Gottlieb Pinball Classics – Review

Let’s get this out of the way first shall we, in my youth I was a bit of a pinball aficionado, I loved playing pinball in all it’s many forms. Needless to say the computer and console versions very rarely live up to the real deal, so it was with much trepidation that I purchased Gottlieb Pinball Classics from the local game store and was only pushed into it give the large red half price label plastered on the front.

The Nintendo Wii is a great format for unusual game controls, one would think a pinball game would thrive on the format, given the bump, nudge gameplay of the pinball genre. To some degree the WiiMote does add an element of additional fun to Gottlieb Pinball Classics. The ball is punched out onto the table by pulling back in the nunchuk controller, nudge is take care of by jerking the nunchuk or WiiMote left and right, flippers are taken care of by the Z button on the nunchuk and the trigger button on the WiiMote, which all feels pretty natural during play.

As any gamer worth their salt will know, it is the ball physics that can make or break a pinball game on any platform. Pinball Dreams on the Amiga was one of the first video pinball games to nail it and Gottlieb Pinball Classics comes damn close. The ball moves not only realistically, but feels as though it’s also correctly weighted, this is only let down slightly due to the nudge / tilt control sometimes failing to feel as realistic as it should, be it by refusing to nudge at all to over reacting and being over sensitive. This lack of consistency can be a little annoying.

Graphically Gottlieb Pinball Classics is very nice, with the tables relaying a realistic sense of the Gottlieb history. The array of tables (over ten including the gimmicky ones) range from the old fashioned click over styled ones of the more modern digital machines with all the bells and whistles. Wherein the graphics try and remain true to the machines so does the sound. The sound effects of the machine relay the same sense of realism, this of course means most of the time there is little music accompaniment, unless it’s inline with the table being played.

Female gamers will enjoy Gottlieb Pinball Classics for the same reson their male gaming counterparts will, the developers have managed to recreate some classic tables and get across the free flowing feeling of what it is to play pinball. In the arcades, oft times the pinball section was the realm of the guys, with only few women ever daring to edge into the smokey corner that housed the clanging and tapping of the machines at play. Thanks to the home console that stigma is no more and anyone can truly enjoy what it’s like to be a pinball wizard, or wizardess.

Overall Gottlieb Pinball Classics is a very cool and realistic pinball title. The use of the Wii control system also lends a feeling of further realism to proceedings, only let down slightly by the lack of consistency with the nudge / tilt control. Given at time of writing this is the only pinball title on the Nintendo Wii platform, you don’t have any competition when purchasing a pinball title, however, another title would be hard pressed to better the great ball physics and simple menu / table system anyway. As a budget title this is pretty cool, it’s not going to break any records for innovation, graphics, sound, but it’s a fun foray into the world of pinball. It garners a slightly above average score.

Review by Angela