Pinball Rocks

Do you want to be a rock 'n' roll star? Whether you'd rather be trussed up in platform boots with full face make-up and a ludicrous gurn, or sat upon a stool with an acoustic guitar, simple suit and cigarillo, it's all about the same thing at heart: rocking out in front of thousands of adoring fans and making stack-loads of cash.

Pinball Rocks certainly chose a good theme to graft onto a pinball game since the store of people planning to pick up, or wishing they had picked up, a guitar is certainly not going to run out any time soon.

There's only one table on offer here, with two sets of flippers to control and laid out in traditional style, with one pair guarding the drop into oblivion down at the bottom of the table, and the other looking after the top end, by the bumpers. And the main visual focus is a face hanging above the main flippers that is a dead spit of fictional band member of Gorillaz, 2D.

Rather than using the rock theme as just a thin visual overlay, the game tries to incorporate it into the action by linking the objectives with the various stages of becoming a rock god. It's a nice idea, but at heart you're usually left doing what usually happens when playing pinball – namely trying to get a ball into a space that seems altogether too small and too specific.

Thankfully, the ball physics are fairly good here, so any frustrations over your lack of progress will have to be put, at least in part, down to your own lacking ball skills. In defence, you could argue the ball isn't quite as lively as it could be, and the movements do occasionally seem a little simplified, but at least the little thing seems to go in the direction it should do.

Since the physics generally work quite well, it's a pity the ball isn't a little more visible. As the table isn't nearly as full of lights and moving parts as most real-life pinball machines, it doesn't kill the game, but the ball is really quite tiny and of such a nondescript grey shade that it seems like it's almost willing itself into the background.

Keeping the ball in play for a while isn't much of a struggle, but actually making your way through the game's rawktastic objectives is a real challenge. Generally, you'll have to hit a particular bumper or object a certain number of times or get the ball down a specific hole – typical pinball, essentially. If you're unsure as to what you should be doing, the impressive-looking LED display which makes a good impersonation of its real-life counterpart is there to prompt you.

However, the LEDs telling you what you need to aim for and discovering what the display is actually talking about don't always go hand in hand. This is largely because the table isn't all that dynamic visually, so where in a game like Gameloft's Mystery Pinball Mansion the surrounding area might be lit up with hyperactive flashing lights, here you'll have to experiment a little more.

It's fine when you've got three lives to spare, perhaps, but you're not going to be too happy if you're introduced to a bizarrely named bumper with one ball left and aching thumbs.

That's not to say the table isn't unattractive, though. It's actually a vibrant environment, but just a little less attention-grabbing than some of its genre stablemates. Sonically, however, it's a bigger issue, with only music to keep you going – clearly, the lack of sound effects is more than a little disappointing in a pinball game. After all, there's few greater pleasures in a pinball wizard's life than the sound of a bumper being bashed.

Still, Pinball Rocks is a competent pinball game with a good premise. But with only one table on offer – and one that lacks the dynamic sparks of oddball genius that characterise the best examples of pinball – the game falls some way short of the finer members of the genre.