"Those flippin' Pokemon!"

During the apex of the Pokemon craze in 1999, Nintendo ceased this opportunity to hype Pokemon to the max. This included the release of several Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color games, with Pokemon Pinball being one of them. Now normally pinball is not something I find the most exciting, but I found myself having quite a good time with it. It had some rough patches here and there, but not enough to ruin a good gaming experience. Now unlike the Stadium series, Pokemon Pinball skipped a generation by releasing no sequel during the GSC era, which came as a surprise. However, this generation Pokemon Pinball is back and better than before! Are those rough patches that I mentioned tidied up? And does the series retain its addictiveness?

Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire's basic ideas resemble that of any ordinary pinball game, except with a few surprising twists. You have the choice of choosing two different pinball tables - the Red Table and the Blue Table. Each table has a different type of environment. Some Pokemon can only be caught in the Ruby or Sapphire boards, just like some can only be caught in Pokemon Ruby or Pokemon Sapphire. You'll begin by randomly selecting a location from the slots. To start, you pull the plunger to launch the pinball. However, in this case, the pinball takes the form of a PokeBall. You can move the flippers to launch your ball to different places on the table to rack up points and catch Pokemon! Everything controls fine, with the Left Button on the Control Pad and the ‘A' Button controlling the left and right flippers respectively. At the sides of the tables, Pikachu or Pichu will occasionally catch your ball to prevent it from going into the gutter. The ball saver appears at the bottom of each table for the first minute or so.

To catch a Pokemon, you must launch a ball into Wailmer or Sharpedo's mouth (depending on which table you're playing). When you do so, a random silhouette of the Pokemon appears at the bottom of the table. To make the Pokemon completely appear, you must rack up a certain amount of points within a two-minute time limit. You will do so by hitting the bumpers at the top of the pinball table three times (the previous version had you do six). When the silhouette is complete, the Pokemon will pop out. You must hit the Pokemon three times with your ball in order to capture it. In addition, this all must be completed within a two-minute time limit.

You can also evolve your Pokemon through interesting methods! Once you circle the table in a clockwise direction 3 times, the evolution hole will open. Enter it, and select the Pokemon you want to evolve. EX (experience) symbols will appear around the board. Collect the three EX symbols, and the Pokemon you selected evolves! The hard part is doing this under the two-minute time limit. Since it's difficult to control where your ball flies, a single EX symbol my frustrate you for the full two minutes. It's rather challenging to do this with every single Pokemon, and some even twice!

A new feature in this game is the ability to hatch Pokemon. These Pokemon cannot be obtained any other way. Once you hit Cynaquil 4 times (Ruby table) or circle the egg nest 4 times (Sapphire table), an egg will hatch and a Pokemon will pop out and dawdle across the table! They'll walk in random directions up and down the table, and you must hit the Pokemon twice within one minute in order to capture it. Hatching a Pokemon usually isn't too hard, and is definitely easier than evolving them.

Different locations carry different types of Pokemon, most of which resemble their Ruby/Sapphire counterparts. For example, wild Heracross and Rhyhorn are found in the Safari Zone, and Torchic and Numel can be found at Mt. Chimney (the volcano map). Butif you want to catch others, you're going to have to travel to different locations. This can be done simply by hitting the 3 Seedots (Ruby table) or 3 Gulpins (Sapphire table) via buttons or Linoones on the left side to begin Travel Mode. Once you complete a loop around the table, a vortex will appear in the center. Guide your ball into it, and a Volbeat and Illumise will fly down with a paintbrush and change your location!

If you catch or evolve a total of 3 Pokemon in a single game, you'll be taken to a bonus stage through a vortex in the middle of the pinball table. In the bonus stages, the goal is to rack up as many points as possible in two minutes by hitting the Pokemon with your Pokeball. One example is the Duskull bonus on the Sapphire table. When you start it, two Duskulls will be floating around. Once you hit one, it will vanish and another one will appear. Once you've vanquished enough Duskulls, a giant Dusclops will appear! You must hit him from behind 5 times to win (hit him from the front, and he'll eat your Pokeball!). Other bonus tables include the Kecleon bonus, the Kyogre bonus, and the Sealeo bonus. Winning bonus stages usually results in a whopping surplus of points.

These graphics are actually fairly good for a Game Boy Advance game. It's definitely an improvement over the Pokemon Pinball game on Game Boy Color. The Pokemon that you capture are designed very well, while the on-table Pokemon are less than wonderful. Pokemon vary their expressions. For example, they'll squint or duck when you hit them with your ball. Colors sometimes bleed, but overall, it's fairly good.

Sound fits more into the "average" category. The music is pretty catchy and nowhere near as bland as they were in the first Pokemon Pinball, but I still wouldn't go as far as to call it "fantastic". The Pokemon keep their same cries that were in Ruby/Sapphire, which we all know tend to be a bit on the horrendous side (with the exception of Milotic's cry, which is just plain eerie and freakin' awesome). Some of the better-quality tracks are either the same tracks from Ruby/Sapphire or remixes. One remix I'm particularly fond of is the theme on the Rayquaza bonus field, which is a gong-style remix of Rayquaza's theme from Ruby/Sapphire. The travel music is extremely irritable, however, being a bad screeching mix of island calypso (or something like that).

Sadly, the first Pokemon Pinball's main weakness remains prevalent in its sequel - Lasting appeal. The Pokemon RPG games have always been extremely addictive and time-consuming with all the Pokemon there are to capture. However, in Pokemon Pinball, that's not quite the case. While there are 200 different Pokemon for you to capture/evolve, it gets tedious quickly. For the first hour or so playing this game, you'll find it hard to put down. But after that, it gets tiring. Evolving Pokemon gets very frustrating after the few first times you try it (not as bad as in the original, though). Not to mention the game's pretty easy, but the number of Pokemon to capture/evolve/hatch adds to the difficulty. Replay value is moderate.

Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire does its best to improve upon its original in every area except for longevity. It's an improvement, if a slight one at that. It's a pretty easy game, but an addictive one, nonetheless. I'm glad they loosened up on evolution's tedium. This is one of the batter pinball games I've played in my life, possibly even better than Sonic Spinball and Kirby's Tilt n' Tumble. Those who liked the original will most likely enjoy this one.

Rent or Buy?
If you're a fan of Pokemon, pinball spin-offs, or were a fan of the original, then buy. Everyone else will be best suited with a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/06