First we have our superstar: Pinball. (The name hints at a pinball-monotheism: there is only one pinball. I agree with the developer: there is only one pinball of such a bad quality). This time they hired some professional designer to draw the tables.
There are 10 of them! Unfortunately adding uninteresting playfields only multiplies the user's annoyance.
I have an acid test for pinball table designers. Suppose you are back in the golden era of electro-mechanical pinballs, let's say the 60s. Would you invest your own money into building a real pinball machine based on your table design? (If not, then why are you inflicting your contraptions on us). How many such machines would you hope to sell? In the case of Pinball! (I am adding an exclamation point just to make clear I am talking about this specific, ridiculously-named, one) the number would have been something between 0 and zero. (And I should point out here that we haven't said anything about physics: in a real machine physics is taking care of itself. Unfortunately, this is a wholly different story in simulations).
Two more pinball by Nuclear Nova, Pinball Massacre
and Pinball Shuffle
belong to the same category: bad physics and uninteresting play.
Finally there is another pinball which is special in the sense that it is not available outside the U.S. (Why? Does the developers fear european-taste-based harsh critiques?). It is called Pinball Yeah! (I did not add the exclamation point this time: it was there from the outset) and it comes with four tables, A.I., Pirate Cove, Liquid Bread, Classic
The developers claim "real world physics" and "real 3D simulation". I beg to differ.
Some pinballs are not bad: you can play them if there is nothing better, otherwise you forget about them. Take for instance Dino madness.
It's kind of a cute game with so-so physics.
Pinball City NY is better.
I do like the black&white table which manages to convey some special atmosphere, although the perspective is, somehow, bothering me. I would have given it a honourable mention were it not for there next "city" pinball, Paris, which came out on iOS and which is really lousy. I know I am being unfair but I cannot help it.
Zen pinball is a five table game, Sorcerer's Lair, Marvel's, World War, Fear itself, Infinity Gauntlet,
I must admit that I played only the first, freeware, game. From what I saw I was not ready to spend money on tables I would most probably not like. Zen pinball, for me, is a game, not a pinball simulation. The tables are overburdened with graphics. During the game you have plenty of things moving, which distracts you from the game itself. Thus, although not totally devoid of interest, this game is not worth a honourable mention.
Gameprom, an Unkraine-based company, started producing pinballs for iOS before graduating to the Mac. In fact they did so first by proposing a remote controller application for the iPhone which made possible to control the flippers of a pinball running on the Mac. Shortly afterwards they introduced the first three pinballs which run on the Mac, controlled by the keyboard. Still I find the idea of a remote controller really excellent and it's a pity that Gameprom did not find imitators.
Their pinballs are quite nice simulations with realistic physics. The first bunch of three tables, Wild West, The Deep and Jungle Style
were of increasing intricacy in that order. Still they retained their playability and interest. However the tendency to more and more graphically weighty tables was confirmed in the following tables of the series. In particular the Slayer table
is borderline, esthetically-wise, (to say nothing of the accompanying music) while the three tables of War Pinball, Platoon, Navy Seals and Missing in Action,
although much nicer, make for less playable simulations. Unfortunately this tendency is present in the iOS pinballs as well as we shall see later. Still, the Gameprom pinballs are, together with those of Littlewing and Farsight, the only ones I could recommend for the Mac.
