Off the Wall

Off the Wall is Atari 2600 game developed by Axlon and published by Atari Corporation in 1989. It's a clone of Breakout with an Asian theme. Axlon was the game development studio owned by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Off the Wall was one of the last games released by Atari for the 2600. Unlike Breakout and Super Breakout, Off the Wall is controlled with a joystick and not the paddle controllers.

You control Kung Fu Lu, whose mission is to destroy a mysterious, evil wall by reflecting a bouncing ball into the bricks that make up the wall. When the bricks are hit by the ball, they are destroyed. On the top of the screen is a mystical dragon which guards the wall. Each level can be completed by either destroying all of the bricks in the wall, or hitting the dragon six times with the ball. Once the first level is completed, a blackbird will also appear on screen just below the wall. The blackbird will deflect the ball, and tries to get in the way to make your mission more difficult. From time to time, a magic token will fall downward which gives you special powers if caught. These can make the ball magnetic and follow your player, give you a larger paddle, or make the ball explosive and take out larger chunks of bricks. You start the game at a skill level of Peasant, and advance in rank every time four waves of bricks are cleared. You lose a life every time the ball falls off the bottoms of the screen, and the game ends when you lose all five of your lives.