Destroy the pyramids with paddle and ball.

The mobile games market is currently awash with brain games, sports and quiz shows. It's been a while since a good ol' fashioned game has come our way. Bricks of Egypt is block breaking Arkanoid style game from new developer Oberon.

It's a straight talking game with hardly any plot about cursed pharoahs or trapped archaeologists. I wont waste your time with quotes from The Mummy or Indiana Jones and head straight on to the game.

As the title suggests, the game is set in ancient Egypt in the days of Pharoahs and hieroglyphics. Unfortunately, that is about as far as the plot goes. Who you are and what you are trying to achieve are left to your own imagination.

The core of the gameplay is very good and impressive especially on our old workhorse, the N70. A lot can be happening on the screen at any one time but there isn't a hint of any slowdown. Its closest current rival is Ricochet which tried as hard as it could to replicate the PC version with moving backgrounds and a complicated brick system which ultimately stretched the mobile a little too far.

Bricks of Egypt is designed for mobile and the backgrounds have been simplified as much as possible. In other words there isn't one except for the ocassional Pharoah's head. Lavish backgorunds do not make a game and it is all about the gamplay especially for a brick breaker.

The game is played across 8 chapters - 4 are unlocked with another 4 to be discovered. Each chapter has either 8 or 16 levels within them and there are a total of 96 levels to complete. You are free to play through the chapters in any order and each has its own highscore table and save section. The only thing lacking is some real variation between the chapters. Even still, there are plenty of levels to keep even the most ardent gamers amused. Not content with lots of levels, Oberon have made the game pretty tough. There are no continues and no extra lives to gain. Completing 16 levels in the harder chapters without losing all 5 lives is a bit of challenge; but then that's why we pay good money for these games.

The more you play the more your appreciation grows. The game has mutiballs, guns and strange flying blocks and these can all be present on the screen at the same time with no slowdown in speed whatsoever. It looks like the game can handle as many moving objects as you can throw at it. Power ups are readily available and you can easy have 5 or 6 balls whizzing around the screen. A number of other games in this field can become unstuck and send the ball bouncing around in an infinite loop. This rarely happens in Bricks Of Egypt and even if does, it's very easy to save your progress and restart the level from the beginning without having to forcibly terminate the program.