Block kuzushi

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Block kuzushi (ブロック崩し burokkukuzushi, literally block destruction) is the name given in Japan to the genre of computer and video games in which blocks are destroyed by a bouncing ball, and the player controls a paddle at the bottom of the screen to keep the ball in play. The first example of such a game was Breakout, although Arkanoid is arguably more popular. Since this is a fairly narrow definition of a genre, it is often not considered as such (especially outside of Japan), and games of this type are usually simply referred to as "Breakout clones".

A number of block kuzushi games were released in Japan under the title Block Kuzushi, including members of D3 Publisher's Simple series and a Color TV Game system by Nintendo. However, this is a generic name referring to the genre (similar to a tennis game being called Tennis). The games titled Block Kuzushi are all distinct games and should not be considered as a series.