Mike Bantick
Friday, 31 July 2009 12:17
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
The iPhone and iPod Touch look made for a great pinball game, why is it so hard to find one?
With its great touch sensitive screen size and accelerometer for detecting the odd gentle – and not so gentle – nudge, the Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) are ideal platforms for playing digital Pinball.
So I dug through the deluge of apps on the Apple App Store in search of some old-school pinball fun. Simple putting in “Pinball” in the search bar, returned the expected amount of apps to explore, but before I downloaded my first, an iPhone co-owner said; “ ‘Pinball Dreams’, that is supposed to be the best”.
But being dogmatic, I chose Pinball Destruction as my first experience. (AU$1.19)
Pinball Destruction promises five uncluttered pinball tables, with the benefit that only comes with a video-game representation of destroying the board to complete it and move on to the next.
Ball and flipper physics are well handled, though the ball travels a little too fast ultimately resulting in a tough and somewhat sterile experience.
Multiball is nice, but the simple fact that on each – yes, uncluttered, but bland – table there are only a handful of targets, game-play quite often degenerates into flailing around hoping the last target drops. Each set of targets triggers a bonus multiplier, the release of up to 5 balls, or the start of board destruction.
At this point, each object on the board becomes subject to being destroyed in a pleasing particle effect. Once all objects are removed in this fashion, the game shifts onto the next board, which is simply a reconfiguration of the previous.
The game is tough, and can be frustrating for skill plays only a small part in this game. Unlike others in the series however, Pinball Destruction does not seem to suffer from the same smoothness interruptions as other titles do. Online high scores add an extra challenge level to the experience.
6 drop targets out of 10
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