| Introduction
The GBA isn't exactly short of pinball games and
until recently, most have followed a theme such as SEGA's
'Pinball of the Dead' or 'Muppets Pinball' from UbiSoft,
and a "straight" pinball game was considered
a bit of a risk. Personally, I can't help thinking that
to truly experience pinball, it does have to be played
on a 'real' table. To make it an entertaining GBA version,
it needs to offer some type of unique gaming experience--the
question is, did the developers of Pinball Advance manage
this, or should you simply hunt down the pinball experience
in your local retro arcade?
GamePlay
Hey, it's pinball, so if you don't know the basics
you probably shouldn't be reading this review in the
first place, but here they are anyway. Choose a table
(there are three available), and repeatedly hit your
silver pinball up a variety of ramps and bumpers to
win points and reach a high score.
There's also the minor challenge of avoiding the
many exits, as once the ball disappears you must start
over with the next one. Fortunately, you can choose
the difficulty level and with it the number of balls,
ranging from three to five, that you have available
in any one game. Pinball Advance makes no excuses for
sticking by the tried and tested formula of all pinball
titles, where the real trick is to discover all the
bonus items and how to unlock those all-important points.
Finally, although any game that automatically records
your data via battery backup as opposed to forcing you
to deal with sometimes impossible passwords is a plus,
what is strange here is that the only reason for its
inclusion appears to be saving the high scores. Nice,
but maybe not necessary.
Controls
The control system is irritating to say the least.
I've played so many Pinball games on the GBA now that
use the shoulder buttons to control the flippers that
it seems illogical to use anything else, in this case
the A button and the D pad. Also, the plunger is perfectly
visible on two of the tables but it's hidden in one,
meaning you've absolutely no idea how fast your pinball
will enter the table.
However, the ball's physics, essential for any pinball
sim, are pleasing and there is a very realistic feeling
of weight as it bounces around the table. Unusually
this alters slightly over the three various tables,
with some of the sections featuring a much heavier and
far more sluggish ball, which in turn alters the way
you approach the play.
Graphics
The three tables feature suitably different visual
themes - Tarantula, Jailbreak, and Daredevil. They include
the usual mix of surreal artwork and related phrases
that you need to light up, and though they sometimes
appear a little cluttered it doesn't really slow the
gameplay down, and you can almost always see where the
ball is.
There are some minor issues with the score panel
though, which is oddly situated at the bottom of the
screen and which sometimes obscures the flippers at
the base of the table. Even though it only occasionally
hampers the gameplay, one lost ball as a result of this
is incredibly frustrating.
Note: the screenshots you can see of the full
tables that accompany this review have been shrunk to
accommodate EAGB's site design. The tables are around
a third larger in size in the actual game.
Sound & Music
The literature that came with Pinball Advance boasts
40 different music tracks and over 300 pinball sound
effects. Obviously this makes for impressive reading
and fortunately it also plays out reasonably well in
the game. However, since it's pinball you won't always
appreciate the well-designed sound, and the various
bells and whistles usually only serve to indicate that
something has happened on the table.
Final Comments
While Pinball Advance is a reasonably well presented
interpretation of the classic game, the fact that there
are only three tables available means that you'll exhaust
almost all gaming possibilities in very little time.
There are also some huge oversights; unlike most pinball
sims, Pinball Advance fails to even offer a 'turn based'
feature. There's also the rather annoying control system,
and the fact that the score panel occasionally obscures
the pinball itself. There are loads of GBA pinball games
out there, so try a few before you settle on one, but
the fact is you either love pinball or you hate it,
and there's absolutely nothing here to change your mind.
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