The Good
- Innovative and exciting character based pinball game.
- All the fun of a pinball game and a zombie shooter mixed together.
- Smash zombies with pinballs and fight in boss battles.
- Outrageous villains including a giant zombie head, spinning fetus experiments and rescue missions.
The Bad
- Balls are too easily lost due to table designs.
- Overall experience is too short. Only three tables and three boss battles.
- Too much repetition gets old after a while.
- Meaningless saves that only retain your score, not your progress.
Features
- The very first pinball shooter action game.
- Two gameplay Modes Normal and Challenge.
- All the pinball bells and whistles including Bumpers, Ramps, Slingshots, Targets, Switches and more.
- Tons of gross zombies in all shapes and sizes.
- Green splatter effects.
A Little Zombie Game History
Since Ubisoft introduced the very first Zombie game, Zombi, for early 8-Bit home computers in the late 80s, the flesh eating undead have joined the ranks of invaders from space, ghost monsters and Koopa Troopas as the preferred cannon fodder for gamers. Zombi was followed by a slew of living dead games leading to the pinnacle in 1996, Resident Evil, the first game to be dubbed Survival Horror. Although ideal for home video game systems, the mystery adventure style of RE doesn't fit the fast paced needs of the quarter gobbling arcade market.
The very next year Sega filled this Arcade zombie void with House of the Dead. An extraordinarily fast paced, first person, rail shooter where you use a light gun to mow down hordes of attacking zombies. The formula was a huge hit, so much so that 1989 HOTD shuffled its way into Sega’s home gaming console the Sega Saturn, as well as PCs. Although it was moderately popular, HOTD was never as successful in the home market as it was in the coin-op world.
Since then Sega has released four HOTD arcade games, three PC ports, one Xbox game and two remarkably bad movies. On the flesh eaten surface it appears that RE is the clear winner of the zombie wars, having dominated both home video consoles and Hollywood, but when it comes to Game Boy, HOTD is the Zombie King with the most bizarre, fascinating and hilarious take on the genre, far superior to RE’s failed foray into Game Boy, Resident Evil Gaiden.
The Game
Pinball of the Dead is the first and only “Survival Pinball” zombie game where you battle armies of the undead in one of the most unique takes on traditional pinball; so unique and exciting that Nintendo reworked the concept years later for Mario Pinball Land.
In Pinball of the Dead the battlefields have been designed as a freaky, gruesome, multi-screen pinball tables infested with zombie hordes. Instead of shooting them in the head, you must splatter these beasties with a ball. Mixed with traditional pinball features, you can rack up your score by hitting bumpers, slingshots, ramps and other goodies. When you knock your ball into special holes and saucers it releases special bonus levels including boss battles, giant zombie heads and saving innocent victims from even more attacking zombies.
The game spans across three pinball tables, each of which are several screens high and treated as their own separate game: Wondering, Movement, and Cemetery. Wondering is set up like an old European village; Movement has you in a high tech lab complete with a rotating, evolving zombie fetus, and Cemetery is a land of the dead with all sorts of ghoulish creatures and decor.
You can choose how you want to tackle these tables between Normal and Challenge mode. Normal allows you to choose the table you want as a stand-alone game; while in Challenge mode you play them in order. Boss battles are unlocked by clearing the zombies from the top screen and then bumping the ball into the boss gateway. Bosses are defeated by hitting them multiple times with the ball.The most frustrating part of the game is how ridiculously easy it is to lose your ball. The gap between the flippers is too wide, and the board is designed so that balls easily slip into the side lost-ball slots. More than once I found the ball immediately fall between the flippers, get it shot back as a “ball save” directly into the ball loss slot. The save feature ads to the frustration as it only saves your score, not your progress, so if your close to unlocking a mission and your game gets interrupted, you’re out of luck.
With only three tables to play, the overall experience does feel a bit on the short side as it can be completed in just under an hour. Although pinball games are known for their addictive nature, a mission based pinball doesn’t seem to hold the same replayability after it’s completed.
With all of its negatives aside, if you’re seeking a descent horror game for the GBA and need to “kill” about an hour, Pinball of the Dead is your best bet. The greatest zombie smashing action you’ll find for any Game Boy system.
Parents Tips
Rated T for Teen by the ESRB. Pinball of the Dead contains loads of gruesome and gory zombies that can easily freak out younger players. The only blood comes from the zombies, but the color has been changed from red to green, most likely to appease territories such as Germany who have put a ban on video games containing red blood.
Bottom line is, if you don’t want your kid playing a game involving death or killing, steer clear. If you don’t mind all of that, plus a little gross-out humor, then this is a good one for teenage gamers.