Mario Pinball Land

[D_N_G]

Being the Mario whore that I am, I picked this up this week 19.99 at best buy with gamers gift card.



There are 2 modes, time trial and adventure. Time Trial is just as it seems, complete an entire level as fast as you can. Some time trial levels are only unlocked by playing adventure mode.

In Adventure mode, each level has you complete a series of Events to win a star. As in Mario 64 you have to acheive a certain number of stars to enter locked doors.Events include things such as killing every enemy on the screen, hitting enemies in a certain order, or collecting red coins.

Defeating a world boss earns you a key and defeating ALL the bosses earns you entrance into Bowser's castle, where you earn the final stars and fight Bowser himself.


As in any Mario game there are power ups: Warp Pipe ball stoppers, Lightning bolts to kill all enemies, stars to make you invincible, mushrooms to make you either grow OR shrink in size (you need these to find hidden levels as a small mario ball), eggs for multiball, and specials that give you multiple combined powers.

Power ups are gained by either hitting the ? blocks or by collecting coins. Coins are generated by hitting other ? blocks or by destroying enemies. Hitting one enemy will result in a gold coin, which you have to run over again to pick up. If multiple enemies are hit it awards a combo and blue coins are also generated. Blue coins are used to play mini games in the circus level to win stars.



So being a Mario game the goal is to collect all the stars, being a pinball game the goal is to get the highest score. You start with the standard 3 balls, but can win extra balls or purchase a limited amount of extras with each 100 gold coins you earn. If you lose a ball you are awarded bonus points by how many enemies you killed, coins you collected, and stars completed, then the next ball starts. For any pinball player the main objective should be completing the game without dying at all to get the maximum amount of bonus.



The game has 35 stars total and 5 bosses (4 of which you have to defeat twice) spread over 5 levels. each level is pretty good with the variety of tasks you have to complete to win the stars, it never really feels monotonous in this aspect. Some levels do a superbly innovative job in providing what the title is all about, mixing a Mario theme and a Pinball table .

The graphics a excellent for a gba game it is amazing the rendering they have pulled off on the bosses. The music is standard mario fare, with a cool 70s type ending theme, and the general gameplay uses normal pinball physics.

There are several levels with extremely difficult angles and these get fairly frustrating . There are several cheap bosses which make you want to pull your hair out because most of the game is very easy, and then, wham it hits you with a seemingly impossible board.

The game is pretty short if you are good at pinball. Took me about 3 hours total to finish 100%.



The biggest complaint I have is that there is no TILT. Left Flipper, Right Flipper and activate the power up are the only buttons. How can you not put TILT in a pinball game?

The second complaint I have is that it is hard to lose a ball even if you try. If you go up and down stages in a level, a warp pipe ball stopper will generate in the hole between your flippers, and you can keep regenerating over and over. There are no side holes where the ball can be lost, so the center hole is the only way to lose a life.

The third complaint is that if you complete an obstacle in a stage and move on through the next door, if you return to where you were before everything is reset. This is only a minor complaint as there are only a couple of boards where this matters, because most of the boards are easy enough in the first place.



Overall i would rate this is a medium grade title both as a pinball game and as a mario game, and I would recommend if you can find it in the 15-20 dollar range. A solid 6 out 0f 10

[Drewbacca]

Amazing review.