March 2008 News Posts
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| Topic: |
Pinballz2
review by David Eaton |
Date: |
15/04/2003 |
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Pinballz2 By:
Jason Goldman
Every now and then
life throws you a curve ball. That is just what Jason Goldman has
done with his new game, Pinballz2. I’ve seen other pinball
games before, although I don’t think I’ve written a review
of any, and so I didn’t know what to expect from this game. I
loaded it on my Clie, without reading any of the documentation, and
immediately started a game.
The first thing that
I noticed was the fact that the game played only in 320x320 mode.
(The fact that it only plays on OS 5.0 devices didn’t impact me
at all since I was using my NX70V.) I was a bit disappointed with
this but figured, "What the heck. Jason is a friend of Shaun’s
so I’ll give it a go."
The next thing that I
noticed is that the top portion of the screen didn’t seem to
have any purpose to it other than to house a couple of moving cars
on the left side. I promptly emailed Shaun and asked him if he had
any idea what those areas were for. While waiting for a response I
continued to play.
That’s when I
got that curve ball that I mentioned earlier. As you play the game
you, just like all pinball games, use your flippers to hit the pall
up into the area filled with bumpers and lights. After playing the
game for a while, and starting to get bored with it to be honest,
all of the sudden the areas to the top of the screen opened up (not
at the same time – you have to activate them individually by
repeatedly hitting contact points with the ball…) and I found
myself playing breakout on the right side and a mini-pinball game on
the left. Wow!
But the game didn’t
stop there. Suddenly I found myself facing fast balls, curve balls,
sliders, and even a knuckle ball or two. (I can’t help myself.
Baseball season just started…) Jason has built in so many
features into this game that I still don’t know if I have found
them all. Let’s start at the beginning and take a look at a few
of them.
First of all, the
graphics of the game were totally outstanding. The colors are rich
and the animations are smooth. Speaking of animations, you have more
things moving around other than the flippers. As I mentioned at the
top of the review, the top left corner has a couple of cars that
move back and forth. You also have the ball that bounces around. The
really impressive animation, however, (IMHO), is the animated
characters that pop up and become part of the game. You have several
different characters that pop up (I "borrowed" the
graphics from Jason’s web page…) including a turtle on
skates, and you get extra points and bonuses for hitting them with
the ball.
Even though Jason is
working on a Sony version with digital sound, the sound quality on
the current release is still much better than many of the games that
I have played in the past. I can’t wait to see what kind of
sound effects he adds to it. (Hey, Jason. Need a beta tester? ;) )
The game play is
really good as well. The left and right flippers are controlled by
the Date Book and Memo Pad buttons with the plunger strength
adjustable by using the Up and Down buttons and activated by the To
Do button or the Address button. The To Do and Address buttons can
also be used to bump the table – something I haven’t quite
gotten the hang of yet.
I could go on and on
about the additional features of the game but, to be honest with
you, I don’t think that I’ve found them all yet. Visit
www.jasongoldman.com for
a trial version (well worth registering, by the way…) and full
details on the game.
All in all I found
the game very enjoyable and can’t imagine the amount of work
that went into developing it. And remember what I said about being
initially disappointed with the 320x320 resolution? Forget about it
– the unused area allowed me to take advantage of the Sony Game
Controller to add a whole new dimension to game play….
Would I recommend
this game to friends? Definitely! It has some of the best graphics,
sound, and game play of any program that I have played on my Clie.
Score:
Quality: 100
Stability: 100
Originality: 100
Looks: 100
Value: 100
TOTAL: 100
(Congratulations,
Jason – You’ve been awarded the first perfect score from
Clie Connections….)
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| Category: |
Sofware
Reviews |
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