Nazo no Kabe: Block-kuzushi (1986, FC Disk System/NES)

Lit. translation: Block Break: The Mysterious Wall
EU/AU title: Crackout
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Clear Version: Family Computer Disk System
Clear Platform: Family Computer Disk System
Clear Date: 5/28/25

---

Why should I care?
This Breakout clone has its flaws, but it’s a great menagerie of weird little guys.

---

MERRYCHRISTMAS

There’s something very zen about the ball-and-paddle game. Alongside the space shooter, it’s about as classic as genres come in this medium. Perhaps it’s for that reason that Konami made the paddle in this game a transforming fighter plane. By combining the two, maybe they sought to make the ultimate ur-game, as Taito had done with Arkanoid mere months prior. The result of their efforts is a game equal parts frustrating and relaxing with a surprisingly charming cast of characters.

Nazo no Kabe has all the iterations on the Breakout concept you may have come to expect from playing similar titles over the years. The goal is still to destroy all bricks on the screen in each stage, but there are powerups to be had, obstacles to avoid, and enemies to contend with.

No longer content to have the fun justify the action, Konami also introduced a plot to the Breakout formula. The story goes that humanity has colonized a new planet and installed a supercomputer to help with its maintenance. Unfortunately, some aliens have attacked and started its self-destruct sequence. You control a red fighter plane that can transform into a paddle and fire a ball, and your goal is to navigate through every stage of the fortress this computer is housed in to enter the password and prevent disaster. Aliens along the way will try to stop you, but with your trusty ball, you’ll surely save the day.

The password is where a bit of a metagame comes in. The game consists of 4 zones of 11 stages each, but each zone also has a “back side”, doubling the number of stages. The letters for the password are revealed in various stages on each “side” of the game, and there’s a place in the manual to write them down as you find them. When you reach the end of either side, you are given the opportunity to enter the password.

As interesting as that idea is, I decided I didn’t want to do all that and just looked the password up. Discerning readers may be able to find it on this very page.

The problem is that if you mess it up, you gotta start all over. Even with the Disk System’s save feature, I don’t have time for that! Judging by the empty password section in my secondhand manual, it would seem the original owner(s) didn’t either.

And maybe I’d have been more inclined to play it legit if it were a bit more fun. I enjoy a little Breakout-style action once in awhile, but the quality of the stages here varies wildly. Some are perfectly fun and clever, others feel so devious that they couldn’t have possibly been playtested, demanding very tricky shots be repeated many times over to complete a single stage. In a game type that has some inherent randomness to it, this can be maddening.

A nice saving grace is that the bad guys are super cute and varied — not something I really expected from a game like this. You can have a look at ’em in the game’s manual. I’m particularly fond of the grinning worm guy.

Konami must’ve known they’d made some cute fellas because entering the correct password at the end of the game rewards you with one of those “introduce the enemies on the credits screen” sequences. They parade down the screen and stop briefly to tell you how great you are at the game. Thanks guys.

They also tell you to support Konami games. I tried, okay? I tried.