Pokemon Pinball

The Short

Pros

- Unique combination of Pokemon catching and a pinball game

- Can actually catch all original 150 pokemon in this game

- Lots of unique side tables and games

- Had a built in rumble pack!

- Music is pretty good

- Graphics look vibrant and really colorful on the GBC

Cons

- Only two actual tables, Red and Blue

- Lack of analog controls for the flippers makes precise shots hard

- Tables are simple but the game can be quite difficult, as the controls make aiming rough

It's Pinball, BUT WITH POKEMON!

The Long

Pokemon Pinball might come off as simply a cash-in on the pokemon phenomenon, and you might be right. Coming out between Red/Blue and Yellow, Pokemon Pinball is exactly what it sounds like: it's pinball, but with pokemon. If this sounds stupid to you, than you might be surprised to learn that Pokemon Pinball is actually...a pretty good game? Well, it has a lot of good ideas, but it certainly isn't without its flaws. 

Here's the top half of the Red table. 

Pokemon Pinball's goals are simple: catch all 150 original pokemon using pinball. Which makes perfect sense because the ball is a pokeball. I mean, come on...this game is practically Pokemon canon now!

To catch these little buggers you simply have to play pinball. Both stages have the usual "three lights to turn on" in the upper half of the screen (for some reason the screenshot above doesn't have it, but that area right above the Voltorbs/bumpers normally has three buttons to press). Once you have all three a pokemon appears, and it's your goal to bash it with the pinball - er, pokeball until you "catch" it. Then you are given a boatload of points, a chance at a bonus, and you do it over again.

Catch that Spearow!

You have two tables to blast your way through, and neither of which are particularly complex aside from the Pokemon aesthetic. Red table (the one above) is the most "pinball like," with bumpers and the usual layout. Blue is totally bananas, with the bottom half being normal but something weird going on in the upper half.

What the crap is going on up there?

It's actually a decent game, with the catching element (while a bit silly) actually working with the whole pinball thing. It gives you distinct, simple goals that can be relatively difficult to obtain, and it saves all the pokemon you've captured so you can progress over days or weeks towards the goal of "catching them all." Not bad for a Game Boy Color game!

A big problem, though, is the flippers. In most pinball games you have at least a slight amount of analog control, meaning you can control how hard you hit the ball. The Game Boy Color doesn't have that feature with the buttons, so you basically just hit it and it goes flying. Sometimes the physics can be a little weird, leaving me scratching my head as to why an exact same shot went in a completely different direction, but it isn't bad enough to ruin the experience.

The game also has "boss battle" minigames, which are a nice break from the two tables

Another issue is the tables have a distinct lack of...stuff on them. The best pinball tables combine a mix of bumpers, loops, and buttons/lights to keep you interested, usually having four or five things going on at once that you can work on. These tables really only have one goal to shoot for (light up the three on top, catch the pokemon) with a minimal amount of bumpers or buttons to hit in the meantime. It isn't bad, and considering how small the GBC screen is (and it's low pixel density) I'm guessing they did well enough with their limited screen real estate, but it still makes the game feel a bit shallow as a pinball game. 

Pokemon Pinball also has a built in rumble feature, that is awesome because it requires it's own battery. Yeah, you have to plug an AAA battery into the cart itself, and then it'll rumble while you play it. It makes the cartridge freaking huge but is actually pretty cool, with the vibration going off whenever you hit the flipper or bounce against bumpers or basically do anything remotely cool.

Look at that thing. It's huge!

The bonus stages are pretty fun, if just "keep hitting the guy and don't let the ball fall down." They mix it up by dropping coins or what not, but as it stands most of them are exactly the same: hit the pokemon, win. There are fine bonus tables (including one centered around Mewtwo), which is good considering this game only has two full tables.

Graphically, the game looks great. The shift between screens is actually not as jarring as you'd think, since the game moves a little slower than a normal pinball table to make up for it. Everything is well colored and looks crisp (these screenshots aren't the best at showing that; sorry). The game plays sort of happy, light versions of classic Pokemon songs, and I was surprised by exactly how much music was in the game, and how it was playing almost all the time. I'm sure it would drive somebody insane after a while, but I thought it was cheerful and worked great with the look and feel the game was trying to express. 

There just isn't much to do on the tables. 

Pokemon Pinball is not a bad game. In fact, it's a pretty decent one. Despite it's simplicity it can be quite addicting (much like the main Pokemon games), with the flow of the game moving very well and it never feeling either too difficult or too easy. It's a big underwhelming and the lack of tables (and features on those tables) is a bummer, but considering it was probably made to just tide people over until Pokemon Yellow, it's a good diversion. 

Plus, that rumble. So awesome.

You can get copies for pretty cheap, so if you have a GBC or GBA and love Pokemon, you should check it out! It apparently was good enough to merit a sequel (which I haven't played), so get on that!

Three out of five stars. 

PINBALL.