Ricochet is a series of sci-fi brick breaking puzzle games made by Reflexive Entertainment.
The game is of the Breakout and Arkanoid mold, but with some twists; Instead of a standard ball and paddle, you pilot a ship with a curved shield to reflect the ion sphere into the bricks. Levels can take place an a multitude of environents, including outer space, underwater, alien planets and Mayan temples. Bricks are arranged in interesting patterns and even move around, making for some challenging gameplay. The series also had a grittier look compared to other shareware Arkanoid-likes of the time, which made it stand out.
Four games were released:
- Richocet (2001): The original game, generally referred to as Ricochet Xtreme after the title of the registered version of the game.
- Ricochet Lost Worlds (2004): The sequel, which added new brick types, powerups and environments and selectable ship designs. It also added an additional challenge with five rings which could be collected in each level. It also introduced the level editor to the game.
- Ricochet Lost Worlds Recharged (2004): An Updated Re-release, Recharged added additional levels created by the community as well as new ship designs.
- Ricochet Infinity (2007): The final game of the series, it has two episodes: the main game, and the unlockable Episode 2: Delta Quadrant. The bigger changes included the introduction of a recall feature allowing you to manipulate the ball's gravity while in flight, an invader hazard which could infect bricks causing them to speed up your ball when hit, and a level catalog which allowed downloading user made levels from a master server. It also added a rank system which unlocked new ships (with acompannying specialty) and ball skins as you collected rings and a multiplayer MouseParty mode. It was ported to Playstation 3 as Ricochet HD in 2011.
The games were fairly popular in their heyday and were a mainstay of early digital distribution services like RealArcade, though the later games also received physical boxed releases. Reflexive was bought by Amazon in 2008 and merged into Amazon Game Studios, and the servers for Lost Worlds and Infinity were unfortunately shut down in 2017. Much of the content made for the games however was preserved, and can be found at Ricochet Universe
.
Not to be confused with the ill-fated Valve Software game of the same name, nor the pro wrestler. See also Shatter for another spacy take on Breakout-style gameplay.
The games contain examples of the following tropes:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Each rank increase in Infinity unlocks a new ship or ball, though in the former's case they also have "specialties" which grant you a specific set of powerups when collected.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": The ball is called an "ion sphere", but most of the time it refers to your lives.
- Excuse Plot: Xtreme had one which framed it as a simulator of a professional competition between interstellar pilots. The tagline was even "The future of interstellar competition, today!"
- One-Hit Polykill: The Rail Ball, which cuts through bricks like butter.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Rico, a chihuahua-like alien mascot who hangs out in the sidebar in Infinity.
