iiRcade now has a pinball game. But not any ordinary solo screen pinball game, this is a pinball adventure. Get to the top level and escape the flood. Collect extra points and pocket millions in the bonus zones. You can’t play this with a standard ball, this one has special skills, get it up to the maximum speed and score bonuses. The higher you go, the more points you get and continue as high as you can survive. As you progress through the game, the bottom of the screen fills with water. You need to stay out of the water to stay alive. Once you hit the water, you have limited time to get the ball out (if possible) and continue your journey upward. One your ball meter reaches 100% in the water, you are done. 
It sounds like a challenge iiRcaders are willing to take. I was one of them. I truly enjoy pinball for any platform, for any kinds of table, etc. This is truly a unique pinball game. My first time playing the adrenaline was pumping as i climbed upward using the flippers (A button on the left, A button on the right). Then after 10 minutes, I could not get the ball any higher, the challenge of getting the ball to the next upper tier was frustrating. I could not do it. Then at one point the ball dropped 
to the bottom and hit the water, my points were going down while in the water, not just few points here and there, but hundreds of thousands of points. That seemed odd. So I played again the next day and my score was top of the leaderboard and I was still going, I got up to 35 million points at one point, but then the ball eventually fell to the water. THe points were depleting. There was no stopping it. I thought, we maybe I will lose a few million and still be top on the high scores. Well, that was not the case and my final score was only 650,000. Still to this day, do not understand that scoring system.
The controls are pretty cool by using both player A buttons to hit as flippers. That is a cool arcade feature of playing pinball. The mechanics of the flippers on the other hand don’t see to be 100%. It is very difficult to hit the ball where you want, possibly the frame rate or the logistics of the ball. Half the game you are at the mercy of the ball hitting bumpers, walls, and “the water”. the music is heart pumping and repetitive, which makes you even more intense getting the ball higher up. the graphics are pretty top notch for a pinball game. I really love the colors and the layout of some of the rocks and boulders..
I am gong to give this some more chances, but after playing a few times, my patience was getting tested. Maybe they can remove the losing millions option and just see how high and how many points a player can get before hitting the water.
Todd Friedman is heavily involved in the retro gaming community and has co-promoted the Video Game Summit in Chicago, IL for the past 16 years. He also has published 2 books and written for various different gaming magazines including Old School Gamer.
