February
15, 2005
There
isn't much that I can saw about Sega's Pinball of the Dead,
except that it plays like a wonderfully vicious throwback to the
great Devil's Crush, with more shine and sparkle than a
Gameboy Advance game should ever be allowed to have. That this was
a 2001 release is even more startling; these are some of the finest
graphics in the handheld's entire library, with sterling, clear
stereo sound.
It's
another testament to the greatness the Sega has been conjuring since
those lost glory days of the Dreamcast. A selection of three pinball
boards, each with its own personality and requiring different strategies;
loads of zombie monsters roaming the playfields, like a swarm of
spiders that crashed your old pinball machine; numerous surprises,
from the boss battles to that giant head under the manhole cover
that looks like Kurt Cobain; Pinball of the Dead does everything
so right I'm left wondering why so many video pinball games have
been so bad. Has it really been this long since Devil's Crush?
There really hasn't been a good pinball title since then (even Naxat
couldn't top their masterpiece).
If
I had to make do with only five or six games for this system, I'd
almost immediately reach for Pinball of the Dead. Chances
are you've already been playing this to death for the last three
or four years; you don't need any extra needling from me. This is
one of the Advance's very best games. |
