Video Pinball

[Rurouni_Fencer]

So I've been on a bit of a pinball kick lately and was wondering what everybody's favorite video pinball games might be? And while I'll be the first to admit nothing touches the feel of a nice, solid, and REAL machine, Zen's Pinball FX2 does a pretty fine job of staying true to the feel of playin' the silver ball! Since I downloaded the update a couple weeks ago, my love for pinball has been rekindled, (and feels great in between sessions of Fable III and studying for my CompTIA exams.)
Between Pinball games and Shmups, I guess I'm just getting nostalgic for the days of old when getting a high score was still competitive and meant something!

My current Top Five Video Pinball Games (In no particular order):

1) Devil's Crush/Crash (TG16/PCE)


2) Kirby's Pinball Land (Gameboy)


3) Pinball FX/2 (PSN or XBLA)


4) Alien Crush Returns (WiiWare)


5) Mario Pinball Land (Gameboy Advance)

[J T]

Devil's Crush was so cool back in the day.

If you haven't played them before, you really need to try the Pro Pinball series on PC, starting with Big Race U.S.A. They are some of the best video pinball games I have played.

[Breetai]

1) Devil's Crush/Crash (TG16/PCE)

1000% YES!!!! Not only is this the best video pinball game, it is one of the best twitch-style games PERIOD. It is available on both the Wii Virtual Console and on the PS3/PSP via PSN, so there is really not much excuse not to own it. I actually play this game a few times a month, and have for a long time. I've enjoyed it since 1990. I can still remember some of the captions (sort of) under the pictures in the Gamepro review of it from two decades ago. I think it was from issue 11 or 12. Something like that.

I much prefer the original Alien Crush to Alien Crush Returns, as well. It just didn't seem to retain the feel of the original.

[Bikeage]

The Williams Pinball Hall of Fame for the Wii is great. Playing with the Wiimote and Nunchuck controller feels really intuitve, about as close as video pinball has come to the real thing. Being a budget title, it's a must have for Wii owning pinball fans.

The similarly named Gottlieb collection, which I have for the PS2 and Wii is not as good. Especially the PS2 game, the nudge feature is broken. Assigned to the right analog stick, the slightest touch causes a tilt. It's practically unusable, taking some of the fun out of it.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

The second I saw that the Wii released Devil's Crush, I jumped on it, and I've been pretty much playing it regularly ever since! For a game with only one table, (not counting mini-rounds,) and only one BGM track, I can't believe I haven't gotten sick of the repetition yet - It's that awesome!

The Williams Pinball Hall of Fame for the Wii is great. Playing with the Wiimote and Nunchuck controller feels really intuitve, about as close as video pinball has come to the real thing. Being a budget title, it's a must have for Wii owning pinball fans.

The similarly named Gottlieb collection, which I have for the PS2 and Wii is not as good. Especially the PS2 game, the nudge feature is broken. Assigned to the right analog stick, the slightest touch causes a tilt. It's practically unusable, taking some of the fun out of it.

Good to know - I found out about the XB360 version of the Williams' collection the other day and I'm stalking it on eBay right now, actually! I might also pick up the Gottlieb collection for my PS2 anyway, for reason of 'just-to-have-it'. Would it be in my better interest to go for the Wii version instead?

[Anapan]

My favorite is the Android table on Epic Pinball for dos.
I also had a lot of fun designing tables on Virtual Pinball for Sega Genesis.
The most impressive recreations of real machines I've seen were built on Visual Pinball for Windows
http://www.randydavis.com/vp/intro.htm
http://www.gethome.no/jpsalas/

[Golgo 14]

Pinball Fantasies for the Atari Jaguar is surprisingly good and one of the better Jaguar games. It has four tables with the haunted house themed Stones N' Bones being the best and perfect for a little Halloween gaming.

[Hobie-wan]

I'm just gonna blab about the pinball games I have in no particular order.

I like all of the 16 bit 'Crush' pinball games. I do wish that Alien Crush scrolled instead of flipping, but it's still great stuff. Jaki Crush is criminally unknown. Dragon's Revenge was made by Tengen to try and mimic Dragon's Fury (Devil's Crush) that they brought over. It isn't as good as the crush games, but it is still fun and can at least provide a different table to play every now and then.

Balls of Steel on the PC is a good set of 5 tables. I thought the Duke table would be too gimmicky, but it is good stuff.

Pinball of the Dead and Metroid Prime Pinball are great portables.

Super Pinball Behind the Mask on SNES seems to have decent opinions out there, but I haven't been able to get into like the Crush games. It is just missing a fun factor for me.

Kyuutenkai: Fantastic Pinball is to pinball as Parodius is to Gradius. Good stuff for a lighthearted mood.

Pro Pinball and PP Fantastic Journey have yet to grow on me for whatever reason.

Pinball Hall of Fame Williams Collection on PS2 and PS3 are really great. With the right size TV it is almost like you're really standing in front of the machines. The Gottlieb collection that came before it is nearly up to the same quality, I just don't care for the tables as they're of the older styles where you're lucky if you keep a ball in play for more than 5 seconds. I have my Xbox copy up for grabs if anyone is interested.

My copy of Pinball Construction Set on C64 got a ton of play, both actual games, and meticulously creating terrible tables.

I never owned a real copy, but I played a lot of Night Mission Pinball as well.

[Ivo]

Pinball Fantasies (I played on the Amiga CD32) is actually rather good. Other Pinball games by the same devs (Pinball Dreams, Pinball Illusions) are also good. Very good music as well.

I played some of the PC pinball games like Epic pinball. Many of them are rather decent - including the space-themed one that comes bundled with Windows - but I don't remember playing any as good as Fantasies (which also has a PC and GBA port).

GBA Pinball games
I'm not a fan of Pinball of the Dead on GBA. The concept is good but the ball physics or the table design don't appeal to me - if you don't get the sidelanes kickbacks you are completely screwed, I don't like that. On the flipside, Pokemon Pinball (the GBA one, Sapphire & Ruby) I really liked (although it is on the easy side).

Metroid Prime Pinball on the DS is rather good, and nicer even if you have rumble. It is not nearly as easy as Pokemon Pinball but I can relate with the physics in it, it has good table design and does stuff that you can't do on real Pinball tables.

Ivo.

[noiseredux]

Pinball (NES) is a long-time favorite of mine. It's so simple, but I love it.

Kirby's Pinball Land (GB) is great, as is Revenge Of The Gator (GB) -- both by Hal Labs, both built on the same engine. If you like one you'll like the other.

I also enjoy the hell out of Pinball Of The Dead (GBA). I think it's a great concept, and the music is great and there's a lot of blood.