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Review: Metroid Prime Pinball for Nintendo DS by PcTech

Number of Players: 1
Wireless Single-Card?: Yes, 1-8 players
Price: $34.95 retail

Description
What happens when you take the world of Metroid and mix it with the playstyle of pinball? You get Metroid Prime Pinball (MPP). MPP casts you as the venerable vixen Samus, once again out to rid the galaxy of various Bad Guys. I've read fans of the Metroid series will notice the table designs reflecting various levels in the Metroid games of yore; since I've only played Metroid 1, however, I'm approaching this game as a pinball lover first, Metroid-aware person second.

Graphics (4 of 5)
Graphics of the game are generally high quality. One of the stages, Tallon Overworld, features lush vegetation surrounding the playfield and sometimes actually features rainfall. Another table, Pirate Frigate, could blend in with any sci-fi spaceship setting from the 80's. Nothing really particular stands out, but what's there looks appropriate enough.

There is also a multiplayer map which has a lava theme to it, along with 2 (maybe 3) other "tables" of various themes, where you actually battle bosses. Gameplay uses both screens of the DS, which at first is a little confusing when you see the ball pass through the screen bezels...after a few games, though, it becomes second nature and you really don't notice it too much. Kudos for going the dual-screen route instead of the scrolling-screen route, though an option to do that would be nice.

Sound (3.5 of 5)

Sound through the speakers is Metroid-ish sounding enough, though I can't say if it's straight from any of the games. I did not test with headphones, but speaker sounds are generally crisp. Some of the gameplay features digitized voice calling out what you've collected "Special Collected", but the voice never gets annoying and is pretty low key.

Music is enjoyable but unmemorable (at least, for me). You won't catch yourself humming along a tune like you do with Mario or Zelda games, but the music conveys the general feel of the tables or situations. I do recognize the "metroid" music, however, so it's sorta cool to enter "Metroid Mania" and have music change to that music type.

Gameplay (2.5 of 5)
The gameplay is where I have a major problem with MPP, and is where I'll spend the rest of the review. Coming into the game, I thought it was just a Metroid-themed pinball game...instead, it seems the game is a pinball-themed Metroid game. This may delight those trying to get any sort of Metroid fix they can; for me (a pinball fan), however, it is a letdown.

Certainly the old pinball game standbys are there - Multiball, hurry-up modes, ramp combos, random awards, bonus multipliers, ball savers and kickbacks. The game also features such physical pinball components such as bumpers, drop targets, ramps, flashing arrows, spinners, etc.

MPP also brings some features over from the Metroid games; for instance, you have access to bombs and a super bomb when in ball mode, and missiles when in combat mode (which is basically a mini-game where you stand in one spot and aim Samus' shots using the flippers...to hit various enemies coming toward you).

Your ball also has an energy meter, which can be depleted from certain enemy attacks, such as a Metroid suction attack or space pirate missiles. It all sounds really neat, but I think the execution leaves a little to be desired.

For instance, one existing game table mode is called "Metroid Mania". Upon entering this mode, 2 or more Metroids will slowly hover into the bottom portion of the screen, near the flippers. Your objective is to hit the Metroids at high speed. After a few hits, the Metroids will die and usually leave behind an energy capsule.

While this sounds great at first, it quickly can become frustrating. The Metroids hover dangerously close to the flippers, making hitting them a great way to have your ball instantly rebounded right through your flippers and out of play. Unfortunately, it's usually only possible to build up enough speed to damage them when coming from the flippers; most of the time, a random bounce into a Metroid from elsewhere on the table will simply not damage the enemy, but allow it to suction an energy bar from you instead.

Considering the very first level of Metroid Mania has 2 enemies on the screen (and they fill up a good portion of that lower screen), and adding in the fact sometimes a random, single Metroid will wander onto the table for seemingly no reason, one can get the feeling the "video game" portion of MPP is really getting into the way of the "pinball game" portion.

Another example of the video-game half interfering with the pinball half is when you're fighting space pirates. These guys will usually spawn 3 at a time and shoot Samus-seeking missiles with surprising agility.

Not only do these missiles take away your energy, but they also knock your ball into total chaos, and they do so very rapidly. The only fortunate thing about the pirate mode is that they appear in the top of the screen, giving you some breathing room and not instantly returning your ball between the flippers like the Metroids seem to do. Still, a few (un)lucky hits from their missiles and you're either "dead" and lose a ball, or you're zipping so quickly out of play you have little time to react.

Then, I have to mention the table design itself. Overall, I think MPP only delivers an "okay" pinball experience.

For one thing, gameplay is spread out among 2 tables (three if you count multiplayer) and a couple of "special" boss tables.

The boss tables, however, can barely be called tables themselves...they're extremely sparse, made up of only a few ramps and targets. The top portion of the screen makes room for a large boss which will have 2 or more special attacks, whereas the bottom portion is sometimes filled with random enemies or just ramps leading to the top portion. In these modes, you're judged on how fast you can kill the boss, not high score. Once you kill the boss, that's it...you're kicked back to the main menu.

The other, "real" tables, are thankfully more populated but still seem lacking. None of the tables have an upper deck, no sort of special "aim the ball and shoot it somewhere" mode, no LCD-esque mine games, and no manual ball plunger.

Ball launching is automatically done in-game (you don't even get a prompt to launch it; it simple happens). It's really a shame because with the DS touch screen, it would have been trivially easy to design an analog-type spring action plunger.

Table bumping is done by dragging your finger (probably thumb) across the scree, to bump it in the direction of the drag. The only problem is, it's usually too difficult to do so because you use the DS L and R buttons for flippers, and you have your thumb ready to use any special weapons you have with the appropriate X/Y/A/B buttons. Perhaps it's just the way I grip the DS, but this setup makes it difficult to quickly bump the table one way or another, especially considering you have to make a small drag-action to do so. As a side note, it seems impossible to actually tilt the table when bumping it.

Table complexity for the "normal" tables also seems to be sparse. I'm not sure if this is because of the limited DS resolution or not, but it seems there simply isn't much to do.
You never seem to build up any sort of kudos / progression /etc. for anything but multiball. The mini-modes range from pretty entertaining (combat mode) to outright frustrating (Metriod Mania).

It's almost like the designers made a few ramps and drop targets, threw in various Metriod monsters and called it a pinball game.

Thankfully, some of the modes are slightly refreshing. One mode, called Phazon multiball, has you playing with red and blue pinballs. Red and blue dots appear on the table, and you have to hit red dots with the red ball to collect a bonus...hitting it with a blue dot causes it to bounce off.

It was sort of a nice change of pace actually having different balls in a multiball scenario...after collecting all the various colored orbs with the appropriate ball, you're awarded with 2 color-coded special jackpots (which of course you must hit with the right colored ball). If you collect those 2, shooting the phazon multiball area will give you a super jackpot.

Also, the combat mode is quite interesting, and seems to be the game's replacement for any sort of mechanical ball-aiming convention. In this mode, Samus stands up and auto-fires her cannon upward, while enemies come rushing at you. You're able to fire missiles (they all seem to fire at once) in this mode, but you cannot physically move Samus out of the spot she stands in.

Also, there is a game mode called "Multi-mission", accessed from the main menu. In this mission, basically the tables are "linked", and you can travel from one table to the next when you meet certain conditions. this means, for instance, you can be on the space frigate, warp to a boss battle, defeat the boss, then warp to another table.

Also, defeating all the tables supposedly opens up a level where you face your "greatest threat", but I haven't managed to open this level yet.

Special feature -- MPP includes a "rumble pack" that plugs into the GBA slot of your DS. While playing the game, the pack will make small movements to simulate the feeling you get when a real pinball hits a bumper or target. How does it work? Pretty good, actually, though normally I play the game without it installed. The game is just as playable without it, and I value the battery life over the small amount of realism the pack imparts -- it is, however, a nice little addition to the game.

Ball physics -- Overall passable, but definitely not hyper-realistic. While the ball, for the most part, avoids the "uber-floaty" feel that plagues cheaper pinball games, it certainly never approaches the quality seen in the Pro Pinball PC series or real pinball.

Spinning in modeled (to a small degree) however, and so is vertical movement, so not all is lost, but I certainly didn't get the feeling I was controlling a pinball on a board, but rather Samus in ball-form in a video game with flippers. The framerate of the ballspin is also quite low, which means you'll never see anything like Samus spinning at seemingly 10,000 rpm, hit a flipper and then zip up a side alley.

Overall (3.5 of 5)

When it's all said and done, overall I think Metroid Prime Pinball is a bit of a disappointment. While I'm sure fans of the Metroid series will find a lot of familiar enemies and themes in the game, it seems the developers forgot about the pinball fans.

If you're looking for a super-realistic and detailed pinball game, you might want to look elsewhere. However, if you absolutely must have portable pinball-like action and you don't mind playing it in a Metroid setting, then MPP may sate your craving. [Discuss]