Digital Pinball

When I received the game entitled Digital Pinball for the Sega Saturn, I immediately thought that I would not spend more than an hour with this new 3D pinball. It was not because of the game itself, but just because my first experience with a 3D pinball on a console left me with such a bad experience that I really wonder now when I get one in my hands. Fortunately, I have been happily surprised by Digital Pinball, and believe it or not, I spent a tremendous amount of time on this splendid game.

Like many other pinballs (including 2D pinballs), there are 4 tables featured on the CD. Classic themes like sports or movies have no place in Digital Pinball in which the art of war was the source of inspiration of the following names: Gladiators, Knight of the Roses, Dragon Showdown and Warlock.

When you begin with a new ball, a window appears on the screen with three bonuses alternatively being highlighted that you can select by pressing one button on the pad. This way, you will activate one of the bonuses that were ramdomly chosen by the program. They can lite extra-balls, start rounds, raise jackpots, etc...

All tables feature lights, pits, ramps, lanes, targets, bumpers and legions of bonuses. There are two types of bonuses, the general and the particular. The general are common to all four tables like Freeze, DeathWatch, Sons of Mars, etc. They usually increase in value when you are capable of repeating shots at selected targets like ramps or holes to complete the spelling of certain words (VICTOR, DREAD or RAGE). The particular bonuses are called rounds and they are specific to each table. There are nine of them per table with one additional called the Ultimate round which is only available when you complete all 9 rounds.

What I like the most in pinballs are the multi-ball modes. So I really was in heaven when I played with Digital Pinball and discovered all the multi-ball bonuses included in the game. Each multiball has a number of balls ranging from two to six depending on the table you are playing with and the different targets and goals.

One more thing to notice is the presence of indicators and arrows during the game to show you what is being lit, where you should shoot to get jackpots and other bonuses. As the view doesn't scroll like in 2D pinballs, these indicators are very precious in locating goals and achieving the higher scores.

Digital Pinball's soundtrack relies on hard rock music tracks accompanied by deep and resonant voices for the in-game speeches. You will hear sentences such as "We, who are about to die, salute you!" or "The true warrior has awakened the Dragon!".

Conclusion:

For the first time, a console game manages to capture the spirit of a pinball machine and delivers all the excitement you can expect as if you were playing with the real thing.

Ratings:

Overall:

Publishers:

In North America:

Sega of America Inc.,
255 Shoreline Drive,
2nd floor,
Redwood City, CA 94065

In Europe:

In UK:

Sega Europe Ltd.,
247 Cromwell Road,
London SW5 9GA

In Netherlands:

Sega Video Games Netherlands B.V.,
47, Huizermaatweg,
1273 Na Huizen.