"Quite possibly THE pinball simulation on the PC"

Pinball Fantasies. A game that I have been playing since the age of three. And one of the most memorable parts of my childhood, so it was a great disaster that I forgot about it and then lost the chance to play it, as the disc was beyond repair and all of our computers were now Windows XP. Now, with the help of an MS-DOS emulator, I can play this game once again. And what a game to be able to play:

Graphics

Colored, crisp, clean and smooth. In short, perfectly suitable. This even works well on a 12 MHz 286 computer. The biggest concern is the ball, which looks a bit plastic but everything else runs perfectly. Sure, there are games with a lot more detail NOW, but this was the best of its day.

Sound

Very nice sound effects, and absolutely superb music, but the icing on the cake is the intro music, which in my opinion is possibly the best video game music EVER. Each table has its own unique feel, and this is possible even on a computer with no sound card.

Gameplay

Four tables: Party Land (amusement park themed), Speed Devils (motorsport), Billion Dollar Gameshow (speaks for itself), and Stones 'n Bones (horror, similar to Nightmare in Pinball Dreams). Speed Devils is good but not special; Billion Dollar Gameshow suffers from a lack of features; Stones ' Bones and Party Land are the special two here, possibly Stones 'n Bones more so.

The game feels fantastic to play, with total control over the ball for skilled players. The flipper strength is almost bang-on, and although the nudge is a bit strong, it allows for bangbacks. The ball is not too bouncy, nor not bouncy enough - it feels just right. There is one and ONLY one real complaint, and that is the lack of multiball, which could have made this the best pinball game EVER quite easily. But maybe it still is. I don't know. There ARE a couple of bugs, most notably the hold bonus glitch which can vastly boost the score beyond hundreds of billions on three of the four tables (Billion Dollar has no hold bonus). But mainly a pretty good job.

Lifespan

You can get frustrated by a couple of losing streaks, but this happens in any pinball game. Otherwise, you probably won't get tired of Pinball Fantasies in a hurry. Trying to beat the high score has never felt so addictive.

Overall

Probably the best pinball game of the best pinball series ever created. Yet another triumph for 21st Century Entertainment (now gone), Digital Illusions CE and of course Frontline Design for porting the Amiga classic to MS-DOS. In fact, this is the only game that I have ever liked more than Daytona USA, which is really saying something.

Buy/rent: If you like pinball, buy this if you can find it. If you like MS-DOS games, buy it. Even if neither, it's still worth a look. This is far from being the best game ever made, but it is my all-time favorite. After all, this is to me what Space Invaders and Pac-Man are to every other retro gamer.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/07

Game Release: Pinball Fantasies (US, 1993)