First 50:
51. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)(FPS)
52. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC)(FPS)53. 9:05 (PC)(Text Adventure)54. Mercenary Kings (PC)(Run and Gun)55. Super Pinball: Behind the Mask (SNES)(Pinball)I woke up this morning with the hankering to play a SNES game and pinball. Super Pinball fit the bill, so I worked my way through the three tables in its "story" mode, earned the necessary scores, and accessed the hidden doors to move forward.
First and foremost, yes, there is some kind of story. No, it isn't implemented well, it just pops in at the end. Second, yes, hidden doors. I'll explain in a bit. But first you need to know that Super Pinball is a collection of three virtual pinball tables: Jolly Joker, Blackbeard and the Ironmen, and Wizard. The playfield is angled to look like you are actually playing on a pinball machine, and all important messages are splashed across the stream as opposed to using the LED display in the marquee. While the angle takes a little getting used to, the way the game handles the messaging actually works quite well, and audio queues are used well to back them up. The music is also pretty good, with Wizard being the game's high point for me. I found the tune rather soothing, even when I was stressing over how to gain points on that table.
The general idea of Super Pinball's single player Conquest mode is to beat each table in a row by earning a certain number of points to unlock a timed window and then putting your ball in the proper place to access the next level. The score requirements go up in multiples of 60,000,000, starting with Joker and ending on Wizard. Once the score has been obtained, the "door" opens for 30 seconds. Fail to get it, and you must earn an additional 20,000,000 points to reopen it. Losing your ball in the outhole automatically causes the door to shut too, so try not to do that. Once each table has been beaten, play continues until the player runs out of extra balls. At the end, after all three tables are beaten, the player is given a message showing that you have been given the Joker mask and granted the title of "Wizard," after which you run home. No further explanation is given beyond a "To be continued..." message, though Super Pinball II was unfortunately Super Famicom only.
But onto the tables. Each pinball table you play offers similar hidden games, but the layouts vary significantly. This causes each table to be prone to different circumstances to gain score. Every table offers bumpers, drop targets which increase your bonus multipliers, lanes that can be run for growing amounts of points, a Mystery section which lets you gain points, access minigames built into the board(which have different names on the different tables but all do the same thing), and serves as the door needed to advance, a random bonus section which gives points or enables the minigames to be accessed, and a bonus letter system which accesses Multiball mode. Joker I found to be the easiest to access the bumpers and the drop targets, though the usefulness of multipliers is debatable considering your ball must be in play to open the forbidden door. Blackbeard has a lane called Skeleton that is relatively easy to access with your ball, resulting in lots of points after so many passes through it, but I found this one had the hardest door for me to access. Wizard I found to be the easiest to access the bonus letter system, which caused me to activate Multiball numerous times, far more than the other two tables combined.
Each table has its strengths, and despite their similarities, they do all feel different. I struggle to say which one I liked the most because they were all enjoyable once I learned my way around. Wizard I encountered some small issues in, such as a lane that basically spat my ball directly into the outhole if I wasn't paying attention. I also noticed there during Multiball that the balls do not interact and will pass through each other. Still, as I spent the most time with it, I suppose that one ended up becoming my favorite, despite occasionally feeling like the action was stalling out.
Overall I liked Super Pinball well enough, but I think I prefer Pinball Dreams instead. This game certainly gets the feeling of pinball down, but I don't find the tables as impressive. The angle can also be bothersome. Plus the attempt to tack on a story just comes across as weird. There is competitive multiplayer so up to 4 people can take turns battling for a high score on the three tables, but I don't know how likely it is these days that you'll find three other folks who want to play pinball on a Super Nintendo together.
