-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Title: Pokemon Pinball
Platform: Gameboy Color
Developer: Jupiter
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Pinball Game
Age Rating: ELSPA: 3+ (Europe), ESRB: E for Everyone
Release Date: 14th April 1999 (Japan), 28th June 1999 (North America), 13th July 1999 (Australia), 6th October 2000 (Europe)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Score: 7.1/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summery:
Pokemon Pinball is fun and enjoyable spinoff to catch em all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pokemon Pinball on the Gameboy Color is unique in a way that it is a Pinball game with the Pokemon license. You start the game by choosing either Red or Blue tables and your goal is too keep the ball in the game whilst making the ball hit various objects to earn the highest score possible.
You control the flippers with the A Button and Left on the D-Pad which is fine, pressing B or up on the D-Pad tilts. You'll need to hit to use the flippers to keep the ball up and make sure it doesn't hit the bottom or else you lose a life, lose all 3 Lifes and the game is over. You do get a 30 second Ball Saver upon starting which should the ball fall gives you another chance.
If you can get the Pokeball to enter a Pokemon's mouth it starts a Pokemon capture segment where you need to hit the balls to be able to reveal what Pokemon it is before you can then hit that Pokemon 4 times so that you can catch it. It then gets added to your Pokedex which saves progress once the game ends. You have 2 minutes to try and catch the Pokemon and you do get the Ball Saver for about a minute.
You can also evolve the Pokemon you caught in your current by entering the mouth of the Pokemon on the left side of the Pinball Table to start it. What you do is that you need to collect 3 Ex Items that are around the table then enter the slot hole that appears. It's the exact same rules as to catching a Pokemon.
You'll occasionally will get on opportunity to enter a bonus hole which will offer you bonuses such as small points or the Pikachu to constantly flip from left to right to catch the ball easily if it falls on it. Pikchu does retain it's sound bytes from Pokemon Yellow which is cool. Sometimes you'll even get to a bonus stage like one where you got to hit Meowth to make him drop charms for points and one involving Ghost Type Pokemon.
Both of the tables have different layouts and each time you start you get to start in a selected area that's familiar to fans. You can switch to a new location but that's on a rare occasion. A slot will appear for 30 seconds and you have to try and wait for the slot to open and get the ball in it.
For the most part the game is simple yet addictive but however some corks stick out. First up the screen shifts between top and bottom where the ball goes instead of having a scrolling vertical screen which can be a bit off but the real complaint comes from the actual physics.
The game uses the Rumble Feature in which the game vibrates as you hit stuff in the game. All it takes a single AAA battery.
For the most part the physics work just fine but however there are times that the flippers go through the ball, the ball sometimes goes wherever it wants and you'll be ending up getting the ball down the bottom easily. Sometimes you'll end up getting the same Pokemon that you already caught over and over again so you have to be able to last longer to be able to catch any Pokemon you haven't caught yet.
Dispute those small issues Pokemon Pinball is an enjoyable game once you get a grasp of the gameplay mechanics. The Red and Blue Pinball tables are actually pretty good and the game does take advantage of the Game Boy Color abilities. The game allows Game Boy Printer if you wish to print images of the Pokemon you've caught and the game is playable on a standard Game Boy console as well. Pokemon fanatics will find plenty of ways to be able to catch all the Pokemon in the world of Pinball and it doesn't seem to be a bad idea to include this on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console if possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Good Points:
---------------------
1. You get to catch over 150 different types of Pokemon Pinball style
2. Pikachu's sound bytes are included
3. Pretty good looking Pinball Tables
The Bad Points:
---------------------
1. Pinball physics are off in a few spots
2. You end up catching the same Pokemon you already caught
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------