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Mario Pinball Land Review
Written by Matt Ryan on Monday, January 31, 2005
An interesting twist on the Mario theme.
Board designs can become repetitive.
...Continued From Page 1 Lastly, the game is rather short, offering us a handful of worlds to clear. There's a Time Attack mode to mess around with, but it's not enough to warrant multiple plays, which means this game will either sit in your bag for months, or you'll quickly return it back to the store.
The jury's still out whether Mario Pinball Land will appeal to the masses, but no one can debate the quality of its visuals. Simply put, it's one of the greatest-looking portable games ever made. Though not as crisp, it looks like the character models were taken right out of Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube. Enemies are animated very well, and the environments (which include grass land, snow, and water, just to name a few) are gorgeous and well-detailed. What this means is Pinball Land will look marvelous whether it's on the GBA's tiny screen or stretched across your television. It's a true showpiece for the hardware.
Unfortunately, the game's sound isn't as stellar as its visuals. The sound clips are fine, as Mario makes all sorts of noise, but the music is awkward. Instead of pumping the speakers with familiar Mario themes, Pinball Land features this weird circus music that, while not terrible, doesn't really fit the game.
The bottom line is this: had Nintendo done a straight-forward pinball game it would've been well-done but boring because we've seen mascot pinball before, so Mario Pinball Land is a welcome change of pace. Of course, the fact that it's been so well done is the bonus. It may irk you on occasion, but it's definitely worth checking out.
