Metroid Prime Pinball (Nintendo DS) Review

Well, to start things off this is one extremely attractive package. Even today, despite the fact that the title was completed two years ago, it stands out as one of the most impressive DS titles in terms of both audio and visual aspects. There are plenty of tunes from past Metroid games, with the focus clearly being on the Prime series. All the tunes that added so much atmosphere to the GameCube games have the same effect here, and mixed in with the assorted sound effects and plentiful supply of decent quality voice-overs it really does shine. On top of this, the graphics are very dark and brooding, setting the mood perfectly, with so much action going on around the two screens with Metroids floating about, balls flying all over, other alien beings generally popping up to hinder your progress and, of course, huge boss characters that look fantastic!

The game exudes such a sense of foreboding throughout and throws so much action at you that you sometimes forget you are merely playing a pinball title and feel as if you have been absorbed into a full-blown adventure game, complete with numerous missions. The basic premise is that Samus Aran of the Metroid series is constantly in her Morph Ball state and is flipped around various locations from the Metroid universe as you aim to gain as many points as possible and defeat the evil threat that is currently at large. Locations will be extremely familiar to fans of the Prime duo of games from the GameCube, with the likes of the Tallon Overworld and Pirate Frigate being the opening tables on show.

To start with you can either choose from Single- or Multi-Mission, the former being the chance to tackle separate tables for practice, whilst the later is the meat of the game. This is where you start with a couple of tables and must work your way through the mission, which involves collecting numerous artefacts by completing certain tasks or uncovering secrets around each table before being able to progress to new sections of the Metroid world and, eventually, tackle to big bosses! The game is controlled by using the L and R shoulder buttons to act as the left and right on-screen flippers, flinging Samus around the authentically replicated Prime locations, as well as shaking the table simply by dragging your finger quickly across the bottom of the screen (if necessary when the ball looks to be rolling out of play).

There are the usual pinball aspects to be found, with bumpers and switches to hit, ramps to go flying around and special targets to aim for. However, Fuse has mixed in action sections, such as having Samus roll into the middle of the screen and revert to her standing form ready to shoot down with her arm cannon hordes of creatures that come flying at her. These sequences really help to break things up, as do the mini-games like having to aim the Morph Ball at bugs or Metroids that litter the stage (hitting them repeatedly to kill them) or even a special Wall Jump section where you must hit L and R at the right times to bounce up to the top of a stage and collect whatever is there. In completing these various objectives you generally receive another artefact (sometimes you get an Extra Ball or other goodies, such as more bonus points or force fields that prevent the ball from going between the flippers into the gutter) and once enough have been collected you are given the chance to move onto another area.

After moving onto a new section you are faced with smashing into a glass container, which houses special items like Missiles or Power Bombs (which are placed onto various face buttons and can definitely help finish off enemies quickly in tricky situations), but that is not all as suddenly a large boss (such as the Omega Pirate and Meta Ridley) will normally appear from out of nowhere. To beat most boss characters it is a case of flipping at them as hard as possible when their defences are down until their energy is depleted, but the final boss is particularly clever in how you defeat it (no spoilers here, work it out for yourself!). Overall, the game has such variety that the experience is not only extremely exhilarating, but also thoroughly good fun to play through repeatedly. Fuse has indeed crafted a very good pinball adventure…

Whilst there may only be six tables on offer, some of which are very small in size, the amount of sub-quests within each table, the idea of having to collect numerous artefacts and the whole 'beat your highest points score' idea means that Metroid Prime Pinball lasts much longer than you might expect. For one thing it is quite hard to begin with, so unless you are a veteran pinball wizard then you will be losing balls left, right and centre. Then there is the fact that each 'ball' can die if hit often enough by enemies around the table. Plus once the game HAS been completed once, each table opens up separately for play in Single Mission and there is an Expert Mode that becomes unlocked, as well as four-player local wireless. As far as pinball games go, other than the lack of an online feature, this is pretty damn good value.