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Lately, due in part to watching awesome video over on our CGR Pinball channel, I’ve been
getting more and more interested in video gaming’s older cousin. And then I actually
try playing a physical table and I just get hosed. Like, bad. So I’m gonna stick to
digital interpretations for the time being, which leaves me with... Kirby’s Pinball
Land, Mario Pinball, Metroid Pinball, Pokémon Pinball, Zen Pinball, Pinball FX2, the Pinball
of the Dead... and others. But none of them really felt like my kind of pinball. When
I run into a problem on the table, I don’t hold the ball on a flipper and plan. Planning’s
for wimps. No, I just solve every problem by scrambling a Gundam.
Super Robot Pinball, like the long-running Super Robot Taisen series, is just a reason
to smash giant robots together into one big katamari of awesome. Only this time, they’ve
left the usual RPG mechanics behind in favor of a pair of flippers and a potential lawsuit
from Nintendo. This game feels uncannily similar to Pokémon Pinball, right down to a database
of all the heroes and foes you’ve encountered throughout what will assuredly be many playthroughs.
And, like Pokémon Pinball, there’s a level of depth to the challenge beyond just smacking
targets around the playfield. The basic flow is thus: Destroy five targets in this bank,
and something evil this way will come. From that point, you have two minutes to shoot
this Scramble ramp, from which you choose a giant robot, followed by this rightmost
ramp to actually enter the fight. This takes you to a smaller table where your mecha of
choice goes toe-to-toe-analog with the invader. You’ve gotta pummel away its HP, while shooting
the side-loops to charge up your own attacks.
While you start off with just six robots - Gundam, Dancouga, Combattler V, Mazinger Z, Raideen,
and EVA Unit-01 - there are a total of 41 in the game, with new ones unlocking if you
can encounter two or more foes on a single ball. Gotta scramble ‘em all, I guess. I
really can’t explain it better than that: This is really just Pokémon Pinball, with
only one table, and awesome chiptune renditions of classic anime theme songs. The mechanics
feel very similar, and the ball physics are almost completely identical. It’s the same
kind of easygoing pinball experience - heck, the out lanes aren’t even out lanes, they
just wrap around the bottom of the table - but it’s there to be really fun, and facilitate
other, weirder mechanics. You won’t be seeing this at PAPA any time soon, but don’t think
I’m not searching for a copy of my own as we speak. Much thanks to Felicity in Worcestershire
in the UK for the donation, and opening my eyes to how good Cruel Angel’s Thesis sounds
on a Game Boy.