Pinball

Pinball

October 1985 (Nintendo)

I struggled a bit with how I should categorize this game. Technically I guess you could say it’s a simulator since it’s simulating a pinball machine. Which would work for this one, but there are some wonky pinball games. I didn’t want to say it’s an arcade game because I don’t think that really tells you anything about the game. It’s like saying you like sandwiches.

Onto the game itself. Technically there’s a 2 player mode in this. Once I found out that it’s just taking turn and playing pinball I didn’t even bother. Not sure what else they could have done though beyond just not having the two player option. And I really don’t think that was a possibility. No reason for that thought at all, just on a gut level I don’t think they would have made this a single player game. Maybe it’s the simplicity of the entire thing.

Although simplicity might be the wrong word. If you skip the manual you probably wouldn’t know it, but the design on this game is a bit crazy. Sort of like Sebastian’s on Kitchen Nightmares, it can be a nightmare to know exactly how you get points and how many. So trust me, just stick with playing the game and not trying to figure that out. The basic pinball rule still applies; don’t lose the ball and you’re good to go.

Pinball has 2 game modes. A has a lighter ball, and B has a heavier (and more realistic) ball. Other than that the modes are exactly the same. The controls are a bit wonky. A or B controls flippers on the right and anything on the D-pad controls flippers on the left.

One thing that’s really missing here is music. There’s sound effects, but no in game music at all. Playing this just felt hollow and not right at all. I’ve never played a pinball game that didn’t have sound coming at me constantly.

The coolest thing about this game is that the board is 2 screens, divided into top and bottom. This can make things a bit frustrating when you knock the ball off the bottom screen but not far enough into the top one to make it stay there.

There’s also a mini game where Mario is featured in a Breakout style game. Sadly, I could never actually pull that off to show you.

In the end, it’s a pinball game. If you like pinball you should like this. And if you don’t there’s almost no hope. There’s bound to be something better coming up since this is a lunch title, but this game really isn’t all that bad.