilty as you want to increase your scores and the game even has a hard mode to do it all over again.

My biggest issue with the first game was how disorienting the game became to control and focus on as more paddles were added and how tedious later levels were. Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey never adds more than the two paddles instead changing up the levels by the addition of level elements such as separating the paddles or giving the ball the ability to circle through the sides of the screen or an additional gameplay element like a wormhole instead of a paddle on one side. Then, there’s no tedium here as the levels in the game move at an insanely brisk pace as I rarely even noticed levels had a countdown timer in them. Overall, the whole game is only a few hours long and can easily be completed within an evening.

What really kills the monotony of breaking bricks for hours, and caught me by surprise as I didn’t watch the trailer before playing, is how Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey isn’t just a brick breaker like the original. There’s a good portion of the levels that are completely different gameplay wise and pull from a variety of classic games from Frogger, to Snake, to Pong and more for their mechanics. While this may seem strange to mix the game up like that, the change in gameplay actually fits well and makes sense in the story. None of these new gameplay styles overstay their welcome, and make you guess at what kind of game the next level will be.

The story is again penned by Colin Moriarty. This time the story is far more lighthearted and doesn’t take itself that seriously. The story itself is set a decade after Colin and Chris saved the world and have retired from the public spotlight. However, they are brought back into the fold by Dustin, the third member of Sacred Symbols, who has discovered the aliens have discovered the ability to manipulate time. Thus, the three are thrust into a plethora of different times through the universe and encounter everything from T-Rexes, Mamoths, and so many paradoxes that they start seeing themselves. For those not interested in the spacetime faring story, story scenes can be turned off on the main menu for you just to enjoy Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey solely for the gameplay.

Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbol Odyssey is a vast improvement over the original game. The game goes beyond being a traditional brick breaker and incorporates a wide array of gameplay mechanics akin to other classic games into its levels to spice up the formula, and makes each level a fun new experience when you don’t know what to expect next. With a lighthearted story that takes a variety of twists and turns through spacetime and a ton of replayability, Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Odyssey sits well as a retro inspired game that’s more than just your average brick breaker that many will enjoy.

Score: 8 out of 10

Reviewed on PlayStation 5