 |
|
Site
Home Administrator Articles Contest Downloads History Interviews Links System About Cartridge Cleaning Technical Specs Games Advertisements Awards Gallery Guides Hall of Lame Music Reviews Featured Games Bubble Bobble Star Voyager Fun Stuff Character Match Comics Previous Polls Story Re-Write Warped Zone Interact Contact |
By Steve Kilpatrick What? Another game with Mario in it?!! Pinball has always been one of the unavoidable genres. People love pinball. Even the oldest pinball game in the world is more fun than Tomb Raider 236. Pinball is simple, exciting, entertaining and fun. It was only a matter of time before Nintendo took one of the best arcade concepts in history and turned it into a Mario game. How does it work? Well, chances are if you haven't at least heard of pinball you aren't reading this anyway, but I'll go ahead and humor people, as well as fill up some space. In pinball, you launch a little metal ball onto a slanted playing surface so that gravity is constantly rolling it toward you. At the bottom of the playing field(or in this case the screen) is a hole that the little ball is trying to escape to. On either side of that hole are two flippers. You're job is to WHACK the hell out of that little ball! You make sure it doesn't go down that hole. You are given 3 balls and if all of them fall down the hole, that's it. You get to start over. This game is all about high scores. There are no useless plots or enemies. Just you, the ball and ZEN energy. Variations on a popular theme Well since this is a video game Nintendo wasn't limited by space. That means that they don't have to worry about how big their playing space is. They decided to include a multi-floor pinball table rather than a single screen table. That means that when your ball falls down the first little hole you aren't dead yet. You get to play on the bottom floor. Takes away a bit of the edge, sure, but it's still a cool idea. Not only that, but if you manage to get the ball into the hole (the manual calls it hole 13) on the bottom "floor" on the right you get to play the ""Mario Stage". This stage is a bit like a breakaway stile movement for Mario. Rather than flippers he bounces the ball off a platform that he is holding above his head. The basic goal is to save a lady at the top of the screen from her death. Outside of these few innovations this is pretty much just pinball. Maybe if Nintendo had included a couple of different boards it wouldn't get stale so quickly. I liked the game when I started, but I got tired of it in only a couple of tries. Door number A? Door number B? Eh? Well there are four different modes, but I don't really understand what the difference is. I mean the two player modes are explanatory, but there is an A game and B game and they both play exactly the same as far as I can tell. The manual really doesn't help me at all with this or I would fill you in. As far as the two player mode goes you just take turns when your ball is lost. It seems to me that this only serves to disrupt the rhythm of the game. You could just as easily play a full game and then pass the controller, but I suppose the loss of rhythm could be good to increase competition. I don't know. I usually don't play Pinball against other people anyway so as far as I'm concerned there is only one mode worth playing. To each their own. So what's the Graphical tilt? The graphics are ok. I'm so used to pinball being eye candy thanks to all the lights and different characters and options and springs that NES pinball really doesn't have a lot to offer me in way of visuals. I did love the way the seals clap when you trigger them and penguins are so cute that they automatically make me like this game. Sadly even Mario can't make this game translate well. Pinball just doesn't look good when it's paper flat. The sounds are also way too overused and get quite annoying at times. It is a noble effort, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Bottom Line I like the arcade style of play. That is always something that will let me score something a bit higher than I would, but as a huge pinball fan it's tough to mess with this one. The few things that are cute get old really fast. Get some friends together and pass the control around a couple of times to see who gets a high score, but don't play this alone. It's way too paper thin. My Score: C- |
© 2001-2003 Stephen Maiorana (RoyalRanger)
This site is not authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by Nintendo of America, Inc.