Pinball (video game)

Pinball[lower-alpha 1] is a 1984 pinball video game developed and released by Nintendo for their Nintendo Entertainment System. It is based on a Game & Watch unit of the same name. In 1985, it reached North America as one of 17 launch titles.

Pinball
North American cover art
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Programmer(s)
Composer(s)Yukio Kaneoka
SeriesMario
Platform(s)Famicom/NES
Arcade (Nintendo VS. System)
Release
    • JP: February 2, 1984
    • NA: October 18, 1985
    • EU: September 1, 1986
Genre(s)Pinball
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemNintendo VS. System

Gameplay

Pinball is a game where the player controls the paddles of a virtual pinball machine. The game has two screens to represent the traditional pinball table and one for a bonus mode. Play begins when the player launches a ball with the plunger from the first screen—the bottom of the pinball table—through the top of the screen to the second screen. Play will move to the first screen if the ball falls through the bottom of the top screen and will return to the top screen if the ball is hit back through the space at the top of the first screen. The player controls the flippers on either screen to deflect the ball to keep it from falling off the bottom of the lower screen.

Pinball has a secondary Breakout-like mode, which the player reaches by hitting the ball into a bonus hole that takes the player to a bonus stage where they control Mario carrying a platform. The object of this mode is to rescue Pauline (previously seen in Donkey Kong). The player achieves this by bouncing the ball off Mario's platform and hitting various targets, the destruction of which also earns them points. When the blocks under her are all gone, she will drop. Catching her on Mario's platform earns the player bonus points, but allowing her to hit the ground causes the player to lose.

Re-releases

Pinball was re-released for the Family Computer Disk System on May 30, 1989.

The game can be unlocked in the 2001 video games Dōbutsu no Mori and Animal Crossing for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. The GameCube version supports Advance Play, allowing Pinball to be played on a Game Boy Advance by using a GameCube – GBA link cable. The cable can be detached from the systems once the download is complete, and the Game Boy Advance version supports sleep mode.

In 2002, Pinball was released for the e-Reader on the Game Boy Advance. This required the e-Reader accessory and Pinball cards, and in contrast to the Advance Play version in Animal Crossing, it did not support sleep mode.

Pinball' was released as a Virtual Console downloadable title for the Wii in 2006 (November 19 in North America, December 2 in Japan and December 15 in PAL region) and Wii U (on October 24, 2013).

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Pinball on their October 1, 1984 issue as being the twenty-fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.[2]

Notes
  1. Japanese: ピンボール Hepburn: Pinbōru

References
  1. "Satoru Iwata – 1999 Developer Interview". Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  2. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 245. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 October 1984. p. 35.
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