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Keep your quarters in your pocket and step up to play the ﾑol silver ball right on your Microsoft Xbox with ﾓPure Pinball,ﾔ the first pinball simulation for the popular game console. The title isnﾒt a bad find for $20, but a few shortcomings prevent it from being ﾓhigh-scoreﾔ material.As its name suggests, ﾓPure Pinballﾔ aims to recreate the pinball table experience on your television. Four table layouts are offered from the main menu, each sporting a different theme and its own set of goals: * ﾓExcessive Speedﾔ focuses on car racing. The table offers a number of ramps to ﾓdriveﾔ on, which may unlock multi-ball specials when races are won. Players must also hit specific targets on the table to tune the car or repair damage. * Donned in camouflage, the ﾓWorld Warﾔ table offers World War I missions, such as hitting special bumpers and ramps to rescue POWs, defending strongholds and destroying enemy units in battle. * ﾓRunaway Trainﾔ transports players back to the Wild West. This table features five flippers, each of which are required to fuel a locomotive that runs along a railroad and through tunnels. * Science-fiction fans may opt for ﾓHyperSpace,ﾔ a futuristic fantasy table with five space-themed missions. Goals include hitting targets in order to travel by light-speed through the galaxy while avoiding black holes. Each of the four table layouts enjoy photo-realistic 3-D graphics ﾖ right down to the reflection of the lights on the ball and table glass. Players can choose to view the action from one of 12 angles, ranging from top-down static views to scrolling camera angles to extreme ﾓball-camﾔ close-ups.  ﾓPure Pinballﾔ exceeds where it counts the most: ball physics. Players will undoubtedly feel like theyﾒre playing an authentic pinball table because the ball was programmed to react as if it had real weight. The right and left trigger buttons on the Xbox controller are used to move the flippers, while tapping the directional thumb-pad will nudge the table. Yes, itﾒs also possible to ﾓtiltﾔ the table by abusing this feature. The controller also vibrates whenever the ball bounces off bumpers, which contributes to the gameﾒs realism. But ﾓPure Pinballﾔ suffers from a few inadequacies. The most noticeable shortcoming is the fact this game is single-player only. Much of the fun with real pinball games is taking turns with a friend and watching each otherﾒs performance. That said, players can post their high-scores to the Internet for others to view and beat, though a subscription to the Xbox Live service is required (sold separately). Secondly, while four tables is adequate, eight would be better ﾖ even if these bonus tables had to be unlocked by reaching a particular score. Also, some pinball fans may prefer familiar tables, such as ﾓTwilight Zone,ﾔ ﾓ8-Ball Deluxeﾔ or ﾓRoyal Flush,ﾔ but the four that make up this version are all original designs. Oh, and the four scantily clad women on the box cover for this game do not make an appearance on the tables ﾖ itﾒs just a shameless marketing ploy to lure in male players. Lastly, unlike most real pinball tables, ﾓPure Pinballﾔ does not allow players to control the power of the silver ball when itﾒs launched onto the table. While not perfect, ﾓPure Pinballﾔ should appeal to both kids and adults, males and females, and especially those with a penchant towards the days when arcades were reserved for pinball wizards. Kid Factor Itﾒs, um, itﾒs pinball. Had any parent been concerned about the evils of pinball since 1965? Well, if youﾒre still concerned about the evils of pinball this game should really, um, concern you. Because itﾒs pinball baby! Kid Factor by GamerDad Reviewerﾒs Recommended Ages: 4+ ESRB: E- Everyone Developer: Iridon Interactive Publisher: XS Games Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Pure Pinball |
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