Got this from Tronix this morning, and played it for a couple of hours now (it was supposed to be a quick go before getting something to eat, but it's somehow turned into two hours, which is probably a good sign).
I'd pretty much ignored this game until I saw a video last week, on the basis that it was a) obviously going to be a crap cash-in and b) a Metroid game on the DS that isn't Metroid Prime Hunters. I'm glad I gave it a chance, though, because on first impressions it seems to be really very good indeed.
The game has been made by Fuse, a company founded by two of the developers of the Pro Pinball series, and the influence of those games is apparent in Metroid Pinball. The tables are all done with static prerendered graphics (no scrolling or anything like that), and they have a nice solid feel to them. Unlike Pro Pinball, however, they have allowed features that would be impossible on a real table, such as morph ball bombs, enemies, wall jumping, pickups and various other Metroid-based things. The physics seems solid, and everything is nice and smooth, even in multiball mode.
Getting a good viewing angle for the table is often a problem in pinball games, as TVs are pretty much the wrong shape for a pinball table, but the DS's screens work really very well. The game treats them essentially as a single vertical display, allowing a good view of playfield. The gap between the screens isn't the problem I thought it might be, and is treated as a bit of the table you can't see (the ball disappears for a bit as it crosses from one screen to the other). Having the ball out-of-view is a bit odd, but it means that all the angles work correctly when you're aiming for things on the top screen. The touch screen is used for nudging the table, which is quite a good idea, but I find the screen isn't very sensitive when using my thumb, so it can be slightly awkward. I suppose you could use the thumb strap thing, but you also need to use the buttons for dropping bombs and firing missiles.
Metroid Prime Pinball is based on the first Metroid Prime game, and all the stages (at least all the ones I've seen) are themed around areas from the game. Initially, you get two tables: The Pirate Frigate and Tallon Overworld, and through playing the mission mode, you can unlock more. I think there are six tables in total, but I've only got four so far, two of which are boss tables which have a Metroid Prime boss for you to to kill. They've done a great job of capturing the atmosphere of Metroid Prime. It looks and sounds great, and the presentation is all very slick. The music is especially good for a cartridge-based game, sounding just about as good as the Gamecube title. The only real complaint is that the bosses are perhaps a bit lacking in frames of animation, but given that they're prerendered, it's understandable. There are some nice graphical touches, though, such as the rain in the Tallon level, and the shockwaves that ripple through the screen from the Omega Pirate.
The game comes packaged with the new DS Rumble Pak, and I'm not entirely sure what to think of it so far. First off, it is quite loud. If you're playing at home with the volume up, it's not too bad, but you probably wouldn't want to use it anywhere quiet, or out and about. It's noisy enough that they mentioned it in the manual, anyway. It does seem to work fairly well other than that, though, especially given its size (it's all inside a GBA cart, with no extra sticking-out bits like you got on older Gameboy rumble carts). It's no Xbox pad rumble, but you can feel the ball bouncing around and knocking into things. It never really rumbles as such; it's more like somebody banging on the DS, but I don't know if this is the game or the Pak itself. Hopefully there will be more games that support it soon.
Anyway, I'm really pleased with the game so far. There's not much in the way of game modes, and long-term, it's going to be very much a score-based game, but that's true of most pinball games and is pretty much what I expected. There's hopefully going to be a score code submission feature added to the official web site soon, which will give something to aim for. I'm not sure if the different tables are really all that different from each other, as they seem to share quite a lot of features, but they do seem well-designed and I'm sure there will be plenty to learn in order to get decent high scores.
I'd pretty much ignored this game until I saw a video last week, on the basis that it was a) obviously going to be a crap cash-in and b) a Metroid game on the DS that isn't Metroid Prime Hunters. I'm glad I gave it a chance, though, because on first impressions it seems to be really very good indeed.
The game has been made by Fuse, a company founded by two of the developers of the Pro Pinball series, and the influence of those games is apparent in Metroid Pinball. The tables are all done with static prerendered graphics (no scrolling or anything like that), and they have a nice solid feel to them. Unlike Pro Pinball, however, they have allowed features that would be impossible on a real table, such as morph ball bombs, enemies, wall jumping, pickups and various other Metroid-based things. The physics seems solid, and everything is nice and smooth, even in multiball mode.
Getting a good viewing angle for the table is often a problem in pinball games, as TVs are pretty much the wrong shape for a pinball table, but the DS's screens work really very well. The game treats them essentially as a single vertical display, allowing a good view of playfield. The gap between the screens isn't the problem I thought it might be, and is treated as a bit of the table you can't see (the ball disappears for a bit as it crosses from one screen to the other). Having the ball out-of-view is a bit odd, but it means that all the angles work correctly when you're aiming for things on the top screen. The touch screen is used for nudging the table, which is quite a good idea, but I find the screen isn't very sensitive when using my thumb, so it can be slightly awkward. I suppose you could use the thumb strap thing, but you also need to use the buttons for dropping bombs and firing missiles.
Metroid Prime Pinball is based on the first Metroid Prime game, and all the stages (at least all the ones I've seen) are themed around areas from the game. Initially, you get two tables: The Pirate Frigate and Tallon Overworld, and through playing the mission mode, you can unlock more. I think there are six tables in total, but I've only got four so far, two of which are boss tables which have a Metroid Prime boss for you to to kill. They've done a great job of capturing the atmosphere of Metroid Prime. It looks and sounds great, and the presentation is all very slick. The music is especially good for a cartridge-based game, sounding just about as good as the Gamecube title. The only real complaint is that the bosses are perhaps a bit lacking in frames of animation, but given that they're prerendered, it's understandable. There are some nice graphical touches, though, such as the rain in the Tallon level, and the shockwaves that ripple through the screen from the Omega Pirate.
The game comes packaged with the new DS Rumble Pak, and I'm not entirely sure what to think of it so far. First off, it is quite loud. If you're playing at home with the volume up, it's not too bad, but you probably wouldn't want to use it anywhere quiet, or out and about. It's noisy enough that they mentioned it in the manual, anyway. It does seem to work fairly well other than that, though, especially given its size (it's all inside a GBA cart, with no extra sticking-out bits like you got on older Gameboy rumble carts). It's no Xbox pad rumble, but you can feel the ball bouncing around and knocking into things. It never really rumbles as such; it's more like somebody banging on the DS, but I don't know if this is the game or the Pak itself. Hopefully there will be more games that support it soon.
Anyway, I'm really pleased with the game so far. There's not much in the way of game modes, and long-term, it's going to be very much a score-based game, but that's true of most pinball games and is pretty much what I expected. There's hopefully going to be a score code submission feature added to the official web site soon, which will give something to aim for. I'm not sure if the different tables are really all that different from each other, as they seem to share quite a lot of features, but they do seem well-designed and I'm sure there will be plenty to learn in order to get decent high scores.
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