Devilish review

If you think you recognize the title of this DS balls-and-bricks game, you might: it originally came out on Sega's Genesis and Game Gear consoles in the early 1990s. The trouble with this reinvention is that it really hasn't changed all that much.



Devilish is basically a combination of pinball and any ball-and-paddle brick-breaking exercise like Breakout or Arkanoid. There's some crazy, laughably vague-yet-overwrought story about Satan and his minions taking over a castle and the princess releasing the "holy power" - a giant, rolling ball - to then release the dragon power (whatever that is) to combat them. But really, here's all you need to know: you have a magic ball that bashes through stone, opens treasure chests, and re-kills enemies like skeletons, bats, and ghouls. You have large levels filled with those things, as well as a goal you need to get the ball - sorry, the holy power - into within a certain time limit. And you have a double-layered paddle, like a hamburger bun, whose top half you can raise or lower at will, or even rotate to bounce the ball at an angle.