Mike Bantick
Friday, 31 July 2009 12:17
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Next up we have Smallball Pinball, Grand Canyon (Free)
This is a classic art over substance approach to the Pinball genre. Grand Canyon looks a treat, and has reasonable smooth frame rate and nice slow ball physics.
But this is no pinball game. It is a realisation of an artistic concept, with some flippers and a ball thrown in on top.
Whilst there are two multiple interconnected boards to gaze at here, the beauty does nothing to hide the shallow pinball game-play. Shaking the iPhone launches the ball into the air, but this has no affect on game-play, whilst the ball is in the air, it is still affected by flippers and bumpers et al.
Furthermore Grand Canyon, is not a game, you cannot lose, there is no challenge, and therefore no value to me looking for a pinball experience. It is however free.
2 drop targets out of 10
Monster Pinball (AU$4.99) on the other hand is a fantastic pinball experience.
Consisting of six linked tables MP is a fast, crazy, well presented game with lots of variety and great sound effects.
Being a video-game, the developers have taken the opportunity to extend the experience, not only with the linking of tables both vertically and horizontally, but within each table the layout is designed to be whacky but with real-world grounding. As such there is a lot of asymmetrical lay outs and traps, whilst this can sometimes result in the ball travelling with in other-worldly trajectories, you never feel out of control.
Graphic overlays, indicating special scoring situations can be a little interrupting, as can the occasional frame-rate stutter (at least on my 3G iPhone model).
Monster Pinball features hotball (double scoring), online high scores and extensive tilt mechanism and plenty of on board variety, but because of the linked screen mechanism, cannot have a multi-ball feature.
8 drop targets out of 10
CONCLUDED on PAGE 3
