Take this as a warning or a rant thread or whatever, but I think the later parts of Wizorb are TERRIBLE. 
 
They make the game harder by putting blocks behind indestructible pieces in the last rows, knowing you can't aim that well, putting in enemies that shoot back and making you get up to 4 blocks have the same color to unlock parts of the level (they change colors when hit). 
While all of this wouldn't be a problem by itself, they make you play through more than 10 levels at once in a chapter, only having your 3 lives. If you lose them, there are continues (3 for free, more for money), and while this might sound fair, it's not unlikely to run out of lives and continues on your last blocks in the last levels, because of course, the levels get harder and the ball gets faster the longer you play a level. 
If you fail this, you have to start those 10+ levels all over, and they actually take quite some time to finish. 
 
I'm close to finishing it and will probably do so, but man, this is aweful and pretty sad, since the first half of the game is quite good.

How else to do ramp up a game as simple as this?

The lack of precise control you brought up is why Breakout-style games and I do not get along.

Like I said, the single levels are not the problem, I'm fine with hard parts in games. 
It's that they are packing them together, 10 or more into one chapter, that you have to beat in one run. Exponential growth of difficulty is not a good idea if you don't give players the appropriate capabilities.