Previews

Hands on with Williams Pinball Classics for PSP

Portable wizardry

Hands on with Williams Pinball Classics for PSP

For some, it’s the realisation that Superman isn’t real. Or that their parents had lives before they were born. But for me, the revelation that rocked my childhood was the discovery that pinball wasn’t just about flipping a chrome ball as high up the playfield as possible - turns out there’s a structure at the heart of this hypnotic pastime.

Pinball hasn’t had an easy roll since the arrival of the video game, which by the late 1990s had effectively run its mechanical cousin out of Arcade Town - according to the internet, only one manufacturer of tables soldiers bravely on these days.

But video gaming isn’t entirely heartless and so the medium that nearly killed pinball is at least able to ensure the latter lives on in digital form. Recent years have seen a slow but steady stream of pinball video games focusing on memorable tables from some of the historic manufacturers.

Take Williams Pinball Classics. The second outing for pinball on Sony’s handheld (the first being 2006’s Pinball Classics: The Gottlieb Collection), this offers ten of the most popular Williams tables ever - Taxi, Gorgar, Space Shuttle, Funhouse, Jive Time, Pin Bot, Sorcerer, Whirlwind, Firepower, Black Knight - and claims to have recreated every bumper, every rail, every light and every sound effect.

I can’t claim to be a Williams expert but from my time with the game I’m prepared to believe the developer’s boast - everything looks and sounds the way you’d expect it to.

But more importantly, everything feels the way it should. Farsight Studios has a penchant for pinball simulations, which explains why in the handful of hours spent with Williams Pinball Classics for this preview no metal sphere has misbehaved once.

The pinball rolls, ricochets and reacts with striking realism, forcing you to blame nothing but your poor hand/eye coordination when your score fails to impress.

You can’t even complain about not being able to see what’s going on. True, some of the playfields are dauntingly intricate - fear not, pinball virgins, you can call up the goals for each table - but you’re offered the choice of several fixed and ‘smart’ camera modes, the latter of which actively follow the action towards the top section of the table whenever the pinball ventures that way.

In addition, you can opt to hold the PSP vertically for a gorgeous 9:16 display perfectly suited to the perspective of the tables.

In terms of structure, you’re able to access all ten tables individually once the UMD has loaded, which can seem like a missed opportunity to entice players to engage in a more in-depth commitment with the game.

That said, some might find the need for a playthrough in order to unlock an arbitrary table frustrating and the developer has added a table slideshow option that opens up after table goals have been achieved.

More substantial is the rewarding Williams Challenge mode, which sees you playing the tables in succession for as long as you’re able to reach a target score for each, while a multiplayer Tournament option could provide a very welcome dose of human rivalry.

It's due at the end of March, so there can’t be much time left to tweak Williams Pinball Classics. That’s never a good thing if there are substantial issues with a title but in this case the team at Farsight Studios is unlikely to be working late nights.

On current form this promises a solid and lovingly recreated simulation of a selection of fondly remembered pinball tables. For some, that could be the only way the (possibly) life-changing pinball revelation will ever occur.

Joao Diniz Sanches
Joao Diniz Sanches
With three boys under the age of 10, former Edge editor Joao has given up his dream of making it to F1 and instead spends his time being shot at with Nerf darts. When in work mode, he looks after editorial projects associated with the Pocket Gamer and Steel Media brands.