Metroid Prime Pinball

"You'll have a ball."

The idea that I always bring a few quarters with me when I go out to A&W for hamburgers, so I can play the pinball machine, has gotten me quite a few odds looks and comments from various people. The workers at A&W seem to not realize they even have a pinball machine in the premises until I start playing – which honestly wouldn't surprise me. When I informed my friends I was going to buy Metroid Prime Pinball for the Nintendo DS, they asked me what this “pinball” thing was and went back to Halo 2 before I could answer them. It seems that when they announced that pinball was dead, I was out back taking a leak. Thankfully Nintendo was too, or else we might have missed this gem of a game.

Following other “adventure pinball” games such as Sonic Spinball, Kirby's Pinball Land, and Pokemon Pinball, Metroid Prime Pinball was released to capitalize on Samus' morph ball mode. Even after the raised emphasis this nifty little device that jams a full-grown woman into a small metal orb received in Metroid Prime 2, I can honestly say Metroid is one of the last franchises that I'd expect to “sell out”, and start producing games that weren't the same thing over and over. Because when a game tries something new, it's a sell out, and when it does the same, it's a rehash. But I digress.

If you've ever played pinball, you'll catch on to this game fairly quickly. You start out on either the Tallon Overworld or the Pirate Frigate, and you must participate in a series of “minigames” with delightful names in order to go to a new table. Launching your ball into a hologram will start these minigames, and after a rousing round of “Shriekbat Shootout” or “Space Pirate Panic”, you'll be awarded one of the twelve artifacts. Your goal is to collect the twelve artifacts by destroying the bosses of the Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines tables, completing minigames, or completing other tasks. Collecting all twelve will lead you to the Artifact Temple, and from there you must finally arrive at the Impact Crater. For a pinball game, this is surprisingly true to its origins – it really does feel like playing Metroid Prime from a different perspective.

All the much complimented atmosphere from the original game is here, too. Metroid Prime Pinball features many of the original music tracks from the first Prime game, which still sound wonderful even after being crammed into a handheld. I'll admit that I never fully grasped the appeal of taking in all the scenery in Metroid Prime, but I got the same feeling here. You still need to look in every nook and cranny to find things – although instead of a weapons upgrade it's usually a minigame or bonus multiplier.

The combat works surprisingly well. The game basically turns you into a projectile, so unlike in Metroid Prime, ramming an enemy while in morph ball mode is actually a good idea. You still have bombs and power bombs, and there are even points where you leave your morph ball and shoot at enemies with your arm cannon and missiles.

The sad thing is that much of the story is left behind in the transition. If you played the original Metroid Prime you can fill in the gaps, but I'd have liked a “story mode” as opposed to just “free play”. I suppose I can't expect too much from a pinball game, though, and I certainly don't complain that actual pinball tables don't have stories.

A nice feature is the number of different ways to control the game. You can use left and right on the D-Pad, L and R, left D-Pad and A (what I personally use), and so on to control your flippers. Sadly, you're stuck using the default B and X for your weapons.

The graphics are outstanding and can rival anything on the Nintendo 64, as well as many games on the Dreamcast or PS2. I'm assuming the backgrounds are pre-rendered, which allows for this level of detail on a handheld, but honestly I know nothing about graphics aside from “ooh, pretty”. There's even voice acting, although there is very little voice to act. There are a few cases of Engrish, though, such as “LOCK IS LIFT”, which I'm doing my darnedest to turn into an internet fad.

Metroid Prime Pinball is THE DS game you want with you when you're on a plane, car, or bus. Unlike a lot of other great DS games that focus on touch screen precision, making them difficult to play in a moving vehicle, this game's only touch feature is the ability to “shake” the pinball table. I almost wonder if that's a subtle joke on the part of Nintendo that I just don't get, but either way, it's a cool feature.

As a fan of the pinball genre and of Metroid Prime, I am not disappointed. For great graphics, hectic yet simple gameplay, amazing replay value, and the near-flawless combination of Metroid and pinball, which can't have been easy to do, I give Metroid Prime Pinball a much-deserved 9 out of 10. Let the good times roll on.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/06