Review: Mile High Pinball
Score:
78%
Version Reviewed: MMC
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Dear Nokia,
Congratulations on cutting down on the Kool-Aid. You’ve got a smashing pinball game here (Mile High Pinball) and you’ve not drenched it in a massive 'immersive' story. Thank you! The story in MHP is simple. Aliens have challenged a single earthling through the power of a pinball table which stands one mile high. And having learnt that, you can safely ignore the plot and concentrate on a cracking little game.
Ewan Spence
You can’t really go wrong with pinball – as long as you get the physics/mechanics right then you’re going to have something that’s playable. I’ve been following Mile High Pinball quite closely since it was announced (check back to see). The game engine itself was finished a good number of months before release, and the remaining time has been spent doing an inordinate amount of play testing.
Mile High Pinball feels right – and that’s the best thing you can say about a pinball game.
This is nothing more than a platform game in wolf’s clothing – and it’s all the better for it. Whereas a regular pinball game would see one table that maybe takes up one or two N-Gage screens stacked on top of each other, with deeply complicated boards and ramps and bumpers, Mile High Pinball goes for a slightly more simplistic board layout. You still get ramps and bumpers plenty, relax, but with all the little things on each level, it’s more Super Mario than Banzai Run.
Multi-player, as always, is present using Bluetooth over special multi-player boards – and if you get bored of these then you can use the board designed to whip up your own little challenge. In a nice community-building touch, these can be uploaded to the N-Gage Arena and you can challenge other players to 'Beat your Board'. Ahem.
In essence, what we have here are 100 small puzzles, where you have flippers to move your ball around the screen. Once you have the solution, it’s on to the next board. It’s a great mobile game, as you can dip in for just one or two boards, or go for a decent session and really start climbing the stack. It’s not jaw-droppingly stunning pretty, but (much like Snakes) it’s a well designed game for a mobile platform. I just hope it doesn’t get lost amidst the big brand names and massive RPGs the N-Gage fan base has received this winter.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at