Review: The Deep Pinball
by Matt Fox
September 1, 2009
Overview
Pinball underwater? Not a very practical way of playing this particular game...unless you're cruising the deep ocean seas in a submarine of course. Pinball like you've never seen or played it before from the same devs that brought us "Wild West Pinball."Features
This packs a lot into this little app, so try and keep up as there are a bunch of cool features included in this game. One of the game's biggest additions has to be the 3D graphics. They look amazing and these screen shots don't really do the game justice at all.
The game comes with missions and checkpoints in order to prolong gameplay and keep things a little more interesting than just hit the pinball and rack up points. (although you can absolutely do that as well) There are also numerous hidden locations and secret missions to unlock throughout the game too.
The app has camera effects that follow the pinball around the table and it also goes in for "close-up" shots of the pinball during certain points in the game. It has it's own original soundtrack included in it as well as the ability to "tilt" the table.
Still with me? Just a few more, I promise. The game has what the devs call an "on-board computer" system that speaks to you in a female voice and helps you to find hidden treasure and other hard to find items and such.
Last, the game has the usual local and world wide high score tables so you can keep track of how well you stack up against the competition. There is also a v1.1 update in review right now that is going to add the option to turn the camera on and off, turn the voices in the game on and off, turn the music on and off, and the ability to play songs through your iPod.
Breakdown
The Good:
For me it was the graphics and the controls. The game looks amazing and it plays very well with little lag or frame drops. An all around top notch job in the graphics department for sure.
I really loved the controls here. Just tap anywhere on the left side of the screen and the left flipper goes up, same on the right side. The controls are extremely responsive and they are easily some of the best I've ever played in any electronic pinball game.
I really enjoyed the mission part of the game here as well. It just gives you something to shoot for as opposed to just hitting the pinball over and over again. Having goals and achievements just makes the game that much more fun. Finding the secret missions and treasure is also a cool addition here too.
The Bad:
My only really complaint is going to be fixed with the new update, but because that hasn't been implemented yet I feel I should still address it here. So here we go: The camera and the voice from the computer. Both are pretty terrible. I'll start with the camera...
It follows the ball everywhere and at times zooms in for a "close-up" shot of the pinball. This is such a bad idea and I'm glad the devs are fixing it. A good idea in theory, but since the camera is constantly following the pinball, you don't have any sense of here the ball is in reference to the flippers. This will cause you to lose more pinballs than you'd like.
The voices just get annoying after a while. You know how it is with pinball games, it takes a few shots to get the darn thing into the right spot. Having a voice tell you over and over what to do because you're missing said spot can drive you mad very quickly.
Right now I gave the "Gameplay" for this game a 3.5 rating. That is because of the camera and nothing else. Without the camera option here, it would easily be a 4.0. The overall rating would probably go up as well. Just felt I should mention that.
