 |
| OVERALL RATING |
3.0 |
| Presentation |
 |
3.5 |
| Control |
 |
3.0 |
| Gameplay |
|
3.5 |
| Fun factor |
|
3.0 |
| User Rating |
 |
3.5 |
 |
Posted: August 11, 2006
80’s Pinball revisits the decade of excess with a pick-up-and-play game that’s meant for players of all ages. Adorned in pastels and featuring a rousing soundtrack with unmistakable sound, you’ll swear you’ve just stepped back in time.
Up to eight players can take part in the game that features the usual bumpers, ramps, switches, and slingshots. Four flippers and four-way nudge controls are available but where this game surprises is in the number of different missions/goals that are available to score tons of points.
As with all pinball games, knocking down switches and playing balls to certain targets will open up challenges for big bonuses. In this game, there are eight different goals that will test your skills and patience if you hope to score riches. These include playing the stock market, collecting vehicles, and even playing golf. Keep in mind though that you aren’t actually playing these as mini-games, instead, it’s more of using the playing field going through ramps or nailing the right target once other parameters have been met.
The action is authentic and rapid but unfortunately the game lacks responsive controls that end up making it more difficult than normal. The lack of simultaneous button input forces the player to use only the left or right flippers one at a time. Some of this is understandable since some handsets don’t allow for two buttons to be pressed at once, but in the case here, they also tend to react slowly to your input. Because of this delay many balls can be lost and you cannot effectively pass the ball from one flipper to the other. Granted, this issue will mostly affect users who delight in going after the extra goals, but for anyone else who just wants to hit the ball wherever it goes, it may not matter.
80’s Pinball features decent ball physics and a good board layout to keep enthusiasts interested day in and day out. Outside of the sketchy flipper controls, it proves to be one of the more solid pinball experiences on mobile.
