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In everything in life, it's always best to be honest. The fine fellows at Ocean know this, and deliver a game which is completely honest to its title. Now, if you've ever played pinball, you'll know it's one of the most rewarding experiences this side of good sex. Unless you're a complete klutz or suffer from coordination problems, it's impossible to suck at pinball. Even those lame, weak shots are bound to light up *something* that will give you a couple thousand points, and if you're extremely unlucky, there's always the "save ball" feature to give you what amounts to an extra chance. If you actually know what you're doing, it all becomes even more rewarding - there are few things as fulfilling and beautiful as a ramp combo in a pinball game. Ocean know all this, and therefore deliver a game which puts the fun factor above everything else, effectively capturing the essence of pinball. In fact, True Pinball is physical evidence to support the argument that "it's not about the graphics, it's the gameplay that matters". Technically, it's middling - its graphics are the standard for 1996, being similar to other games of the period such as Pinball Mania, and the sound is minimalistic - aside from the Vikings table, where you can hear warcries, it is limited to ambient music and the occasional whoop when you get a bonus. Neither do Ocean try to lure us in with multiple game modes - you go in, choose a table, play it, and that's it. But then again, pinball was never a high-longevity game - you play it for a quick fix, and that's what Ocean deliver. The emphasis here is on the immediate fun factor; and goshdarnit, is this game fun! You go in for a quick one and instead find yourself pressing the "Start" button over and over again, each time thinking "damn! That was supposed to be the last one!" The game has four tables to choose from, from which the best - by a longshot - is the Vikings table, followed at some distance by Extreme Sports. Law and Justice is fair-to-middling, while Babewatch seems the most interesting from the outside, but ends up being the dullest, with very little to aim for and precious few combos. However, this may be the only low point among the tables in this game, and the other three more than make up for it - few things beat the thrill of getting an Iron Man combo on Extreme Sports, or a double-ramp combo on any of the tables. A nice touch in this game is the fact that you can adjust the table view and controls. As far as the table view goes, old-school gamers like me will choose the "Top" view out of habit, but there's definitely something to be said for the 3D view, which allows you to see the whole table at once. The initial control setup is somewhat awkward, but fortunately you can configure it to your ideal settings, which I immediately did, using R1 and L1 for flippers, as any sane person would! Overall, then, True Pinball is only kept from reaching top marks by its no more than average technical prowess and the limited number of tables on offer. A couple more tables and a little more flash would have made this unmissable, but it's still easy to see why it sold enough to reach Platinum. Besides, while you're raking up 200 million points on any given table, you won't be thinking about graphics or options. You'll be having fun. And that, ultimately, is what games are made for.Read full review
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