So, what does the Metroid element bring to the equation? Well, the shoot-em-up elements are well integrated with the core pinball action, with different creatures affecting your pinball in different ways. With a handy touchscreen-thumbing tilt feature as your last resort, there’s no-one to blame but yourself when the ball goes down. On tables where there are flippers in both halves of the table, you can quickly flick your attention between the top and bottom screens and make sure you know what’s going on. One of the problems with the likes of Sonic Spinball or Pinball of the Dead was that your viewpoint was always rather cramped, but here there’s space to see everything clearly and to anticipate the movement of the ball. What’s more, Metroid Prime: Pinball has a huge advantage over many console and handheld pinball games: the dual-screen layout of the DS means that you can have half of the table on the top screen and half on the bottom, eliminating any need for scrolling. The main tables have a wide range of chutes, chains and interactive features, and the layouts give you enough to explore without causing too much confusion. The ball moves smoothly and realistically, and at a speed that won’t frighten beginners or patronise skilled players. On the pinball side, MP:P has all the basics down. The good news is that Metroid Prime: Pinball handles both ends of the combination well. This is where then shoot-em-up bit comes in. Some of these have to be whacked repeatedly with the ball before they disappear, while in other cases the bonus chain causes Samus to rise in regular, armoured form from the centre of the table and blast the oncoming critters to smithereens. However, as this is a Metroid game, some of those bonuses result in the introduction of notorious Metroid enemies onto the table. As in any pinball game, hitting specific targets in sequence results in a bonus, dramatically increasing your score. Ninety per cent of the time your attention is concentrated on the flippers, which are best controlled using the DS shoulder buttons, and you’re using them to send the ball towards specific targets, bumpers and chutes. The tables, meanwhile, are based on environments familiar from her 3D adventures.Īs with Devil Crush, not to mention the likes of Sonic Spinball, Pokemon Pinball and Pinball of the Dead, this isn’t a pure pinball experience but a hybrid.
METROID PRIME PINBALL HD SERIES
In case you can’t guess, it’s themed after the Metroid Prime series of games on the Gamecube and DS, with the pinball in question being bounty hunter Samus Aran in her tightly rolled morph ball form. Admittedly, it’s more in the vein of Devil Crush than Pinball Dreams, but there’s something about the overall attitude that still reminds me of my uni-days fave. If you remember these games with any fondness, then Metroid Prime: Pinball will bring all the good times back.to you. Even Kiss made for a better Pinball game).
Anyone who played Devil Crush, Alien Crush or Dragon’s Revenge will have similar memories (bad luck if you only played Crue Ball.
METROID PRIME PINBALL HD PC
Of course, at the same time as Pinball Dreams was rocking my world, developers on the PC Engine and MegaDrive consoles had realised that by combining Pinball with the shoot-em-up and elements of fantasy, horror or sci-fi – not to mention the wretched US hairspray metal of Motley Crue – they could create an exciting new hybrid. And to think the team behind these classics – Digital Illusions CE – would one day go on to produce the Battlefield series. Oh, those happy hours, the rocking soundtrack of the Graveyard table, the clatter of the keys on my Amiga keyboard, the muffled swearing and pitiful coughing as a rival tore his way to a new high score. The answer came in the shape of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies. As ‘Cash in the Attic’ and ‘Deal or No Deal’ had yet to be invented, our household of arts students had to find something to fill the hours we could possibly have spent writing dissertations or researching in the library, and while Civilization and Secret of Monkey Island were ideal when we weren’t feeling sociable, we needed something to play in the afternoon or when we’d brought back some mates from the pub.
I was lucky enough to be a student during the early nineties golden age of video-game pinball. Excuse me if I wax nostalgic for a minute.
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