Quantic Pinball is a digital pinball game in which you must achieve goals on each table and shoot the ball to the exit gate to reach the next table.
General Gameplay
Pinball, digital pinball is the game here as such you hit the ball into ramps scoring points and getting goals finished on the table, so you can open the gate, hit the ball through the gate and go ahead to the next table. The game consists of 6 different tables and a special stage in which you must take out space invaders with the balls in 30 different waves with a 30 second countdown. The Game Visuals are very 2D in its presentation. With mostly lighter colors a slivery tone to the tables, the colors in the game help set the stage of the tables. The game looks more like a futuristic pinball tables than anything else. The graphics are clear and easy to see. One of the biggest complaints are that the balls on a pinball table are hard to keep up with, in Quantic Pinball it is very easy to keep up with the action and what is going on. There is no colorblind mode in the game, however the game graphics, and colors are easily seen. In our play testing we did not encounter any issues with the graphics, however we did see some slowdown in the gameplay (more in our family friendly section). Audio for Quantic Pinball is an electronic ambient style of music that you would hear in a futuristic pinball game. There are very minimal vocals to the game and the sounds from the hammers on the table, to bumpers, and the pinball hitting other objects are all here. The game is not in 5.1 surround sound but that’s ok as the Quantic Pinball sounds great on the Smart TV speakers. In our play testing, we did not run into any issues with the sound, or even language audio as the game is very family friendly. Controls for the game are very easy to use. The hammers are used by the left and right trigger and one face button to tilt the table. The game controls are designed in a way to make the game easy for anyone to play. In our play testing we did not run into any issues with the controls, however the tilt button in our opinion was mis-mapped and felt not natural when in use. As the game is designed to be very easy to be played we were able to use the default controller and there was no need for any special type of controller to play Quantic Pinball.
“Quantic Pinball is a great alternative to the other pinball games out there, however with its choice of limited tables and modes the gameplay is also limited vs other pinball games out there”
Family Friendly
Pinball games are a very interesting breed of games that are on the consoles. As the very nature of the game is all analog from ball movement to the pressure of the hammers hitting the ball up and down the table, and movement from ramp to ramp and bumpers. It is very hard to recreate the action of an authentic pinball table. Where Quantic Pinball got it right and wrong is overall design. The game tables are designed to have a futuristic look and feel to them but what it lacks is depth. The tables feel flat and that the ramps that you hammer the ball into feel that they are just flat lanes that the ball travels, also as most of the challenges on the tables are not told to the gamer, it is more of a trial and error to discover what to do next before you can exit the table and continue to the next. Also, in our play testing we did notice some slowdowns in multi-ball sessions that did cause some delay reactions for our family gamers to hit the ball (now I am guessing that the developers will fix this in a future update so no worries about it interfering in the gameplay) Other than those issues, Quantic Pinball is a great budget game to have in your digital library for the causal pinball fan. The game is fun enough to be enjoyed by casual gamers but for more hard-core gamers that are pure pinball fans it would be better to pass the game up. In our playtesting, we did not run into any issues with the graphics, sound or even controls and felt that the game is very family friendly. In our special needs testing, all our special needs gamers had a great time playing the game and some even liked the 2D design as it helped to follow the action on the table. Our best advice is that if you are in the market for a pinball game and do not want to spend a lot on the game because of the license DLC then Quantic Pinball is a great choice, however as we said before for more hard-core pinball gamers, they may get board of the game after a while and pass.
Closing
With a limited range of tables, and game modes, Quantic pinball is more suited for the casual pinball fan, however if you are more serious about pinball games you may not feel that there is enough in this game.
