Personally I raised one eyebrow when I heard the rumours of a possible Metroid pinball game being developed for the DS; Samus…in a pinball table? No way. Nintendo was now also going to milk the almost holy Metroid franchise for some lousy pinball game.

Luckily Metroid Prime Pinball turns out to be not too bad a game after all. It proves to be a decent pinball game with some nice twists. Notice that the makers added the Prime series to the game title meaning this game follows the story of the first Metroid GameCube title, also meaning you start on the Pirate Frigate. When you advance you eventually get to play on Phendrana Drifts and Phazon Mines themed tables. In total there are seven different tables, which is actually somewhat thin unfortunately.

On the bright side these tables are stretched over the two screens and are amazingly visualised. There's enough to do on a board with enough features used to see in regular pinball sessions. Some tables have bosses to defeat before you're able to advance on, others contain mini-games. These are the parts where Samus gets to escape her, without doubt painful, morph-form and engages enemy in her true form. These mini-games are short and offer a welcome variation. What's also right for this game is the music. We all know that the Metroid franchise has a fabulous, perfect mood setting soundtrack which is also used in this Pinball spin-off. It's great to hear those familiar high-quality tunes on the DS.

Now to the controls. Moving the flippers is as easy as ever with the shoulder buttons. Samus has some extra abilities as we all know, so during the game you can drop bombs with the y-button to get rid of enemies easily. Metroid Prime Pinball also has an extra twist thanks to the touch screen. If you can manage to move your finger at the right time on the touch screen you can give the table the little push it needs to get your ball right. This skill obviously needs a bit of practise but can become a great addition to your pinball skilfulness. With a lot of practise and a little good luck you can get to work this out.

I almost forget to mention the gimmick of this title. A rumble pack comes along with the package. Inserting this in the GBA slot of your DS makes your handheld rumble a little during the game. Don't expect the DS rolling out of your hand here, just tiny, very tiny shocks. The sound it makes have to make it feel like a real pinball table; that is to say to cloud the shoddiness of the quality of the rumble pack to not run quietly but hey. Maybe adding a moving sensor would have made a greater impact for this game.

Apart from the multi-mission mode (play different boards) and the single-mission mode (play one board for the highest score) Metroid Prime Pinball contains a single card multi-player mode. Opponents play their own game on their own DS to be the first to gain 100.000 points to win. It's a little bit boring, but the fact that eight players can play simultaneously is a pro.

And that sums up all there is to say about this game, really. If you're a fan of the Metroid franchise the theme alone is probably enough to convince you to buy this title. Pinball fans won't be disappointed either. This game should amuse you for a while, but don't expect any big things from it. It hasn't got the high quality standard of the regular Metroid titles, but you knew that already.