Customer Reviews

Hardcore Pinball

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love my Gameboy. That said, I also realize that the system does few things well. One of things Gameboy does well is pinball. And "Hardcore Pinball" is one of the best pinball games available for this system. Four tables are included. All tables scroll, which is annoying, but there really is no other way to do it on such a small screen. Table layouts are good, but not excellent, with a bit too much focus on ramp shots for my old-school tastes. Ball physics however, are excellent, and the tables are nice to look at and fun to play. A nice effort from the developers, but I'm still waiting for the ultimate version of pinball to be done for this system. Other notable Gameboy pinballs worth having are: "Pinball Of The Dead" (for GBA), which also gets 4 stars from me, and "Kirby's Adventure In Pinball Land" (released long ago for the original Gameboy)which gets 4 and a half. The latter game is hard to find, but well worth it. It's kid-oriented, but extremely fun for all ages, with great variety of gameplay, great sounds, and great physics.

I'm a pretty huge fan of pinball, both of real tables and virtual ones, and I own every pinball title released for the GBA thus far except for Muppet Battle (Sonic Pinball Party, Pinball of the Dead, Pokemon Pinball, and this one). This game is definitely the worst of all of them. If you're looking for anything remotely similar to a real-world experience, do not look here. All four of the included tables are incredibly sparse, consisting of just a couple of bumbers and a ramp or two. The flipper action is horrible, so that instead of a quick snap when you hit a button, there is a long delay before it reaches full extension. This makes it very difficult to get the ball anywhere accurately. The entire game has a very basic, low-budget feel to it that is even more pronounced by the simple-looking boxcover and what is probably the shortest instruction manual ever written (literally 4 tiny pages long).

If you want a great pinball experience at home, your best bet by far is to seek out Empire Interactive's superlative Pro Pinball games for the PC (Timeshock, Big Race USA, Fantastic Journey, and The Web), which are all available in a single compilation called Gamefest Pinball Classics. Otherwise, both Sonic Pinball Party (sold only at Target stores) and Pokemon Pinball are solid GBA games if you want to go that route.

The most realistic pinball released for the Game Boy Advance up to now. I really like the different tables and it plays just like an arcade version.

Hardcore Pinball gets 4 stars for a catchy sound track. Having to renavigate through the main game menu everytime you end a game is frustrating. The options were sparse. The ball physics are hard to learn as well.
I recommend, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

I was looking for good pinball and found it here. You have 4 different themed tables from which to choose, and all of them actually play differently--the physics are different; they're not just changing around the graphics. On some, the ball bounces higher (less gravity), the flippers move at slightly different speeds...you get a unique experience at each table.

I would have liked to have seen a few more scoring options other than the ramps--they could have been a bit more creative in that area, but it's still great fun.

If you're a pinball fan, you'll love it.

THis game is terrible- its graphics are horrible and it is defiantly to bad of a game