A pinball game with four sci-fi themed machines. The 3D effect in this one is neat, but something you start to ignore fairly quickly, as it simply isn’t utilised in any way. The movement of the game is immensely smooth and feels like a tilted ice rink, which is definitely on purpose as, instead of a ball, you have a “puck” that glides up and down with some wonderful physics.

Each board has unique features, with my favourite being the colony board, which has multiple modes, lots of stuff condensed in a small place and a shooting minigame as you defend the colony from asteroids. The others are fine, but I could spend quite a while on this one machine. Good fun. This would have been a much better pack-in than Mario’s Tennis: its simple, but shows off the 3D well and is very replayable.

Fun

Of particular disappointment are the game’s bonuses. The completely separate bonus table section which pops up at one point is deathly dull, with no features on offer – the challenge being merely to eliminate groups of swirling stars. One clever bit stands out, though, when, after taking out a group of bumpers on the Cosmic table, Samus Aran’s ship from Super Metroid pops up in the middle of the screen. You control it left and right with the left D-pad and proceed to take out little waves of alien craft, Galaxians-style, to rack up extra points.

Tony, Super Play #36

Remake or remaster?

A re-release in colour would be a nice little eShop title.