Metroid Pinball has realistic physics, cool unlockable boards, mini games, and comes with a rumble pack. A great buy!
You only start off with two boards in the high score mode, but by defeating bosses in the missions mode you can open others for play. The power-ups, weapons, and other goodies you can collect are a great sidebar from the standard play along with the shooting and artifact collecting mini games. The bouncing physics and board layouts are well designed, and coupled with the little creatures you run into while playing make the gameplay interesting. You are given a bounty score for the creatures you kill with your morph ball pinball and can boost your score with good accuracy. The shoulder buttons work well as the flippers. The ABXY buttons are used for the bombs and missiles depending on the mode you're in. If you're in the combat mini game, the shoulder buttons turn Samus while firing her gun. While she's in morph ball, you can hit the B button to lay bombs as your ball passes which explode to kill more enemies or do more damage to the bosses. The execution of merging the pinball play with little highlights from the Metroid series is excellent and refreshing for someone who has never played the series. I didn't even have a problem with the table bump feature using the touch screen. The important thing is to use the thumbpad that comes on the DS carrying strap on your left hand. You can then tap the touch screen to bump the table when you need to... with no tilt!
The graphics are really good and seem to have a 3D feel while remaining top down. The screen angle that the boards are at is enough depth to make it seem like you are standing in front of a pinball machine. The sound is definately a hightlight. I'm not familiar with the music from the Metroid series, but it is action themed while still being varied and seems to fit each level you are playing. I haven't played it multiplayer yet, but it seems to be a great thing that you only need one cartridge. The game also comes with the rumble pack, which works fine. I really didn't notice the noise that people have been talking about and the feel it gives matches the gameplay.
The game seems like old-school pinball with new-school Nintendo and Metroid touches. i can't recommend this game enough. It will eat up your hours and keep you coming back for more. It's like a real pinball machine, but without the quarters!