Mile High Pinball

A pile of pinball tables stretching up to the sky? Sadly nowadays you're only likely to see this sort of thing at a rubbish dump specialising in unwanted amusement arcade items (a niche, admittedly). Pinball lost its lustre for young people long ago, overtaken by more modern leisure pursuits like console gaming, Facebook poking and crack-fuelled happy slapping.

However, pinball lives on with Nokia's new N-Gage game, which if we're being sticklers for accuracy is actually an old N-Gage game given a revamp. Mile High Pinball is the name, and flipping your way through 45 tables piled one on top of the other is the game.

In many ways, its comparable to Gameloft's Block Breaker Deluxe – also out on N-Gage – in that it takes a classic format, then beefs it up with power-ups and boss battles.

Each table (or 'board' as they're known here) presents a puzzle that you have to solve before moving up to the next one. It might be to hit a bunch of switches or destroy some enemies, for example. Every so often you'll face a boss, who has to be beaten (earning you N-Gage points) to progress.

Power-ups are plentiful and varied. Some simply boost your points, cash or the damage caused by your ball, while others trigger slow-motion, turn your ball into a rocket that shoots up, block the bottom of the screen to stop your ball falling down, make a shop appear on demand, and a host of other effects.

Shop? Oh, yes. That's how you buy these power-ups with the cash you've earned playing the levels, although power-ups also pop up from the scenery while playing, to be collected.

That's the game in a nutshell. It looks and sounds good, and there's decent variety between the different boards. The bosses are a nice touch, and if you're the collecting type, you'll appreciate the chance to unlock new ball skins as you go through.

There are three ways to play. Practice Game enables you to play alone, but your points score won't be uploaded to N-Gage Arena. However, in Ranked Game it will be, making it possible for you to see how your points tally and overall height climbed compares to the rest of the world.

One big niggle while we're here: you can't start a Ranked Game without connecting to the network, meaning that if you're not getting decent data reception, you're forced into a Practice Game instead. Why, I don't know. You'd think it'd be easy enough to store your progress on the phone and upload it to N-Gage Arena when you do have a data connection later.

Anyway, the third way to play Mile High Pinball is Play Duel mode, which is directly comparable to the multiplayer option in System Rush: Evolution (not surprising, given they were both developed by UK firm Ideaworks3D). It has you going head-to-head with someone else over the network, to see how many points or how much height you can rack up in a set time.

You don't see your opponent's ball onscreen, but instead see their points or height (meaning a minimum amount of data traffic is required). Beat them and you get a point for the Duel rankings.

It's a neat way of doing things, although one that's dependent on there being enough people to play against. Since Mile High Pinball went on sale, I've managed to connect for a Duel game once. However, judging by the N-Gage Arena rankings, some people are racking up victories, so it must be possible.

All in all, though, Mile High Pinball is great, right? Well, here's the thing. It's a polished game, with good connectivity, simple controls (just two buttons for left and right flippers). Yet, at the same time, it's got one of the most frustrating game structures ever.

Why? You've got all these pinball boards on top of each other, right. Some of which are pretty hard. And although your ball can travel upwards, it can also fall down.

Seeing the problem yet?

Regularly, you'll find yourself struggling for ages to beat a board, get to the next one, and then you'll get an unlucky bounce, your ball will plummet down a board or more, and you'll have to do it all again. You can easily spend 20 minutes playing the game, and be no higher than when you started. But much angrier.

My phone almost went out of the nearest window several times while reviewing Mile High Pinball. It ties into a problem with two other first-party N-Gage games – System Rush: Evolution and Space Impact: Kappa Base.

They're too hard.

Certainly too hard for the kind of casual gamers Nokia is hoping to attract with N-Gage, and too hard even for journalists paid to be good at mobile games.

Pinball has such mainstream appeal, that to craft a game like Mile High Pinball, which has such a huge frustration factor, seems slightly bonkers. Through clever purchasing of power-ups you can make it a bit easier, but that's not an excuse. Why not make the core game easier? Hardcore gamers could still focus on getting the best score possible through skilful play and finding the secret boards (yes, there are secret boards), and playing each other in the Play Duel mode. But, crucially, casual gamers could enjoy the game, too.

That's the biggest criticism of Mile High Pinball, and it's the reason it gets a '7' rather than an '8'. It's a good game, and does reward dogged determination if you stick with it. But if Nokia's first-party developers are working on the next generation of N-Gage games, hopefully they'll be thinking hard about just how difficult they should be.

Mile High Pinball

Mile High Pinball is a polished pinball game with good connectivity, but there's also a significant frustration factor
Score
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)