Arkanoid + Narcolepsy = Siesta Fiesta.
On my way out the door at Nintendo's recent eShop preview event, one of the Nintendo reps ushered me over to a build of Mojo Bones' Siesta Fiesta, a side-scrolling mashup of Breakout/Arkanoid and Pinball, with a variety of cool power-ups and styles.
In Siesta Fiesta you play as Siesta (no duh), or really you play as his bed, which you slide across the bottom of the screen while the sleeping fellow bounces above it as a ball destroying blocks and occasionally getting upgrades. One difference between Siesta and a ball in Arkanoid is that Siesta has weight and will eventually fall back down without having to hit anything.
One major part of the game is hitting your targets while avoiding the skull crates that remove points, as well as the series of green gates that, if you guide Siesta through them will yield a bonus. More fun still are the pinball-style bumpers that bounce Siesta around with increasing speed. This is the basic crux of the gameplay, but where it really gets fun are the power-ups.
In one level I got the ice power-up, which as you might suspect, makes every block turn to ice and shatter with a second hit, including the skull crates that normally explode. In another level the bed is transformed into a fan, and how high or low Siesta goes is controlled by the player's careful timing.
The background elements of Siesta Fiesta are also made to be distracting. Part of the challenge of the game is ignoring those elements, including big cartoony critters that pop up in front of the action on the left or right to tell you things.
Siesta Fiesta can get fast, especially when the pinball bumpers get involved. At times the bumpers will shoot Siesta off above the screen like a rocket, and you must wait for him to come down not entirely sure where he's going to land or what he'll hit as he bounces into the frame. Simply put, it's a lot of fun. Siesta Fiesta is a fun game that provides gameplay somewhere between casual and platforming experiences. It is expected to release later this quarter on the 3DS through the eShop.
