Great pinball action on the go....
To start, Samus herself shows up in morph ball form, a traditional Metroid trademark that Fuse Games takes full advantage of. Samus blasting around the table will bring back memories of our favorite female bounty hunter zooming through alien tunnels at lightning speeds. Storywise, there's not really much to speak of, but its "multi-table mode" will highlight key points in Prime and throughout the game you'll be faced with familiar environments and enemies you've played before. I was pleased to see that the features that are most unique to Metroid fit neatly and appropriately into the pinball/arcade frame.
The gameplay is simply rock solid pinball at its core (Fuse did an excellent job mimicking real pinball physics), but it also includes a few enhancements Metroid fans are sure to get a kick out of. You'll follow the usual struggle of keeping the pinball (or in this case, morph ball) from going down the gutter as you hit electrified parts of the scenery to collect points. However, the game throws in some twists that can' t be replicated on a pinball table. Get ready to be attacked by fully animated enemies jumping, floating and crawling around while you bump around the table. As a pleasant bonus there are shoot -em-up sequences where Samus pulls out of morph ball form and starts blasting away at wave after wave of alien foes. All this is fairly entertaining, but what really steals the show are the boss battles which pit Samus against the bigger-than-life bosses of Metroid Prime.
Another great aspect of Metroid Prime Pinball is that it takes advantage of the Nintendo DS's unique hardware. The most evident is the use of both screens where the player can view the pinball table across the screens vertically; the top part of the DS shows a slightly tilted view of the table which gives the feeling of having a pinball machine in your hands. To add to this, Nintendo also provided a rumble pack with the game, which for the most part works well in bolstering the experience, but makes a somewhat odd buzzing sound. Regardless, it adds a nice value to Metroid Pinball since the only other way to pick up a Nintendo DS rumble pak is to order it off the Internet.
Graphically everything looks great despite the fact that the backgrounds are obviously prerendered. Still, everything else still seems to fit into the scenery, rather then float above it. The sound design goes hand-in-hand with the graphics, and is a solid and definite fan pleaser. The moody, atmospheric music of Metroid Prime is nicely remixed with a more action/arcade-like flair. The rest of the sound design contains all the familiar blast, bleeps, and alien chirps found in the series.
Unfortunately, while Metroid Pinball is a full-featured, well-presented game, there are only two boards available initially in single-mode and only one available for wireless multiplayer. Although multi-table does offer a few additional tables to the single player, the multiplayer mode can become a thin novelty after a few rounds because it is limited to one table. So as far as replay value is concerned, this is a great pick-up-and-play game for a lone pinball veteran. However, if pinball play isn't your cup of tea, you may get bored or even frustrated before you get accomplished enough to unlock new tables. The bottom line is that if you are a fan of Metroid and even causally like to play pinball, you will become quickly addicted to aiding Samus in her quest to kick alien butt.