Try to carve out a hole in the wall of bricks, and then sneak the ball through the hole to the space between the wall and the top of the screen. Since the red bricks, with their fast rebound, are usually at the top of the wall, this will clear out more bricks more quickly. Also, as long as the ball is bouncing between the wall and the top of the screen, you don't have to worry about losing the ball.

Be watchful for those glancing blows off the corner of a brick that can suddenly change the direction of the ball.

Never go after a falling power-up if it might make you lose your ball - it's not worth it!

The Wide Paddle power-up is not only good because it makes it harder to lose a ball - it also makes it easier to catch falling power-ups!

You may actually want to avoid the Slow Ball power-up on the early levels, when the ball speed isn't that high anyway, and you'd rather keep the ball fast to get the level over as soon as possible. But in the later levels, you'll be glad to slow the ball down!

Note that the 10, 20, and 30 second power-ups have a double benefit. In addition to stopping the descent of the wall, they also freeze the decreasing Time Bonus counter for that period of time.

Toward the beginning of the level, when the wall of bricks is very high, you can get the most bricks per second by keeping the ball between the bricks and the top of the screen. But later in the level, when the wall of bricks is getting close to the bottom of the screen, you can get the most bricks per second by keeping the ball between the bricks and your paddle.

Be ready for the sudden increase in ball speed when the ball hits a red or an orange brick.

When you have multiple balls in play, focus on one of them to make sure it stays in play at all costs, and only go after the other ball or balls when that one is safe. It's easy to try to go after all the balls and, in the confusion of the moment, lose all of them.

When you have a level with the three trapped balls, try to release them from the top rather than the bottom. This will keep the multiple balls in play longer.

You will often want to hit the ball off the extreme left and extreme right sides of the paddle, in order to get the proper angle on the ball. But remember that this is a very dangerous maneuver, because if you're slightly off, you'll miss and lose the ball.

When you have the Wide Paddle, be aware that the paddle will instantly shrink when the power-up wears off. Try to avoid using the ends of the paddle, as they might disappear just before the ball gets there!

Since power-ups always appear at the same points in a given level, learn to anticipate them and be ready for them.

You can clear the bricks faster by removing two or more bricks during each paddle-to-wall-to-paddle round trip. Look for places for bricks form a corner; hitting the ball into such a corner will often remove two or more bricks.