Pinball Arcade for Windows

While I have never been a big pinball junkie I do sometimes play a game of it on my computer. When I found it in the store and it was a mere 9 dollars I decided to pick it up. It's not a bad pinball game if your into classic pinball. Me being born waaaay after most of these machines where considered out dated think there ok but there not the pinball I remember playing on the computer or at the arcade. Not saying that there bad but they are simple contraptions.

Graphics.
Pinball arcade contains real pinball tables from yesteryear recreated for the computer. Atari did an excellent job of capturing the looks of the machines. From the old wood look, to the none digital light up of a few of the older ones, and the excellent art work that the old ones contain. They even added in the draw sting to the ref on knock out which was a nice touch. It's nice to see them go an extra mile to recreate these machines.

The game is done in a 3d perspective looking down the table. The far end is smaller then the end with the flipper to give you the feeling that your looking down the machine like your supposed to do.

Another nice feature is while they don't have the actual back boards for the original pinball on screen while you play. They try to keep the scoring the same. The old ones have the old light ups that the game manual said they have back then. While the ones in the 60's have a speedometer approach. While Haunted House has a digital clock look, and Cue ball wizard has the modern animetronic score board.

Sound.
While they where trying to be historically accurate and most of the games diden't contain music, and just simple bells and whistles whenever you hit something the lack of background music on a lot of the tables is a real downer. The only two tables that contain background music is Haunted House and Cue ball wizard are the only ones that have music on them. However the fact that the flippers actually buzz at your during Knockout was a good touch.

The tables
The tables are order in which they came out chronologically. The first one Baffle Ball came out in 1931, and the last one cue ball wizard came out in 1992.
Baffle Ball.
The origins of pinball. No flippers and plenty of pins. The idea is to shoot ten balls on the table and then shake the table so they get around the pins and land on the 4 circles to score points. At the bottom there are also score boards but there not worth has much, but if you miss the 4 circles aim for these. Baffle Ball is a bit of an addictive game if you have a friend but it's not a terrible exciting game especially on 1 player.

Humpty Dumpy
The next generation of Pinball had flippers, on the side of the table facing the wrong way. The flippers hear aren't really to extent the game, but rather to increase your score by letting you hit has much has possible has your ball travels down.

Knockout.
This 1950 game finally looks like what we call a Pinball game, with flippers on the bottom to save the ball. But this is a hard game, because you have a great big space for the ball to fall in, and itty bitty flippers. The good thing there is a gate that stops the ball from falling in for a little while why you rack up points. Another interesting part of this pinball game is there are two toy boxer in the middle who duke it out whenever you score a knock down.

Slickchicks
This table has interesting artwork has you bounce the ball around. To get high score you have to try to knock out the slick chick bumpers on top. While the flippers aren't has bad has knock down they are still do small and I found it frustrating to keep loosing the ball because of that. The theme of this one is the playboy bunnies.

Spirit of 1776
A table dedicated to the American bicentennial, with a red and white theme table. This is the first game chronological order on this game pack that's multiplayer. Also we finally get bigger flippers.

Haunted House
Finally a Pinball game that I have been used to since I was a kid. There is spooky background music and for once there is more then one row to hit the ball around in. The score board is now digital.

Cue Ball Wizard.
This is the modern kind of Pinball game (ok it was made in 1992, and not many company makes pinball games anymore, so this is the type of Pinball game you'll find now days). It talks there is music, plenty of ramps and eye candy. This one has a cue ball you can hit around in the middle of it. It's the most complex and probably the one with the most replay value.

Special features.
They have pinball history that takes a look at some of the original pinball tables through history and what they changed in it. Then there is Pinball trivia to find out what you know about Pinball. There is also a gallery featuring the back boards for the 7 tables. Finally there is tips and tricks, has well has ways to get bonuses on all the tables available on this disc.

The one thing I didn't like.
I don't know who thought this up and it's a good thing you can turn it off. The sticky keys is more annoying then the tilt mechanism. I understand the tilt mechanism because if you own a real pinball machine you wouldn't want anybody abusing it, so if they start to shake it or tilt it they loose the game. But the sticky flippers is just a cheap way to get people to loose. It sticks the flippers after hitting one 5 times in the row, backing it impossible to play any more. To make matters worse is this game stops the action to ask you if you want the feature on. They stop the action in a pinball game to ask you if you want this pointless feature on. It's a good thing you can turn this off completely in the options menu.

Final recommendation.
Once you turn the sticky flippers off and the game doesn't bug you about it Pinball arcade is a good pinball game. There is a lot of history in it. The boards are basic but they are fun has long has your not looking for boards with a lot of bells and whistles (or in this case boards that have nothing but bells and whistles.)