GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
GALACTIC PINBALL
(Nintendo, August 14, 1995)
A Virtual Boy wins the Game of the Month?! "It's true!" OK, we all know the Nintendo Virtual Boy was one of the worst video game systems of all time, I still had to give this underrated game the heads up. Why? With its 4 different gaming tables, great use of the 3D engine, and responsive controls I really got addicted to this weird pinball game fast. "It's not everyday that somebody says that somebody gets addictive to a VB game, eh?" Nintendo's Galactic Pinball is my favourite VB game and Pinball video game of all time and I am going to tell you why.
Galactic Pinball acts just like a traditional pinball even though the usual sliver ball as been replaced by a Puck......... heh, heh, you get five pucks and if you lose them all then it's game over, simple has that. There are four unique pinball tables you get to pick from, they are Cosmic, Colony, UFO, and Alien, each table has its own set of targets and bonuses you need to master.
This is the Cosmic stage! The level also has the mini Metroid game.
The first table is called Cosmic and it's a three flipper board with planets and panels for targets. If you're good enough you'll even see a mini shooting game featuring Samus and her star ship from Super Metroid and you'll even heard theme music from the acclaimed Super Nintendo game too. This table is more similar to those classic pinball tables as well.
The second table is Colony, my least favourite of the bunch because the scoring too slow because you have to hit several targets multiple times to get anywhere and the Jackpot in this level is only 6 Million, the lowest amount. Colony also has an annoying thing where the action comes to a stop because you have to shoot down asteroids in an easy mini game. This is a good stage to learn the controls though.
The UFO table has got to be the fastest paced table on the cart but it's also maybe the easiest board to die in if you're not careful. It's possible to rack up huge bonuses in a short time here especially if you get the giant skull to arrive. It's only a two flipper table but there are tons of bonus targets to rack up some points or some extra protection too.
Finally there is Alien, an awesome four flipper table with maybe the most targets available. You can even summon 4 different aliens to hit your puck with, each one as a different set of bonuses. This one is my favourite because the aliens make a noise with each shot and it's the highest scoring table on the board with a Jackpot bonus of 10 Million if you're good enough of course.
I had no problems with the controls in Galactic Pinball. You have all the usual pinball functions like the ability to tilt the tables from multiply directions and you can use several buttons for each side of the flippers so find your right set up that can suit almost any player. Even the controls of the different mini games like the Metroid shooting level are easy to learn and the game still plays great.
The graphics are perfect for the virtual boy because you always get a complete view of the board you're playing on so it's still possible to clearly see everything that's going on. The 3D graphics work well here too as you'll see several crazy things like stars and rings zooming in up close to show off those powers of the Virtual Boy. The music sounded good enough but it's still little a muffled at times. Each stage has different background music and sometimes there is even some voice samples as well although they are very scratchy. The Alien table sounds just like a jazzy type of R Type's (first level) music which is my opinion anyway.
If the good graphics and sound effects weren't enough but there is also a save feature built in to record high scores for better replay value and the controls are right on too. I still recommend you take a break after a few minutes of playing as does Nintendo but I could still play the game for hours on end. 4 tables, mini games, tons of bonuses as well. Galactic Pinball is the best video pinball game I've ever played. Go ahead and puck off!
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Conclusion: |
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*Battery
back up game |
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