Pinball Challenge Deluxe - GBA

Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies, arguably two of the best pinball simulators available on the market have, after almost ten years since release, been brought together in the appealing form of Ubi Soft’s Pinball Challenge Deluxe for Game Boy Advance.

Originally available for the PC, Amiga 500 and even the SNES, Pinball Dreams was the benchmark by which all other 2D pinball games would be compared. It features four tables: Ignition, Steel Wheel, Beat Box and Nightmare, and each comes with the usual slew of bumpers, ramps, targets and multiplier bonuses. For the most part, Pinball Dreams is a game in which your performance depends almost entirely on your level of skill. The traps down the left, right and centre of the table mean a small element of luck is sometimes needed, but the tilt function within the game can be used to minimise the risk of losing your balls.

Pinball Fantasies, a game that was scrutinised from the beginning by fans of Pinball Dreams, surprisingly emerged as the better of two games. Pinball Fantasies is a very technical game, even by today’s standards, and ball physics are frighteningly accurate. The tables themselves, named Partyland, Speed Devils, Billion Dollar Gameshow and the almighty Stones and Bones, are superbly designed. It’s just a shame they don’t exist in the real world. But Pinball Fantasies also offers a steady learning curve. The more you play, the better you become, the higher your score. We even managed to rack up a score of 500 million on the Stones and Bones table in a game that lasted more than half an hour. Thank heavens for the Pause button!

It’s a mobile version of two of the best pinball games around. Do you really need another reason to buy this gem?
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