The 1997 Super Nintendo version of Taito‘s classic bat and ball game, Arkanoid, is one of my favourite games of all-time. The main reason for that is because Arkanoid: Doh It Again supports the use of the SNES mouse, and playing this game with a mouse is by far the best way to experience Arkanoid. IMHO. For that instant, “analogue” movement, using a mouse, either in emulation or on real hardware, is the ideal option.

With mouse controls I’d even go so far as to say that the SNES port may even be better than all the arcade games in the Arkanoid series, which I believe all used dials for bat movement. I’ve played Arkanoid in an arcade before and I think it had an analogue dial… It was a long time ago and I don’t remember much about it, though. I’m sure that it had some kind of analogue control of the bat anyway. The arcade controls were not digital, is what I’m trying to say.

But back to the SNES version: playing this with a mouse is a DREAM and it demonstrates just how important the RIGHT analogue controller can be for certain games. In this case: a game-changer. Literally a game-changer…

Arkanoid: Doh It Again is the second sequel to the original Arkanoid. The first sequel being Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh. So in a way this is Arkanoid 3. Arkanoid 4? Well, I don’t think there was one, but the Nintendo DS version was probably it. That came out in 2007.

Taito pulled out all the stops to make this game great, and I think they succeeded. Arkanoid: Doh It Again is an essential game for the SNES, but you have to play it using a mouse to get the best out of it!

More: Arkanoid: Doh It Again on Wikipedia