Pinball Dreams


hwong3

Still Fresh
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
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Pinball Dreams gp32_console is just as you would expect a Pinball video game to be, fast, smooth animation, exciting and easy to pick up. It's based on the Pinball Fantasy game series for the computer from years ago, if you ever played pinball video games, you know what I mean. Here are the basics:

Overview :p
pinball06.jpg


It's Pinball. So you try and score as many points as you can on one of the four themed pinball tables so you can make one of the top three high scores per table.

Graphics B)
Graphics are excellent! Ultra smooth animation, colorful blinking lights and bumpers, basically all you could hope for from a pinball game. Again, like all games, it really looks good on the BLU. Each table is two screens high, so the screen will scroll as the ball moves up and down the table. This may sound disorientating, but it's actually seemless and very smooth. You won't even notice. But then again, it's a pinball table, so most objects stay static, so its not surprising that everything is smooth.

GRAPHICS = 8.5/10

Music and Sound :unsure:
There's a theme song for the title screen and one looping song for each table. Basic, but decent. The sounds of the bumpers and hitting bonuses, etc on the board are terrific, exactly what you would hear on a real pinball machine. No popping is evident, the looping is discrete enough so as not to be too obvious. All in all, well done, but again, nothing record breaking.

MUSIC & SOUND = 8/10

Playability :)
This is the epitome of pick up and play. It's great to play a quick game, but you'll find yourself playing several times trying to reach that high score. However, it would have been nice to include a save function (like GBA pinball games such as Pinball of the Dead) so that commuters and the like who need to stop can quickly save their progress to continue later. But this is a minor issue that doesn't really mare the playability. It would have also been nice to allow the button configuration to be changed, as using the shoulder buttons for the flippers is not always accurate. I find myself mis-pressing the button at times after long gaming periods as it is ackward to hold the GP32 and use only the shoulder buttons for extended lengths of time.

There are four different pinball boards which have relatively different setups. It's varied enough to keep you occupied for quite some time. Upgradeable and additional boards would have been nice, but again doesn't mare the playability.

PLAYABILITY = 9/10

Overall
This game is great, but only if you like pinball. Obviously, if you don't like pinball, this game won't make you a fan. But for the measly 9,900 KW (about $8.50 US Dollars) that will allow you to download it from Joy GP at www.entware.com, there isn't really better a value around. I've never seen a card version in the box, and am pretty sure it doesn't exist. Let me know if you see otherwise.

OVERALL = 8.5/10 :rolleyes:

Ha Kung
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/hwong
 

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It's based on the Pinball Fantasy game series for the computer from years ago
Pinball Dreams for the gp32 is actually a direct port of Pinball Dreams for the Amiga. Pinball Fantasies was the sequel (which was also supposed to have been ported a long time ago and was going to be released after the euro release - I wonder what happened to that?).
 
I recommend Pokemon Pinball for the Gameboy on fGB as a good alternative if you do not want to spend any money to get a good pinball game on your GP32. It is probably one of the best Gameboy games around.
 
WhizzBang posted on Aug 19 2004 at 10:46 PM said:
I recommend Pokemon Pinball for the Gameboy on fGB as a good alternative if you do not want to spend any money to get a good pinball game on your GP32. It is probably one of the best Gameboy games around.
Kirby's Pinball Land is also excellent - not as realistic as Pinball Dreams though...
 
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Gruntfuggly posted on Aug 20 2004 at 11:00 AM said:
WhizzBang posted on Aug 19 2004 at 10:46 PM said:
I recommend Pokemon Pinball for the Gameboy on fGB as a good alternative if you do not want to spend any money to get a good pinball game on your GP32. It is probably one of the best Gameboy games around.
Kirby's Pinball Land is also excellent - not as realistic as Pinball Dreams though...
Not to mention Sonic spinnball ^^
 
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Thanks for reading my review and providing comments. Good catch on the Pinball Dreams/Phantasy thing. I actually remember playing HOURS AND HOURS of Pinball Fantasy. I would love to get a port of that too and would definitely pay for it. DID YOU HEAR THAT LOGIK STATE!? B)

All the above suggestions are also good, I actually really like Sonic Spinball, but Pinball Dreams is really the best, in my humble opinion, Pinball game for the GP32. And for ~$8.50 USD, it's well worth the cash outlay. :p

Cheers everyone, I hope to pick up more games from Joy GP and review them. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, does anyone know where I can get "All for Princess"? I've heard nothing but good things about it.
 
Try Alien Crush on the GPEngine, it's a kickass pinball game as well.
 
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