Before world warriors fought things out in the street, before the earth was invaded by beings from space, before ghosts and dots alike feared a yellow circle with a voracious appetite, there was … pinball. Like the video game arcades of the past, pinball was huge back in the day. Every major hot spot, from diners to movie theater lobbies, had gaming machines installed, and people wanted to grab the highest possible score simply by hitting a metal sphere with a pair of plastic flippers. It grew popular enough that The Who made a song dedicated to the pastime. Sadly, like arcades themselves, pinball machines have become a scarcity, with only a precious few places still keeping these machines around.
Gamesta.com gets news from BigBen Interactive that they'll be bringing Pinball Hall of Fame to Nintendo 3DS with The Williams Collection 3D. Remember pinball? Pre-internet days seem so far away now. Time to feel old.
"Ah, pinball. Whenever you'd enter an arcade in the 90's, you would be almost instantly greeted by a whirlwind of various colours and sounds, all vying for your attention. However, one thing that you could almost guarantee is that, even though their presence has diminished over time, you would hear the sounds of the pinball machines, no matter where they were in the arcade. This constant has always reassured me, as I love traditional pinball. Games such as Metroid Prime: Hunters, for instance have tried to capture the feel of Pinball in a more "video game-y" style, but that is not what I wanted. I wanted a way to play my favourite pinball classics again; and Farsight Studios delivered." -- Wiiloveit.com
Gamertell has posted a mixed review of Crave's 3DS game, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection.
From the review:
"As with the Williams Collection on other devices, you can play the Williams Challenge (achieve the target score on one table in order to progress), Arcade Mode (play any machine you’ve unlocked until you’ve run out of tokens) and Tournament Mode (the format used for most pinball championships). Unlocking all the tables isn’t that difficult but there are fewer tables here than in the console version. You get Gorgar, Black Knight, Space Shuttle, Pinbot, Taxi, Whirlwind and Funhouse."