Metroid Prime Pinball Review - DS

8

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 5
Audio: 5
Multiplayer: 3
Innovation: 9

Introduction

There isn't much of a story here and what little story there is is ripped straight from Metroid Prime on the GameCube. Samus arrives on a Space Pirate Frigate, causes some destruction, travels to the Planet Tallon IV that said frigate was orbiting and proceeds to kill things, great and small, all while looking for artefacts that will unlock the mystery of the Chozo.

Did you get all that?

Taking key scenes form the console game, such as the Omega Pirate battle, Ridley and of course the final confrontation with the titular Metroid Prime, Pinball does an incredible job of feeling fresh. Much of it is thanks to the way that Samus interacts with the tables about her.

Gameplay

Samus spends most of the time in her morph form, rolling around the table, knocking into things like a belligerent drunk. Two of the game's tables are simple matters of “get a high score, collect the artefacts to unlock the boss tables”, while the remainders are the boss tables themselves.

Based on famous boss battles from Metroid Prime, the battles really are entertaining. The Ridley battle can be specifically aggravating, forcing the player to launch special artefact balls into certain slots while Ridley rains hellfire on you from above.

The pinball physics, accuracy in which is an absolute necessity, are almost close enough. Obviously there are going to be moments where it just doesn't feel right, as no real pinball table ever had morph ball bombs and metroids latching onto your shiny orb avatar, but the ability to tilt simply by rubbing the touch screen is an intuitive addition.

Then come the in game challenges. Everything from swarms of shriekbats to those pesky triclops, ready to grab your ball and launch it right down the gap, will appear for you to defeat in one of two ways.

One: you can run into them in your morph ball form, leaving behind bombs (or even drop the massive, screen clearing super-bomb) to blow up stragglers or two: you can use ramps to build up the SAMUS meter which, once full, allows you to unfurl in the center of the table and unleash fiery death from your arm cannon.

There is also a wall jumping mini-game, letting you jump up to reach an artefact or the sacred extra ball. The real insanity is the multi-ball function. There is the standard multiball, the balls flying around the table at once, causing hell for friend and foe and there is the phazon multiball. Two different coloured balls, one red, one blue, appear on the table with specific orbs to hit for massive points.

In going with the admittedly underplayed bounty hunting aspect of Samus' character, every ... (continued next page)