I have so much to say about this game. At first I intended to give Pokemon Pinball a quick try and then move on to other games, yet somehow I've played it every evening for this entire week. Like me, many gamers must think that there's too many franchise related pinball games out there but personally I'm glad that Pokemon Pinball was made. It may not interest those not into the Pokemon franchise, but who knows? Perhaps Pokemon Pinball is just the game that will make you fall in love with the Pokemon world.

Graphics 8
If you like the graphics in the regular Pokemon games released for the Game Boy Color you will probably enjoy the graphics in Pokemon Pinball as well. Gladly the Pokemon aren't copied straight from the roleplaying games but instead have been designed exclusively for Pokemon Pinball. For me that actually meant a lot and many of the familiar Pokemon looked even cuter than in Pokemon Gold and Silver, that were released only five months before Pokemon Pinball.

Sound 9
Many of the tracks in Pokemon Pinball are variations of the original soundtrack of Pokemon games. Variety is always a good thing within a franchise in my opinion and I bet no one would enjoy listening to the original Pokemon Anthem through their entire gaming experience. The downside of listening to 8-bit music for a long time is developing an awful headache but that aside the soundtrack is actually quite pleasant. During the many hours I've played Pokemon Pinball I've become especially fond of the music in the Blue stage.

Addictiveness 10
If you're gonna catch 'em all, you won't let go of this game! I've never been too interested in competing in scores but Pokemon Pinball has made me a high score addict. The number one score in the list of high scores is a point amount of 500,000,000 and I'm sorry to tell that I haven't reached anywhere near that score. My goal is to beat that score in the future but I'm confident to tell that it is going to take plenty of time, patience and even a bit of luck! If you pick this game up and decide to play casually you're still going to get addicted to the Pokemon catching system. You are able to catch Pokemon in different environments by completing certain requirements and every single caught Pokemon and its information is then added to your Pokedex. Sounds easy enough, but after catching three Rattata in one game you will realize that catching them all is going to be a long process. And wait till I tell you about how to evolve your caught Pokemon...

Story
Perhaps a story would be too much for a casual game like Pokemon Pinball so fortunately there is none.

Depth 9
You will not get bored with this game! As I've already said, Pokemon Pinball is not only about competing for high scores but the main idea is to catch as many Pokemon as possible. The Pokemon catching system is the reason why I kept playing this game even though I had planned to try the game once or twice. Just trying to hit the wild Pokemon that appears in the middle of the playfield with your Pokemon ball shaped Pinball is great fun in all of its simplicity. After a while you will also notice that hitting the middle of the screen can be awfully difficult! And by the way, there are only two stages. If you're like me you will notice that Red stage is absolutely awful and you will probably stick to the Blue stage only. Even though I've been playing the same stage over and over again it never gets boring. And wait till you get to the bonus stages. I've only tried the Meowth and Seel bonus stages but I've heard that there are more. In my opinion the bonus stages are an absolute blast!

Difficulty 7
You are probably surprised why I gave such a high score for difficulty, right? Well let me explain. The game in itself is very simple. You move the flippers and you can also bump the machine from both sides. But like I already mentioned above, beating the high score in my opinion is rather difficult. And if you're trying to catch all Pokemon you will notice quickly that evolving is no easy task. You see, you can only catch base Pokemon. It's easier to explain the difficulty of evolving if I give you an example. Let's say you you catch a Bulbasaur and you want to evolve it all the way to a Venusaur. I am not sure what the requirements are, but once in a while you get the opportunity to evolve those Pokemon you have caught within that single game. I've noticed that this doesn't happen too often. To evolve your Pokemon you have to hit certain targets and gather either experience points or pieces of evolving stones that appear around the playfield. Sometimes catching experience points fails and you have to wait a while before your Pokemon is strong enough to try again. When you've caught enough experience a hole appears in the middle of the playfield and hitting it is not an easy task. You see, even if you try to be gentle you hit the ball hard anyways! When the ball drops through the hole your Pokemon evolves. Now your Bulbasaur has evolved into an Ivysaur, but that is only half way from Venusaur! It is not guaranteed that you will get another chance at evolving and if you fail to get a Venusaur, you have to start all over again with catching a Bulbasaur in another game! Oh, I forgot to tell that there's always a time limit in catching and evolving Pokemon. All in all, catching every single Pokemon and adding its data into the Pokedex is what makes this game difficult to complete. When I made my latest high score I was inches away from evolving an Ivysaur into a Venusaur! I've never gotten so far into getting a final form and normally I score so low that I don't even get to evolve my Pokemon... I think there's less than a 5% chance that I will ever do so well again! I could add one detail that on the other hand makes this game easier at times. If you smash all the buttons at the same time there is a small chance that you can save your pinball from dropping into the drain. This small bug refutes all laws of physics but when your final ball is saved from certain death you can be happy that it exists.

All in all, I'm very happy that I gave Pokemon Pinball a try. I was a huge Pokemon fan back when Red and Blue version were released and I'm proud to say that I still am! Taking into account that I've had a blast playing this game in adult age, I think it's a shame I never had Pokemon Pinball as a kid. If I did, I probably would've lost my mind! My overall score for this game is as high as an 8, but I'm in no way over-exaggerating. Pokemon Pinball is awesome, after all!

EDIT: I'm terribly sorry but I don't know how to not use this layout of mine... If someone could help me I would be glad!

sillysoul : very nice review its long and seperated and descriptive congrats you did a good job

kirbmanboggle : Thank you very much! This was my first attempt at a game review so I really appreciate your kind words.

sillysoul : for your first try you did amazingly well i wish i could have writen reviews like this when i started

Pretty nice review you have here. You had a good amount of detail, but added a little too much to the opening as you faded from the direct topic of the game for a few lines, but overall you did a really great job. You divided the review up into sections, which many users don't seem to do, and you put a good amount of detail into the whole thing. Nice job and keep up the good work!