Attack From Mars

"Possibly one of the best-themed pinball games out there!"

Awhile, me and my friend Drew were staying at a hotel out of town. Because we were hungry, we decided to go to a Pizza resturant and eat there. After eating, we looked around and found an pinball machine lying in a corner. The backglass image of the machine had a picture of aliens on it and UFOs. The games title was ''Attack from Mars''.

Attack from mars is a 1996 pinball machine aimed at looking like it was made in the 50s. Upon entering quarters and shooting the ball, a news reporter crys out there has been an attack from Mars. The martians attempt to attack various monuments in various places (e.x-The Statue Of Libarty in New York, USA), and you have to stop them.

The playfield of ''Attack From Mars'' is decorated with stylish art, and some mini-UFOs and martians. In the middle of the field there is a UFO much bigger than the rest with a ''force field'' in front of it. If you hit the field three times, it opens up so that you may fling balls into it, which will hurt the martians. This game is also very generous about your ball. If you lose a ball, the ball is usually saved or you get a bonus ball. With as little as three bucks, me and my friend were able to play for a half an hour. No doubt about it, this game is addicting.

The audio and video aren't too shabby either. It has some great sounds like citizens of an attacked city yelling at the martians and the military general. The video is dispalyed on a dot-matrix screen with some nice animations of UFOs destroying monuments and martians capturing women. Needless to say, this game is not an eye sore. Which brings me to a warning for you: If you are prone to having epilectic seziures, do not, I repeat, DO NOT play this game. After attacking the main ship three times, the window on top of it flashs a bright light.

This game has a few nice game features like multiball and a pinball wizard-challenge level. If you ever see this machine, take out some money and go play it. You will be impressed. I give the ''Attack from Mars'' pinball machine a score of 9 out of 10, with some minor flaws. By the way, at the time of this publication, Attack from Mar's manufactor, Bally, has gone dropped out of buisness along with it's partner company, Willams. Because of this, expect the price of this machine to go up. Have fun playing!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/08/01, Updated 04/08/01