Dream Pinball 3D [DS]

Early last week, SouthPeak stopped by the IGN offices to show off work-in-progress versions of Dream Pinball 3D for the Nintendo DS and Wii systems. The games, as the name suggests, are virtual representations of the classic arcade machines made to take advantage of each systems capabilities.

Instead of bringing existing real-world machines to life in 3D, Dream Pinball 3D features completely original machines created by the game's developers. Both versions feature an identical line-up of machines, six of them, in fact. We had the opportunity to tinker around with two: Monster, a pinball machine based upon a zombified graveyard, and Dino Wars, a take on a prehistoric world, complete with models of dinosaurs looming over the playfield.

Both versions of the game feature pretty impressive 3D engines running at 60 frames per second. On the Wii, the developers pushed as many texture effects as the Wii could handle: there are so many reflection effects going on in this game it's unreal. And during the game your ball will change to different surfaces like steel, wood, and marble. The DS version's pretty cool looking too, but it all just runs on one screen. The camera follows the action as close or as far as you tell it to; there are seven different presets and you can cycle through them on the fly with a button press during the action.

Of note is the way you control the game: on the Wii, you can choose to play with the Wii remote and Nunchuk combination, with "nudging" coming from a quick flick of the wrist from the Nunchuk or Wii remote. But you can also choose to play the game with the Wii remote exclusively, in "classic" NES controller configuration. This way worked pretty well, since you "nudge" the table left, right, or forward by shoving the controller in the appropriate direction. And believe it or not, this worked pretty well.

The one thing that irked us about the Wii version was its "on/off" flipper control: there's no smooth sweeping animation. Basically the flipper is down or up, and that affects how the ball is handled on the table. "Passing" the ball from one flipper to the other is a lot tougher now that a quick flip is an all-or-nothing affair. This isn't a problem on the Nintendo DS version since there are frames of animation during a flip.

Dream Pinball 3D ships this spring. We'll have a full review of both versions then.

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