I’ll be frank here: I think pinball gets a bad rap. I’ve seen a bunch of reviews of this game on Backloggd where people talk about how much they love this game but only give it a 3.5/5, and I don’t really get it. I think there’s a bit of a stigma behind pinball where it’s considered too shallow or simplistic to compete with other genres, and I simply don’t think that’s true at all. Pinball, when it’s done right, can be an exhilarating game of timing and precision.

Having said that, I think a lot of pinball video games aren’t very good compared to the real thing. The problem is simple - pinball is really hard! It’s no secret that arcade machines are difficult on purpose to drain all the spare change in your pockets. But any time a pinball video game tweaks the physics to make the game easier, it just doesn’t feel right to me. It’s kind of like when some console FPSes have such generous auto-aim that you can be looking in another direction and aiming down sights will still lock you on to the closest enemy’s head.

I think Pokemon Pinball rectifies this problem with a surprisingly effective compromise - keep the physics similar to real pinball but provide generous “Ball Saver” periods during catch and evolution events so novice and intermediate players still have a chance. It’s still reasonably difficult without feeling horribly unforgiving like physical pinball is a lot of the time. And the progression is compelling! The better you do, the rarer Pokémon you can catch, and, well…we all know you gotta catch em all.

So basically what I’m saying is that Pokémon Pinball is more than just a very good pinball game, it’s a very good video game, period.

There’s always a few questions that everyone asks other people to get to know them. What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite film? It’s no surprise that in the age of the MCU, another question has become commonplace: “What’s your favorite superhero?”

When I was younger I used to go back and forth on this question, but these days, it’s no debate: It’s Peter Parker, Spider-Man, with Miles Morales as a close second. And the reason for that is simple: At the end of the day, both Peter and Miles are just regular dudes who want to help other people less fortunate than them in any way they can. And naturally, they can’t help everyone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try.

Spider-Man 2 works for me because it truly understands that being Spider-Man means helping others and not giving up if things don’t go the way you expect them to. It’s not only a story about Peter and Miles helping the people closest to them, but it also explores how Peter and Miles’ friendship brings out the best in themselves. And, hot damn, if that’s not Spider-Man in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

Gameplay wise, Insomniac thankfully didn’t fix anything that wasn’t broken and added more cool stuff on top of the existing cool stuff. I wasn’t sure what to think of the web wings at first, but once you get the hang of them they complement the web swinging (which is as fun as ever) surprisingly well. Traversal is extremely important to making an open world game compelling to me, and the combination of swinging and gliding makes NYC a joy to explore.

The combat still feels intuitive while having more depth; I’m absolutely dogshit at parries in every single video game, but the parries in this game have a generous timing window while adding a bit more complexity to the “dodge, hit, repeat” mechanics. And Peter’s new symbiote abilities feel appropriately powerful and brutal. While I don’t quite agree with the developers that SM2 is as much a Miles Morales story as it is a Peter Parker story (I’d say it’s 60/40 in favor of Peter), I appreciate that Miles doesn’t just feel like a Peter reskin and has his own personal issues to sort through while Peter is dealing with the symbiote.

My only real complaint with the game is the same problem I had with the first one: The pacing. The first act is a lot of exposition, with several missions that are mostly walking and talking, and then the other two acts feel like it rushes from one big moment to another until the very end. I really wish they would space out the action-heavy missions between the story heavy ones more often. I will say Acts 2 and 3 feeling rushed is mitigated somewhat by the side content, which I highly recommend - some of the side missions in this game are incredible and the game would be lesser without them. I also have to give credit to Insomniac for The Flame side missions, where they managed to turn a villain I’ve never liked into a compelling threat.

Overall, I’m just glad this game reaffirms that Insomniac truly gets Spider-Man, and why Peter’s character has survived so many decades. It’s simple, but true; helping others helps yourself.

I revisited this game for the first time in at least 15 years when I got my Analogue Pocket and I swear this is the most underrated Panel De Pon/Puzzle League installment.

The fact that IntSys managed to make a Puzzle League game on the Game Boy Color that feels nearly identical gameplay-wise compared to the console games is a colossal achievement (especially compared to Game Boy Tetris Attack). Nothing about the moment-to-moment gameplay feels compromised at all. And I love how vibrant the game is - the Analogue Pocket really makes this game's visuals shine through.

The only real change from the console versions is that you don't actually see your opponent's field in Challenge mode but it plays functionally the same - fend off the opponent's garbage attacks long enough to defeat them. I'm not someone who ever really looked at my opponent's playing field in Puzzle League anyway, so this never really bothered me.

My only real complaint with this game is that some of the character unlocks feel downright unreasonable. I'm supposed to get 100,000 on Garbage mode to unlock Magby??? How???? I can only get to level 50 or so in Garbage and even then my score is like 25000 or something.

Anyway, game's good. Revisiting this game honestly makes me glad I bought an Analogue Pocket.