It was part of a contest within Taito, where two teams of designers had to complete a block breaker game and determine which one was superior to the other.

The game was commended by critics for its gameplay, simplicity, addictive nature, and improvements over the original Breakout concept.

Arkanoid was ported to many home video game platforms, including the Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, ZX Spectrum, and (years later) mobile phones, and it spawned a long series of sequels and updates over the course of two decades.

Its plot involves the starship Arkanoid being attacked by a mysterious entity from space named DOH.

Some bricks release capsules that bestow various power-ups when caught, such as increasing the length of the Vaus, temporarily slowing the ball down, or granting an extra life.

Once this point is reached, the player no longer has the option to continue after running out of lives, making this segment more difficult.

[7] Arkanoid was designed by Akira Fujita and Hiroshi "ONIJUST" Tsujino, both of whom were members of Taito's Yokohama Research Institute.

[8] The company's sales department requested a new block breaker arcade game due to the genre beginning to see an upturn in popularity, following a steady downfall in the early 1980s.

[8] This led to a competition being held within the company to design the new game which was jointly won by Fujita and Tsujino, who were then instructed to combine their ideas into a single project.

[9] The development team consisted of Fujita in charge of planning, with Tsujino providing level design and graphics and two others programming the arcade board,[8] a modified version of the Taito Classic hardware.

[8] Hisayoshi Ogura, the founder of Taito's "house band" Zuntata, created the game's music.

[11] The game had a short development time with tight work deadlines, a schedule which Tsujino has since claimed to be "murderous".

[8] Arkanoid was officially released in Japan in July 1986, and in North America later that year by distributor company Romstar.

"[44] It named the NES version the Best Arcade Translation for the console that year, praising the graphics and play mechanics.

Along with Breakout, the magazine noted Arkanoid also has elements of Pong and Space Invaders as well as Pac-Man in its use of power-ups.

They particularly noted that despite the ability to shoot lasers, the game demanded a great deal of skill from the player.

[52] A modernized version of the game, titled Arkanoid: Eternal Battle, was developed by Pastagames and published by Microids.