Mario Pinball Land

"Sonic did it well but Mario doesn't even come close"

I'm all for pinball games. Heck, I remember playing them at the skating rink many many years ago. Sonic Pinball came out years ago for the Sega Genesis and it rocked. So Nintendo has decided to make a Mario pinball game, only problem is, they have made it too complex for it's own good.

The story is... Oh wow, this has no story. For no apparent reason Mario and friends have decided to turn themselves into pinballs. No reason for it, they just feel like it... Seriously, well over 5 years ago Sega came up with a plot for their Sonic pinball game but Nintendo can't? 0/10

The control couldn't be any simplier. You can only move the flippers so it really isn't hard to get the hang of the control. Too bad the physics blow but that doesn't go here... I'd give control a 10/10

The sound isn't too bad. You've got your typical pinball sounds going for you. A few Mario sounds here and there. So it's all good there. The music is alright, pretty Mario-si but not the best I've heard. I'd give sound a 8/10

The graphics are very pretty. The opening movie looks very good, much better then some other games I've played recently. The levels are colorful and the characters look great. No real complaints here. I'd give graphics a 9/10

Gameplay is where the game just falls flat on it's face. Think of a normal pinball game where you have to hit certain buttons and gadgets. Now throw in stable objects like a box or tree, which when hit give you a coin or item. Now throw in enemies that move around and as soon as they are all dead you get an item and they respawn, over and over but you only get the item once. Now imagine each little area has some door or holes or other "neat" things to get further into the levels by using. Imagine that you need X amount of stars to open door a and some more for door b ect. Now you have to hit the door and then you have to hit yourself back though the new opening but make sure you're going fast enough or you won't make it. Sometimes you need to hit a switch and then that opens a hole and you go in newly opened hole to get to new area. It's wash and repeat and while it may sound cool, it isn't. It's insanely hard because the ball bounces around like those little bouncing balls you get out of a vending machine and it's like you've just thrown it into a small room and it bounces and bounces and you have no real control over it. The biggest problem I ran into was trying to kill of the enemies in a room because sometimes the enemies respawn after x amount of time so you have to kill like 4 enemies in 15 seconds which really doesn't seem fair. I'd give gameplay a 2/10

The replay value could be high but the game is very short but it should take a while to beat due to the cheapness of it all. However, I really can't see myself picking this up and playing it again. It's actually one of the top 3 worst Mario games, in my opinion. Oh and you can collect all 35 stars to get everything but it wasn't worth it in my opinion. I'd give replay value a 3/10

FInal score for Mario Pinball Land is a 3/10. One of the worst Mario games around. DOn't even waste your time with this one.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/05