Zen Pinball: Inferno

Pinball, like card games, slot machines and casinos, has become almost entirely digital these days. There's little need for the original, physical components - no need for ball bearings, decks of cards or roulette tables. Our games systems have recreated them superbly well and the extra convenience of a pocket-sized pinball machine is hard to compete with.

But the same rules apply. Virtual tables, like real ones, can be poor of design, with entertainment value that drops between the flippers like a hapless ball bearing. But pinning down exactly what elements make for a good pinball game is considerably more difficult than picking out the faults in, for instance, an iPhone game.

Considering the blinding realism of Zen Pinball: Rollercoaster, what we're really trying to dissect in its App Store sequel, Inferno, is the design of the table as though it were a real machine. This, in itself, is a testament to the quality of the Zen Pinball games, but making a virtual ball bounce around the bumpers and flippers is only the beginning - making it an entertaining experience is the real challenge.

Inferno is built on the same foundations as its predecessor, boasting an identical ball and bumper physics. The table design, however, is distinctly less forgiving, designed as it is to increase the game's difficultly by punishing the slightest mis-timed flipper action or failure to hit the next target in a specific sequence.

Indeed, it seems to have been ingeniously constructed to consistently drop the ball straight down the centre of the table at every possible opportunity. The consistency of this action is incredibly frustrating, as is the ball's uncanny ability to find the chutes just above the flippers after hitting any rebound surface on the lower half of the table.

It takes a good hour of playing to finally convince yourself that it's not your own ineptitude at the flippers that's causing this massive ball bearing shortage. Even tilting the table like a woodpecker with St. Vitus's dance seems to be ineffective against the ball's unfailing ability to drop off the bottom of the table with the bare minimum of intervention from you.

Which is all a real shame, since the rock band theme and bonus systems laced throughout the design are excellent. The colours are a little bright in places, sometimes making it difficult to see the ball, but overall the style is quite appealing.

Perhaps if Zen Pinball: Inferno featured a couple of different table designs you'd find a lot more to enjoy and a decent escape route to avoid the frustrations of the Inferno table without having to switch the game off. As it is, there's generally not much beyond 15 minutes of play before the infuriating Inferno conspires to push you away. Perhaps the next table will find the right balance.