I mean... it's pinball. Do you like pinball? Pinball is pretty fucking cool. I first met Pinball some time after Soccer and I caught Golf and had him arrested for murdering my dad. At this point, a month had gone by since that arrest, but I still hadn't quite recovered from the events that occurred. It's not just something you can comfortably walk away from, y'know.

Tennis took notice of the fact that I hadn't really been doing so well ever since the ordeal, so he recommended that I go see Pinball, as he was one of the most highly praised therapists in town, and from what I have heard, his methods have worked wonders. I wasn't much for therapy, but I decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot anyway.

And I'm glad I did. Not only was Pinball extremely nice, but he was able to help me in recovering at a much quicker rate that I was expecting. It didn't take too many therapy sessions to do so either, which was surprising to say the least, at least from what I have heard. At the end of my last therapy session, Pinball did suggest one thing that I should definitely do: take a vacation. I had been so stressed out not just from my dad's death, but just from life in general, that he thought it would be beneficial if I just got away from it all for a bit, and just went and had some fun for a bit.

I decided to take his advice and do just that. It had been a long time since I have taken a proper vacation, so this is just what I need to get myself back in good spirits. So, I will soon set out on that vacation, and hopefully come back a changed man.

Game #150

"When I look at the box, this isn't pinball? But then I play the game, and this IS pinball! You SNAKES!"

...

Also this game is insane for making the flippers invisible after 100,000.

played on NSO NES

Pinball goes out what it's set to do which is be Pinball. For 1984 this is a good enough take on the genre. It surprisingly is better than some of the later pinball games seen on the system. This game would also be developed by Iwata which I believe was one of his earliest Nintendo games he worked on.

The pinball table you get to have for the game is fun at the top but I'm not too big of a fan of the bottom section, it just feels a little mismanaged and it's easy to lose balls if you're not too good at the game. It can feel pretty fun to get a big score by doing the many things available on the board.

One of the most interesting parts of the game is the bonus game where you play as Mario trying to help Pauline. Though strangely you can lose a ball here if you don't save Pauline when she falls. Putting Mario on the cover of the US and PAL region boxes for this game probably helped give the game more appeal and made this even more of a highlight for anyone who had tried the game.

Nowadays there's much better ways to play pinball and I'm surprised Nintendo even still rereleases, it even took them like over 3 years just to put it on Switch NSO, Nintendo why?? I can't really say you should go out of your way to play this but I guess I can say it led to some other better Nintendo pinball games that aren't called Super Mario Ball/Mario Pinball Land.

"WHAT is Mario doing holding that thing on the box art? This ain't Breakout!"

Curiosity got me, and I played it. It really ain't Breakout. I don't quite feel bamboozled, but I find it funny to have a minigame like that as the focal point of the box art. I get that it's Mario holding that thing, but it ain't Pinball, and it ain't Breakout. It's just a side serving, carried by Mario!

As for the main course, the Pinball part of Pinball is fine and serviceable... I liked it as much as I could... but...

Oh, I think I hear Sonic Spinball calling me. I have to go now.

One of the finest arcade-style early NES games. Maybe it's just the nostalgia factor for me, having played it a lot as a kid with my dad, but I find this to be one of the most exciting turn-based 2 player games ever made. Standing tall as Satoru Iwata's very first work, the unconventional black box NES title tries to emulate a traditional pinball machine instead of creating fantasy worlds like other video games. Especially in the fast B-type, it's addicting and feels very similar to a real pinball machine. It has great charm and personality; before creating the DS and the Wii as the most beloved Nintendo CEO in history, a young Iwata created one of the most enjoyable early titles on the NES.

NES Week: Day #1

So to start off the NES week I started to look for the perfect game to start it off with. And what better game to kick it off with then in my opinion, one of the most underrated games from the nes. What is this game? Why its pinball!

Now I know what you’re thinking: “how could you possibly like the really dull and simple nes pinball???” Well I like it for many reasons personally:

1. I can spend hours on it. When it comes to pinball games and pinball in general I can spend absolutely hours on it, and I’m so happy this translates well to this game because oh man could I spend hours on it.
2. Its simplicity almost makes it more fun? I know that’s an odd thing to say but it’s almost true. The simplicity makes it really fun for me and I really don’t know why. Maybe it’s just like how normal pinball is but I just have a really big soft spot for this one…
3. I like the donkey Kong reference : )

Very simple, could play for hours, I murdered the chickens…

Yup, it's pinball. There's only a single board, with 2 screens, and then there's a minigame where you play a Breakout clone, while controlling Mario (or maybe it's Jumpman) while trying to save Lady.

I don't know what the differences between Games A and B are, to be honest.

I do wish this game had more music.

Oh shit, it's goddamned sons a bitchin' Pinball.

I gotta be honest, I was expecting less from this game but it's actually kinda okay if not still a bit underwhelming. Of course, you only have one table with two screens in this game and that's fine, I'm not gonna expect much from the black box NES games. If you manage to hit the ball into a hole on the lower-half of the table you get to play this odd Breakout mini-game with Mario and Pauline, which of course the boxart for this game used to entice parents into buying for their kids.

After just playing Kirby's Pinball Land, it's pretty hilarious seeing baby chicks in eggs in this game again. It sucks there aren't any Poppy Bro Jrs around to attempt to murder them via a swift kick to the ass.

Either way, one thing that sucks is that there's a lack of in-game music. The stuff you hear at the title screen and when the board changes color is the only thing you hear for the rest of the game. For the most part you're left with only the sounds of the bumpers popping off, and your flippers smacking the ball around. So if you're playing this get ready to pop on some Megadeth, or whatever it is you listen to and go to town. Unless the sounds of 8-bit pinball is just straight up ASMR for you, then maybe this is actually a positive. I don't judge.

This game is fine if you were a kid in the 80s and you couldn't always make it to the arcade or wherever to play a real pinball table, but even then it just feels empty to me. Pinball really needs some showmanship if you get what I mean. Needs some more Poppy Bro Jrs kicking the shit out of chickens or some fucking power metal blaring.

Pretty decent NES pinball game. The most important thing with a game like this - and something I wasn’t sure Nintendo would have gotten right in 1984 - is that the physics of the ball and the bumpers and paddles feel realistic, which they do in this game. Playing this feels like playing a real pinball machine which is definitely to be commended. That said, this is a very simple pinball game. The different bonuses you can earn are pretty blah and don’t really add anything exciting to the game. There’s a pretty boring breakout style bonus game but that’s really it. No interesting graphics when you get a bonus, no second ball, just the bonus game and the potential to earn a stopper by your paddles to prevent you from losing a ball. I played this normally for a while and then used save states until I could see every potential bonus, so I’m fairly certain this is the extent of them.

Also - unsure if this is part of the game or a weird glitch but your paddles turn invisible if you score 100k points. I’m assuming this is intentional but it’s implemented in a way where it’s quite difficult to tell. The paddles don’t flash before disappearing or anything they’re just suddenly gone.

Overall this is a fun little pinball game and definitely one of the better black box NES games I’ve played. It is a very simple pinball game however. I’m not a connoisseur of pinball games but I’m certain there are much better ones out there if you’re into that sort of thing.