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{subhead} Ankanos{def}{p}
Review by Lee Hesselden
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Replace the S in Ankanos for ID. What do you get? Ankanoid. Well, I`m
sure you`ve seen it all before, and know what Ankanoid or Breakout has to
offer, but just incase you have been living on another planet since the
beginning of time (I`m told this is 1985) then Ankanoid involves a bat, 
a ball, and several coloured blocks arranged around the playing area.
With the bat and ball the idea is to hit the blocks with the ball, and
they explode, and vanish, until they reappear in a different part of the
screen on the next level.
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The fancy intro envolves the word Ankanoid scrolling in from the top of
the screen, and the letters ID explode to be replaced by the letter S.
Then the credits are typed, and the computer waits for you to click the
mouse. If you wait some more screens will appear, after some fancy
screen wipes detailing the different types of blocks, and bonus'.
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I found the game a bit slow. Although I could move the bat at light
speed the ball wasn't anywhere near warp speed. There are loads of
different blocks. There are lots of coloured blocks and some special
blocks which redirect the ball, there are also dynamite blocks, ball
speed up blocks, blocks that you have to hit more than once to get rid
of, and blocks which turn into a zillion other blocks, which really
annoys me.
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You are generously given 5 lives to play with. It's highly unlikely
that your going to loose you lives quickly unless you are trying to get
a bonus while the ball is nearing the bottom of the screen.
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Ankanos uses a low-res screen, which doesn't do justice in the graphics
department. I found the falling bonus' very bulky looking, and you could
see what each one was. If you pick up a bonus, and you are not sure what
it is you could end up restarting the level or loosing a life! This
would be very unfortunate because bonus' fall quite often.
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I found the levels take ages to finish. This is because of the ball
speed and the amount of blocks on each level. This makes Ankanos
slightly boring. The sound effects will annoy you, and there is no
music.
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Ankanos is written in the outdated Amos Professional. For some reason
the author has disabled the AMOS to back ( Left Amiga A ) function,
meaning you can't leave the game running in the background whilst you do
something else.
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If you register (details in the very detailed documentation) you get a
level editor, it costs 10 euros to register. About 15DM, or 10US$. I
don't think it's worth it. The game is satifactory in it's P.D state,
it's even got a high score table. Mailware would be more suited.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: Aminet:game/???/ankanos.lha
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 65%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 32%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 45%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 57%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 51%