Metroid Prime Pinball 9/10

I have been playing pinball for 30 years and this game keeps the excitement going.

*Story - 6/10
Not too much of a story really. You play Samus in the morphed ball configuration of the suit. The idea is to collect 12 artifacts so that you can enter the Artifact temple to fight Metroid Prime.

*Gameplay - 9/10
Just like a normal pinball machine with flippers and bumpers, ramps and targets but with the added twist... this is no ordinary ball and your enemy jump up on the table and shoot missiles at you.

There are a few different game modes in this game. The main mode is single player mission mode. You start off with two tables and as you complete missions by killing enemy and collecting artifacts you open up new tables. There are six tables in all.

The missions are challenging and will take several attempts to complete. Enemies are killed by either hitting them or using the B button to drop a bomb next to them and blowing them up. You can also obtain missiles and a machine gun.

The shoulder buttons of the DS are great flipper controls, making the DS ideal to play this game.
The touch screen is used to bump the table. I found this hard to do while holding the flippers. Putting a finger stylus around your thumb would be perfect for this game.



*Graphics - 8/10
The tables are very detailed and so are the creatures that inhabit them. The tables have been designed around worlds in the Metroid games. All the surfaces look great. The metal shines and the rocks crumble. The holograms and flashing lights look very nice.

*Sound - 9/10
I could listen to this all day long. The gameplay music is very dramatic and changes with the mood of the game. The female announcer's voice is pleasant and at the correct volume compared to the music.

*Conclusion
Pinball and FPS have been merged very well in this game. I found it to be challenging and have great replay value. The game also has local wireless mode for up to 8 players to see who can get to a certain score the quickest on a 7th table not available in any other part of the game.