Blockout/Breakdown
aka Barricada/Demolicno (Brazillian title)
Magnavox 1980
Odyssey 2
Every vintage system has to have a version of Breakout. Problem is although it was common practice to clone a competitor's game back in the day the gaming public still knew a rip off when they saw it. Hence Magnavox attempted to advance the concept of Breakout a little further by adding a second player element, which didn't really turn out so good. The idea here is while player one is destroying the wall player two controls a set of four traditional Odyssey 2 little blockheaded men to try and build it back up. So a good way to describe this game would be "Deathmatch Breakout," except it's not nearly as cool as that.
Problem is that it's pretty hard to control the little bricklayer guys. You can only move one of them at a time, however it's really confusing as to which one you have selected. For instance, pressing up moves the guy on the third row, while hitting the fire button moves the guy on the fourth, regardless of which direction you're pressing. I know it's not easy to come up with control schemes you can use on a joystick with only one button but that's no excuse. The Odyssey 2 console has a whole damn keyboard, how hard would it have been to make the 1-4 keys select the different rows? Also you would think they would make the currently selected man blink or glow or change colors or something, but nope, so it's as much a guessing game as anything else.
The only way for the bricklayer to "lose" comes when one of the little guys falls through the wall or is hit from underneath, whereupon that little soldier is out for a limited time and the other player gets to destroy the wall with abandon. So the trick is to get them stuck on a small section so they can't go around rebuilding it. However this is next to impossible since this is a breakout-type game and the ball is pretty much random.
"Breakdown" is actually just a variation on Blockout, except everything is faster and you now only have 60 seconds instead of 90. Why these two minor changes warranted their own entire game I don't know. You can tell they were stretching it with this game by reading the instructions. It's not a wall, it's a "Fourth Dimensional Barricade." The paddle is a "Power Bar" and the block men are "Demons." If the game actually had little demons living inside it I wouldn't be surprised. The concept is good but it's pretty sorry in execution.
Graphics: Typical Odyssey 2 graphics, which means it looks like everything is made out of single colored lego blocks.
Sound: Beeps and bumps.
Gameplay: You two can go about your business. Move along.