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November 03, 2005
Meteos ≤ Metroid
I said a while back that I would talk about Meteos, but well, never really got around to it. It's a great puzzler and all, it while it may not best the immortal Tetris or the sublime Tetris Attack, it's still a good time. I'm sure I could write more, but, well, right now, my heart wouldn't be in it. Because, you see, there's a new love in my life... and its name is Metroid Pinball. Actually, no, wait, scratch that. Metroid Prime Pinball. Sorry. It's an important differentiation, as it further establishes the Prime games as a separate franchise from the rest of the series.
I was really ready to hate MPP (yeah you know me), just as I hate all other digital recreations of pinball. "Pinball should be real, man," is what I always say. There's video games, and then there's pinball, and never the two shall cross. Pokémon Pinball? Fuck it. Sonic Spinball? Super queer. The Pinball of the Dead? Funny, but no. Then though, I heard about this mysterious "Metroid Prime Pinball" in the works for the DS. At first I called it blasphemy, as it was a further whoring out of my beloved franchise. (Honestly, I don't know a bigger Metroid fan than myself, and I know a lot of nerds.) First it was the jump to 3D, then the jump to 3D arcade-style deathmatch, then to video pinball? WTF?
My skepticism quickly transformed into admiration though, once I actually played the game at EB. I realized that although it probably was a cash grab, it was a cash grab done well. It really is Metroid Prime in pinball form. I don't know how Nintendo (actually Fuze, a small British developer) pulled it off, but they did. The graphics, the sound, the little bonus games, it's all 100% Metroidy goodness.
It's not all porkchops and apple sauce, though. It does get a small demerit for the included Rumble Pak. Like everyone else says, it's needlessly loud and not very powerful. Not really sure what's going on there. (Gratitous Rumble Pak pr0n from yours truly here.) I'm also guessing the Rumble Pak is why the game costs $34.99 instead of $29.99. I would have preferred the five dollars. I also would have enjoyed some bonus unlockables for putting in a Metroid Zero Mission or Metroid Fusion cart in the GBA slot. Even if it was just a new "fusion" ball or something equally lame, just a little sumthin' sumthin' from Nintendo saying "what up" would have been nice.
So yeah, video pinball isn't all bad. Maybe I only like this one because it's on the DS. The double screens really lend themselves to pinball-playing, and you can use the touch screen to nudge the table as you would a real pinball machine. Both features are things that no other system can claim to do. This past weekend I played at least a dozen games of Terminator 2 pinball (real pinball) up in Lake George. And like it or not, the Metroid skillz that I've developed over the past week or definitely helped me and the Governator kick some Judgement Day ass. Still, give me real pinball any day, but in a pinch, I'm down with MPP.
Posted by pat at November 3, 2005 11:45 AM