Breakout

Breakout is the arcade ancestor of every brick-breaker you have ever thumbed on a phone, and the original still plays beautifully. A wall of bricks sits at the top, a ball ricochets around, and your one job is to keep it alive with a paddle you slide by mouse, finger, or arrow key — three lives, no more, and the ball is gone the moment it slips past you. The detail that separates flailing from clearing is that the paddle is not just a wall: strike the ball with its edge and you steer the rebound, angling shots into the corners a flat hit could never reach. The expert move is to punch a narrow channel up one side and let the ball loose above the wall, where it rattles along the top clearing whole rows on its own while you barely lift a finger. Higher bricks pay more, so dig toward them. When the ball speeds up, read its angle instead of chasing its position, and answer with small nudges rather than lunges. It runs free in the browser with your best score kept on the device.