Being a mechanical sensation, Pinball machines had to compete with video games at the arcades and though developers tried to implement new functions maybe exactly the increasing cost for more complicated maintenance led to the cease of existence. There must have been a general interest in the gameplay otherwise as there constantly was software for home consoles and computers, trying to emulate the fun to be had with Pinball cabinets.
It's possible more recent computers are capable of an almost perfect recapture, but there's a reason even today enthusiasts are restoring Pinball cabinets and some of them are making them accessible through clubs and museums to work their charme as an attraction. In fact, just a few hours ago, in preparation of my next big arcade trip in May, I stumbled over the featurette for a new Pulp Fiction machine and looking at the details made me realize the fascination for physically moving parts again.
Creating a Pinball video game can't provide that amongst all the realism, but the further you go back in time, the bigger had been the problems to depict a realistic table at all. Pinball Dreams for the Amiga might have been state of the art during the era for instance, but how much reason is there to revisit this game today? I might simultaneously have been playing Revenge of the Gator on my Gameboy back in the day, because it was my option for a Pinball video game on the then recent mobile device and we could take from this that these games rather function as a status quo.
Some of you might already remember I was rarely playing Mega Drive games in the nineties, because most of us had taken the Amiga to SNES route, so you might anticipate with the question why on earth would I enjoy a game like Codemasters' Psycho Pinball that much in retrospect then?
The answer in short is: Because they've gotten something right.
I was just recently playing the Pokemon Pinball games and that Disney's The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy to reassure me enough in saying a good Pinball video game was created under the awareness it is not a real table. So what does that mean?
Well, I found Psycho Pinball, when I was looking for alternatives to Sonic Spinball, that had disappointed me with its gameplay/physics, even though I liked the idea. I could later find out that an almost similar concept with better execution would convince me in the form of Yoku's Island Express. But a couple of years ago, I was specifically researching hidden gems I might have missed due to my ignorance of Sega during the console war, when there also had been monetary reasons to focus on one platform only.
It seems Codemasters' Psycho Pinball had been a UK or European exclusive anyway, so a huge part of you readers might possibly have missed it too, back then. Codemasters had been known for their Dizzy games and Micro Machines already. They would then later move on to create the TOCA and Colin McRae Rally games, some of my absolute favorite racers on the Sony Playstation. They had actually published Advanced Pinball Simulator in 1988, so maybe another Pinball wasn't exotic in their roster, but let me assure you it's no comparison at all.
Knowing Pinball Dreams the selection of four tables in Psycho Pinball isn't much of a surprise. There's a horror, a western and an underwater theme, all three well thought through tables fun to play on their own, but mostly as training for the fourth, Psycho, that is a complete table, but will have portals to the other ones. Until now, I've probably played hundreds of hours on Psycho, quite a lot at first, but I wheel this game out every other month for years now.
Psycho Pinball for me has just the right amount of craziness on a more or less traditional Pinball layout, because it doesn't try to add too much, like for instance the aforementioned Pokemon Pinball, that's rather limited on the Pinball, so it tries to keep you occupied on the catching and developing of Pokemon, which is a nice touch, but something I'd rather pick up a Pokemon game for and not a Pinball game.
On the contrary, Psycho Pinball has got enough Pinball mechanics to explore the triggering of events on each table. And it totally has the physics for that, which is essential. As a Pinball wizard, you neither need a perfect body nor a perfect soul, but if one thing, you wanna have control. Tilting is a helpful option, but it even feels right to save the ball with the outermost tip of your flipper.
Whilst the scrolling is quite a decent emulation of your view following the ball, there sure is a learning curve from chaotic attempts of keeping the ball in play to increasing highscore chances intentionally. Complemented by minigames on the old school screen or inserts of simple platformer mazes there's enough variability to make the hunt for a score of at least 100000000 most enjoyable.
Psycho Pinball is also fast enough, which is a huge problem with a lot of Pinball video games in general. Often enough the scrolling, if there even is some, isn't smooth enough and the ball just doesn't behave right. In Psycho Pinball even launching the ball feels like you're actually pulling back a spring mechanism and every curve or bounce feels like it should be that way.
I'm avoiding the word authentic, because within the limitations of a Mega Drive Psycho Pinball does a great job at creating an illusion, but there's at least the cost of graphical brilliance. The squeaky score is something not everybody can handle, but I actually think it's quite appropriate thinking of it as an overdriven speaker at a noisy arcade. The graphics appear rather pragmatic, probably aware that too many fancy details would rather slow down the processor, but it is actually the speed and dedication to playability that makes you forget about that swiftly.
In fact, the clear design adds to the orientation during fast bounces and aiming for the Jackpot, emphasized by increased tension of the soundtrack when you've completed the letters for "Psycho", probably works best the way it is. Psycho Pinball even today is addictive and just playing it again, I didn't even realize an hour had passed instantly.
Aiming for the preset highscores is doable by the way, but will need some warming up, because Psycho Pinball doesn't throw points at you for nothing. I remember having played once on an ancient Pinball cabinet my then girlfriend's father owned and on that you hardly scored more than a few thousand.
With more complicated targets an upscaling in numbers makes sense, but scoring almost 3 billion for instance on my first play of the mentioned Little Mermaid Pinball for Gameboy Color was just as ridiculous as that one time I left credits in the Star Trek TNG cabinet, because I didn't manage to lose within the twenty or so minutes we waited for our takeaway food. Just like the person who had left some balls for me to pick up on. They probably didn't make much money with the cabinet at that diner.
That's just one of the many things Psycho Pinball does right, I guess. Scoring the first ten million as a beginner seems like a hard task, but the more you learn the mechanics, the better you get at combining events, increasing your bonus and scoring at mini games. It's sheer pleasurable excitement realizing to be in the zone to beat the next highscore and if there's one thing missing, it's a battery in the cartridge to actually save your success.
But that's not a very bitter pill to swallow in trade for the awesome game Psycho Pinball is. I can understand if you're not much into this kind of gaming or you're more after the state of the art simulation, that this isn't the game for you. But if you're interested in good Pinball games check it out. Especially for the Mega Drive, and I've been playing pretty much any Pinball there is for the console, it is as good as it gets.
It's possible more recent computers are capable of an almost perfect recapture, but there's a reason even today enthusiasts are restoring Pinball cabinets and some of them are making them accessible through clubs and museums to work their charme as an attraction. In fact, just a few hours ago, in preparation of my next big arcade trip in May, I stumbled over the featurette for a new Pulp Fiction machine and looking at the details made me realize the fascination for physically moving parts again.
Creating a Pinball video game can't provide that amongst all the realism, but the further you go back in time, the bigger had been the problems to depict a realistic table at all. Pinball Dreams for the Amiga might have been state of the art during the era for instance, but how much reason is there to revisit this game today? I might simultaneously have been playing Revenge of the Gator on my Gameboy back in the day, because it was my option for a Pinball video game on the then recent mobile device and we could take from this that these games rather function as a status quo.
Some of you might already remember I was rarely playing Mega Drive games in the nineties, because most of us had taken the Amiga to SNES route, so you might anticipate with the question why on earth would I enjoy a game like Codemasters' Psycho Pinball that much in retrospect then?
The answer in short is: Because they've gotten something right.
I was just recently playing the Pokemon Pinball games and that Disney's The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy to reassure me enough in saying a good Pinball video game was created under the awareness it is not a real table. So what does that mean?
Well, I found Psycho Pinball, when I was looking for alternatives to Sonic Spinball, that had disappointed me with its gameplay/physics, even though I liked the idea. I could later find out that an almost similar concept with better execution would convince me in the form of Yoku's Island Express. But a couple of years ago, I was specifically researching hidden gems I might have missed due to my ignorance of Sega during the console war, when there also had been monetary reasons to focus on one platform only.
It seems Codemasters' Psycho Pinball had been a UK or European exclusive anyway, so a huge part of you readers might possibly have missed it too, back then. Codemasters had been known for their Dizzy games and Micro Machines already. They would then later move on to create the TOCA and Colin McRae Rally games, some of my absolute favorite racers on the Sony Playstation. They had actually published Advanced Pinball Simulator in 1988, so maybe another Pinball wasn't exotic in their roster, but let me assure you it's no comparison at all.
Knowing Pinball Dreams the selection of four tables in Psycho Pinball isn't much of a surprise. There's a horror, a western and an underwater theme, all three well thought through tables fun to play on their own, but mostly as training for the fourth, Psycho, that is a complete table, but will have portals to the other ones. Until now, I've probably played hundreds of hours on Psycho, quite a lot at first, but I wheel this game out every other month for years now.
Psycho Pinball for me has just the right amount of craziness on a more or less traditional Pinball layout, because it doesn't try to add too much, like for instance the aforementioned Pokemon Pinball, that's rather limited on the Pinball, so it tries to keep you occupied on the catching and developing of Pokemon, which is a nice touch, but something I'd rather pick up a Pokemon game for and not a Pinball game.
On the contrary, Psycho Pinball has got enough Pinball mechanics to explore the triggering of events on each table. And it totally has the physics for that, which is essential. As a Pinball wizard, you neither need a perfect body nor a perfect soul, but if one thing, you wanna have control. Tilting is a helpful option, but it even feels right to save the ball with the outermost tip of your flipper.
Whilst the scrolling is quite a decent emulation of your view following the ball, there sure is a learning curve from chaotic attempts of keeping the ball in play to increasing highscore chances intentionally. Complemented by minigames on the old school screen or inserts of simple platformer mazes there's enough variability to make the hunt for a score of at least 100000000 most enjoyable.
Psycho Pinball is also fast enough, which is a huge problem with a lot of Pinball video games in general. Often enough the scrolling, if there even is some, isn't smooth enough and the ball just doesn't behave right. In Psycho Pinball even launching the ball feels like you're actually pulling back a spring mechanism and every curve or bounce feels like it should be that way.
I'm avoiding the word authentic, because within the limitations of a Mega Drive Psycho Pinball does a great job at creating an illusion, but there's at least the cost of graphical brilliance. The squeaky score is something not everybody can handle, but I actually think it's quite appropriate thinking of it as an overdriven speaker at a noisy arcade. The graphics appear rather pragmatic, probably aware that too many fancy details would rather slow down the processor, but it is actually the speed and dedication to playability that makes you forget about that swiftly.
In fact, the clear design adds to the orientation during fast bounces and aiming for the Jackpot, emphasized by increased tension of the soundtrack when you've completed the letters for "Psycho", probably works best the way it is. Psycho Pinball even today is addictive and just playing it again, I didn't even realize an hour had passed instantly.
Aiming for the preset highscores is doable by the way, but will need some warming up, because Psycho Pinball doesn't throw points at you for nothing. I remember having played once on an ancient Pinball cabinet my then girlfriend's father owned and on that you hardly scored more than a few thousand.
With more complicated targets an upscaling in numbers makes sense, but scoring almost 3 billion for instance on my first play of the mentioned Little Mermaid Pinball for Gameboy Color was just as ridiculous as that one time I left credits in the Star Trek TNG cabinet, because I didn't manage to lose within the twenty or so minutes we waited for our takeaway food. Just like the person who had left some balls for me to pick up on. They probably didn't make much money with the cabinet at that diner.
That's just one of the many things Psycho Pinball does right, I guess. Scoring the first ten million as a beginner seems like a hard task, but the more you learn the mechanics, the better you get at combining events, increasing your bonus and scoring at mini games. It's sheer pleasurable excitement realizing to be in the zone to beat the next highscore and if there's one thing missing, it's a battery in the cartridge to actually save your success.
But that's not a very bitter pill to swallow in trade for the awesome game Psycho Pinball is. I can understand if you're not much into this kind of gaming or you're more after the state of the art simulation, that this isn't the game for you. But if you're interested in good Pinball games check it out. Especially for the Mega Drive, and I've been playing pretty much any Pinball there is for the console, it is as good as it gets.