![]() There are still some niggles that I hope Fairlight Studios will sort out in due course. I opted for the motion tilt controls otherwise you have to take one hand off the flipper to move the table by swiping the top half of the screen - at the every moment you may want a flipper raised for that all important ball contact. This physicality is underlined by the use of the iPad's touch screen or motion functions to tilt the table and save balls from draining to each out lane. The different materials on the tables each feel as if they are modelled accurately, something that is helped by a wide range of "contact" sounds. The games physics are good and feel like they handle not only the path and weight of the ball but also its spin. Pinball Arcade has hooked perfectly into my pinball obsession in the same way the Adams Family did when I used to play it daily at University. This has meant that I've started to learn much more about this table than in other videogames. the things you do to score points) as well as some history of the table itself. This commitment is helped by in depth details of the machines "rules" (i.e. ![]() Rather than my usual flighty-ness when it comes to video-pinball I've been concentrating on just one table: the Theater of Magic. ![]() The biggest testament to all this is that I have fallen in love with a new table. Flippers are triggered by touching anywhere on the lower half of the screen and the whole thing feels robust and well thought through. A couple of taps lets you select the camera angle that works best for you, along with whether it is static or following the ball. ![]() Playing with the iPad held in landscape orientation (something I discovered that you have to do before the game starts) Pinball Arcade and the device's big screen are a perfect match. I had played the Gottlieb collection on the Wii and not managed to stick with it for long, but with the low entry price on the iPad I gave it another go. So far Pinball Arcade has launched on Android, iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad with versions promised for all the other major gaming platforms (360, PS3, Vita, 3DS and so on). Like those collections, Pinball Arcade emulates real tables but here you only have to buy the tables you want to play. I was ready to hang up my video-pinballing gloves until recently when I came across Pinball Arcade, from the makers of the also noteworthy Williams and Gottlieb Pinball Collections. Not only that but it offered a great use of the touch screen to emulate a tilting mechanic. This provided only one table that had obviously had a considerable amount of thought and planning put into it. The closest I'm come to matching that experience is with the DSi-ware download game Pulse Pinball Rise of the Ancients. Don't get me wrong I've really enjoyed Zen pinball (and Pinball Dreams/Fantasies back on my Amiga in the 90s) but not with the same enthusiasm as the real thing. This has meant that I am usually pretty critical of video-pinball games. Many of the classic tables come out of a time when pinball was booming and justified even more time and effort. Because these machines are expensive to build they justify much more investment, planning and fine tuning than you get in a table designed electronically. Secondly, you have the table designs themselves. Influencing the path of the ball without triggering the Tilt sensor is an essential part of the enjoyment and skill of the game. When it does two things are usually missed, how important it's physicality and table design are.įirstly, being able to jog and move a table in the real world makes playing pinball about more than just reactions and flipper timing. Pinball doesn't usually translate well to a videogame. Pinball Arcade modularises video-pinball, but it's the focus on real tables, solid physics and iPad's big screen that is most exciting for silver ball fans.
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