Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire - Review

How to Learn From the Past: Pokemon Pinball
What a Difference a Bit of Polish Can Make

After the critical acclaim garnered by the first Pokemon Pinball game, it was only natural that Nintendo would want to release a second game in the spin-off series. Four years after the release of the first game, and after an upgrade in hardware, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire was released in 2004 for the Gameboy Advance. If you've read my review of the first game, you know that I have several issues with that title, but going into this game with an open mind, I was surprised by what I found.

One of the major faults of the original Pokemon Pinball game was the poor physics and overall unrealistic feeling of movement. It's almost amazing to note how much has been done to correct this in Ruby and Sapphire: the control is tight and the physics of movement, the way the ball rolls seamlessly down the table, stands in stark contrast to the loose and awkward controls of the previous installment. The game requires a lot of precision, so these better controls mean that players are able to develop a greater degree or proficiency and skill when aiming for certain targets or attempting to trigger particular events. Whereas the older game had a certain element of hit the ball and pray something will happen, this game makes you feel like you're actually in control, like you're really earning your score.

This is the game that proves the concept of the original game. The developer, Jupiter, didn't make any changes to the two-board structure that I complained about in my other review, but with competent objectives and proper gameplay, you never feel like you're at a loss for something to do. One of the improvements to the game was the addition of a second method of capturing Pokemon. Unlike the first game, where you could only capture by triggering the Catch Mode and hitting bumpers to reveal the monster, Ruby and Sapphire adds a Hatch mode where repeating a certain action several times will eventually cause an egg to hatch and the Pokemon inside the egg to walk around on the playing field. Players can then complete the capture by hitting the Pokemon twice. Variety is also added by small bonus stages similar to the stages in the first game, but seem to happen more frequently due to how comparatively easy catching Pokemon is.

Everything seems more intuitive in Ruby and Sapphire, the boards are well balanced, and I was able to rack up similar scores on both Ruby and Sapphire boards. It's also fairly easy to catch and evolve on both boards. This balance means that the player feels less like they have to play one board more than the other, and leads to a more enjoyable experience. The game is easier, perhaps, but that doesn't cheapen the experience, if anything, it encourages the player to try to do more in the game. Looking at the Pokedex, I actually felt confident in the possibility of completing it, given enough time. The difficulties that had to be overcome in order to evolve in the first game, meant that completion seemed like an impossible task, not so in Ruby and Sapphire.

Another new feature is the Pokemart, which allows you purchase items like additional lives, multipliers, or instant transport to one of the bonus stages. These upgrades are paid for with coins that are gathered by taking certain routes on each table. Though the idea is a fairly good one, I didn't find the Pokemart to be especially useful. Saving up the coins necessary for the useful items takes quite a while, and you never know if you'll have the right number when you happen to open up store option.

Things I would have liked to have seen, would have been a multiball feature or a multi-level component to one or both of the boards. These are fairly standard things for pinball table to have, and I feel that their exclusion is somewhat unfortunate. That said, what is there is quite impressive.

Looking at both games side by side, it's almost hard to believe that they were separated by a mere four years. Clearly, the developers had a lot more processing power and graphical capability to work with while creating the Gameboy Advance game. The graphics are crisp and sharp, suitably modern, but retaining a certain quality of hand-drawn old-school character. The game features a good number of beautiful pixel art pieces, the sort of quality work that won't age like the jagged polygons that might be splashed over the game if re-made for the DS. Perhaps the GBA was the last classic portable system, and, if so, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire is the last classic portable pinball game.  You can get your hands on a copy of the game for anywhere from five to fifteen dollars, and, if you're a fan of pinball or a diehard Pokemaster, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do.

--Tom

Pokemon Pinball - Review

Pokemon and Pinball: A Match Made in Heaven?
Setting Off the Tilt.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, putting the name Pokemon on a game was almost a guaranteed sales strategy for Nintendo. Despite the marketing gold that they had on their hands, the Big “N” did a fairly good job of resisting the urge to flood the marketplace with shovel-fulls of below-average games. That' not to say that they limited their output; no, throughout the later part of the millennium, there was a steady stream of Pokemon titles, but the vast majority of those games were of the quality we would expect from a company as preeminent as Nintendo. You can't win them all, though, and after churning out the high quality RPGs that form the main portion of the game, sometimes the spin-offs suffered from unfortunate issues. Pokemon Pinball is, unfortunately, one of those games.

That's not to say that Pokemon Pinball is a bad game: it's not. The game does what it can with the hardware of the Gameboy Color, and it was certainly one of the better pinball games on a portable system. When it was released in 1997, critics received it positively, but a lot of things have happened in the years that followed. The level of advancement in portable gaming in the last thirteen years has left Pokemon Pinball in the dust. Whereas games like Pokemon Red and Blue are still enjoyable years after the technology they used was outdated, Pokemon Pinball hasn't aged well.

Pinball is a fun game; the design and gameplay of the game we know as pinball have been honed for over a hundred years, and Pokemon Pinball doesn't do much to change that formula. There's a reason why we like these games, though, and while everything may look right on paper and in theory, it's not perfect in the end. Pinball relies on proper, or at least consistent, physics, but that's not exactly what you'll find if you play this game. The ball rarely does what you expect it to: speed, direction, and deflection seem to be fairly plastic, and you'll often the game running in a way that you can immediately recognize as unrealistic and impossible. This is especially prevalent on the Blue board.

Evolution in Action.

And there inlies my other complaint with the game: the boards. While there's nothing specifically wrong with either board, no matter which way you count them, there are still only two boards. The two boards, might keep you occupied for a while, but it's hard to play the game for any length of time because of this lack of variety. There are occasional mini-boards that will provide objective-based challenges, but these are few and far between. The game will tell you that you're moving from location to location in the Pokemon world, but these changes do nothing to effect the way the game plays. The issue is further compounded by the fact that, due to the previously mentioned physics issues that crop up heavily in the Blue board, you'll have to play on the red board if you want to play anything close to an actual game of pinball. This can be problematic, though, because it's much easier to catch and evolve Pokemon on the blue board.

Another possible downside to the game is the attached rumble pack, which I found more annoying than helpful. Maybe it was cool thirteen years ago, but with rumble built into most controllers nowadays, there's nothing special about this feature.

I love old games, but I can't review this game based on how it fits into historical context. Based solely on how fun this game is to play right now, I've got to recommend against picking up an old copy of Pokemon Pinball. It's not bad if you just want to play for a few minutes and catch a couple of Pokemon, but ultimately, time hasn't been kind to this game. However, if you are a Pokemon fanatic who requires Pokemon Pinball to complete your Pokemon collection, this game will only set you back a couple of dollars. Just don't expect the same level of quality that you find in the main series.

--Tom