DX Ball 2 - 20th Anniversary Edition

DX-Ball 2 is a 1998 brick buster game for Microsoft Windows, developed and published by Longbow Games. As a follow-up to the 1996 cult-classic DX-Ball by Michael P. Welch, the sequel introduced a number of improvements to the original game, including high-colour textured graphics, an original soundtrack by Eric "Sidewinder" Gieseke, multiple board-sets with distinct visual styles, and a hotseat multiplayer mode. On November 21, 2018, the game was re-released on Steam as DX-Ball 2: 20th Anniversary Edition, commemorating the game's 20th anniversary, while also ensuring compatibility with more recent versions of Windows. The anniversary edition introduced high-definition graphics, widescreen gameplay with a selection of new widescreen board-sets, additional power-ups, online leaderboards, and a board-set editor for creating custom board-sets. Following the release of the anniversary edition on Steam, distribution of the original demo version of DX-Ball 2 via the Longbow Games website was discontinued, alongside sales of the game's original board pack expansions.

DX Ball 2 - 20th Anniversary Edition

On August 23, 2018, Longbow Games announced DX-Ball 2: 20th Anniversary Edition, an updated relaunch of DX-Ball 2 that would be coming to Steam during the fall.[17] The new edition of the game was released on November 21, 2018,[18] presented in a high-definition widescreen format, featuring new boards, online leaderboards, and a board-set editor to create and play custom board-sets.[19] With the release of the new Steam revision of the game, the legacy game download that was distributed via Longbow Games's own website has since been discontinued, alongside the sale of all board packs.[20]

DX-Ball 2 was met with an overall positive reception from both editors and players. Games Domain reviewer Zack Schiel praised it for addictive gameplay, and noted it as the "best-looking Breakout game ever made". However, he also noted that the "overall graphics [were] not up to today's retail standards".[1] Abandonware archive, Home of the Underdogs, stated: "DX-Ball 2 is one of the best Breakout games ever made",[26] while ZDNet rated the game 5/5 stars.[27] According to Longbow Games itself, DX-Ball 2 had accumulated more than 5 million downloads by the end of 2002.[28] The anniversary edition has been listed in The Gamer's list of Top 10 Games With The Best Anniversary Editions.[29] 041b061a72