it's pinball alright. the ball physics kind of surprised me considering this is an early nes game, but regardless of that fact i've never been a pinball gal.
the mario bonus game was cute though

This game “could” be fun if you like pinball in real life. Not me though so I wouldn’t rate this highly. Enjoyed the Mario secret reference though.

Well, the ball physics are decent (it was developed by HAL, it's one of their specialties)... but with just one rather mundane table and no music, this is an ultimately very shallow experience. The Mario and Pauline bonus stage isn't remotely enough to salvage this. Play any other pinball game instead. Unless, of course, you're just going down random NSO offerings the way I was. In which case, you can play this for 10 minutes and be underwhelmed, too.