The Pinball Arcade (iOS, Android, PlayStation3, PS Vita, Xbox 360, and Mac)

Going to the arcade as a kid, I was never a big pinball person myself.  Although the tables looked cool, I found them kind of arcane with their magical 'specials' and 'lit' ramps and such.  Plus, I was never a good enough player to make my quarter last more than a few minutes.  For that reason I tended to gravitate towards more familiar games such as air hockey, Die Hard Arcade and the Terminator 2 shooter.

However, as arcades have come and gone (and hopefully are coming back again, albeit more sparsely), my interest in pinball has been renewed.  It would seem that pinball and its associated community is still relatively strong, despite the downfall of arcades.  In fact, it is much easier to find a pinball table in a bowling alley than it is to find an older style arcade cabinet.  There seems to be something about pinball that keeps fans dedicated to its upkeep.

I have never been all that impressed with digital pinball games.  Although my wife swears by Epic Pinball (Epic Megagames - DOS), I could never really get in to pinball games in general.  Manipulating the flippers by using buttons on a keyboard just didn't feel right, and the physics always seemed very artificial.  That has all changed though with my discovery of The Pinball Arcade.

I can't remember where I found out about this game.  It could have been a mention on Reddit, or maybe an advertisement in RetroGamer magazine.  Either way it doesn't matter.  This game is the cats meow.

You only have 20 minutes to kill?  Fire up your favourite table and practice hitting the left ramp a few times.  Your schedule suddenly clears up a bit and that twenty minutes becomes an hour of downtime?  Perfect!  Now you can put your practice to good use and go for the jackpot.

Farsight Studios obviously loves pinball and obviously cares about their product.  You can feel it in the fit and finish of the game.  I'm not talking about genius menus trees, or amazing intro cinematics because it has neither of these.  I'm talking about the game play itself.  It. Is. Awesome.  It easily is the closest thing to playing pinball you can experience without having a table in your house.

Tables run for about $4.99 for two (usually), or you can buy the season pack for either $30 or $40 depending on season.  Yes, that seems expensive, but the tables have been beautifully recreated from original, authentic pinball tables.  Plus, the pinball table at the local bowling alley near me costs a dollar per ball, or three balls for two dollars.  It doesn't take a genius to see how fast you can eat through real money, especially when you're new to a table.  This game also includes instructions for every table so that you can unravel those previously mentioned 'arcane' strategies and put them to use racking up points!

Having mentioned the fact that the tables are based off of real tables, I want to speak to this for a moment.  Being a nostalgia junky, I think it is absolutely amazing that a company is taking the time to digitally archive electro-mechanical devices, and that they're doing it properly right from the beginning.  Yes, you can emulate old consoles and arcade cabinets but it's never truly the same.  Somehow, Farsight has done it in such a way that it 'feels' right. It'll never be exactly the same as playing a real table - you can't feel the life of the table through you hands nor can you smell the warm bulbs, but it's pretty freakin' close.  I'm not sure what they've put in their secret sauce, but I hope they never change it!

I highly recommend that anyone with any device (sorry Blackberry!) at least give it a shot.  There is a free table of the month available for play, and you can try any table up to the minimum high score.

Who knows, maybe you'll get hooked as well.  The more pinball fanatics, the better for the community!

|http://www.pinballarcade.com/

Muramasa Rebirth (PS Vita)

The two main playable characters from Muramasa Rebirth

When Muramasa was released for the Wii back in 2009 I cursed myself for not being able to play it. I didn't have a Wii and I didn't even live in a country that sold games at the time. It was yet another game by Vanillaware that I would not get to play. The years passed, pain and jealousy towards others receding into a dull petulent sulking.

A few months back I managed to snag a used Vita from a Chinese student in Oslo that no one trusted enough to buy from. All he wanted was a bit more scratch to somehow survive in this monetary black hole of a city and all I wanted was to play Persona 4 Golden. I thank him now for selling me this system because Muramasa Rebirth has been released for the Vita and it is very, very awesome.

The graphics are so stylish that I sat staring at the screen with my mouth open like an idiot. That is I did, until my girlfriend smacked me in the head for ignoring her. I blinked at her a few times, slightly confused, then simply turned the Vita's screen in her direction. I watched as she was slowly sucked into the colourful little scene, her eyes darting around to take in all the little details. She was especially charmed by how eating dishes in Muramasa is portrayed. Every click of the action button causes a piece of the meal to disappear. Every so often a 'bite' from the dish is accompanied by a voiced line like "I wish I had some sake" from the main character. In another area the wind blows through a field, in a background layer you can only see when you jump. There is motion in these little moments and it is this movement which breathes life into Muramasa Rebirth's 2D world.

Of course the graphics would mean nothing without some substance to the actual gameplay. There's a lot of slashing accompanied by the shattering of swords as you get to grips with how the game controls. It took me a little time to adjust to but soon enough I was flinging my character around the screen with reckless abandon, pointing my blade at anything that even remotely looked like it wanted some.

This isn't supposed to be a detailed review so I'll stop before I go on for hours, and I could. I realise that half of my joyous freak-out is because I've never played the original Muramasa, or even any other Vanillaware games. There are no doubt issues that I haven't seen or grown tired of yet, issues that fans of the original will point out. There will likely be accusations of repetition and a degree of shallowness to something or other.

All I can say is that Muramasa Rebirth is a beautiful game with fluid action that's a hell of a lot of fun to play. You will find something that is without a doubt well worth your time if you allow yourself to be drawn in by its stunning world.