A Breakout clone (also known as a Breakout-style game) is a sub-class of the "bat-and-ball" genre introduced with the Magnavox Odyssey Tennis and Atari's Pong. The genre gets its name by the games being based around the dynamics of a player-controlled block, called a "bat" or a paddle, which hits a ball towards another player's bat or game specific object.
Breakout-style games are characterized by the addition of a wall of blocks or similar objects, that the player chips away at with the ball as part of the main gameplay. Since the release of the original Breakout arcade game in 1976, there have been notable clones and updates for various platforms. The profusion and notability of such games has been sufficient enough for them to also be referred to by some as a genre in their own right.