Galactic Pinball
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
DEVELOPER: Intelligent Systems
RELEASE DATE: Jul. 21st, 1995 (JP), Aug. 14th, 1995 (US)
I never know what to expect from virtual pinball games, specifically the amount of content they should have. Is one table sufficient as long as it has enough bells and whistles to keep me occupied? How about two so I don’t get bored from just the one?
Galactic Pinball offers four different pinball tables, and I gotta be honest, that seemed like a lot at first. How much pinball does a guy like me really need, and on the Virtual Boy no less? The answer, apparently, is lots. I played Galactic Pinball for over an hour at a time, no breaks, and I only have mild regrets.
Specifically, regrets for the way I felt after I pulled away from the Virtual Boy headset: jarred eyes, mushy brain, hunched over back, and slightly achy neck. This is (sort of) my fault since Virtual Boy has an Automatic Pause feature built in. With Automatic Pause activated, every 20 minutes the game will pause itself so you can look away and grab your bearings. I foolishly disregarded this feature for Galactic Pinball, though. Not because I’m devil-may-care about my health, but because I really didn’t want to stop playing.
Galactic Pinball makes an amazing first impression. First, there’s the bro-sounding announcer saying, in the most righteous sounding 90s surfer way, “Welcome to space world! Let’s go” before a genuine banger of a title theme plays. All the game’s music is at least solid, if not great, but this title theme is transcendent.
The four pinball tables – Cosmic, Colony, UFO, and Alien – are all available from the outset. No unlocking them, you can play the entire “space world” at your whim. They’re all worth exploring for the unique features they have, although the ultimate goal is, like with all pinball, to get the highest scores.
While every table’s layout is different, certain elements do appear within each table. Drop targets, lanes, and bumpers are all prevalent, as are features like a bonus roulette or collecting target letters. The roulette always provides a perk, whether its kickbacks that block your ball from descending down the center/side lanes or a chance for a fat point bonus. Each target letter is obtained, one at a time, by shooting the ball in a specific hole. Once all target letters are obtained, they spell out the name of the stage and provide different bonuses for doing so.
COSMIC
Cosmic is the most basic of the four tables with a wide-open layout and nothing in the way of interesting set pieces, save for one amazing cameo.
If you destroy the three bumpers in the right hand corner, the Screw Ball symbol will appear and Samus’ ship will emerge into the middle of the table. With her ship you can shoot enemies from Metroid briefly while music from the series plays. According to Retronauts king Jeremy Parish, roughly half of the dev team that worked on Super Metroid also worked on Galactic Pinball. A neat fact to be sure, but it does sorta make me wish we got Metroid Pinball on Virtual Boy instead.
COLONY
Colony is just bonkers. Targets named after constellations, planets, and moons can be taken out by hitting the ball into specific holes when arrows near the holes are lit up. Comets will eventually get too close to the table and the game will transition into a simplistic shooter for you to shoot them down and gain extra points. And if you spell RESCUE, a little spaceship will come out and move in a set pattern around the top of the table. Hit the ball towards the ship, and the ball will stick onto it magnetically, allowing you to release the ball towards specific areas of the table. An all-around excellent table, marred only by the pachinko-like hole in the dead center of the table. It gets in my way, it does!
UFO
UFO comes at you fast. An enormous spaceship sits in the center of the screen when you start. Right after you launch your first ball, a hole opens on the left side of the table and you’re given the opportunity to get a flying bonus. Then the UFO flies away and reveals the top of the table, filled with bumpers, lanes, and points. Activate all the lanes and the UFO will descend back down and drop off an incredibly disturbing skull that cackles at you every time you hit a ball around its heavy metal horns. Slam a ball three times into its mouth, however, and he’ll groan and explode, landing you a nine-million-point jackpot.
ALIEN
Alien might be my favorite table, due to the extra bumpers and the fact that I got my first ten million+ point run here. At one point, my ball got stuck between two of the bumpers for what felt like minutes, while my score (and dopamine) rose to the heavens. Cheap, yes, but I’ll take the win. Slam the ball in “Alien Zone” and an alien head will appear in the center of the stage. Get the “Alien Bonus” for 500,000 points, then snag the million-point bonus at the top if you can. Oh, and hit the Alien head a lot, he deserves it. Strangely, this table also features music that sounds completely lifted from Sonic 2’s “Casino Night Zone” for some reason.
All four tables are incredibly well-realized and feel like they could be translated into a real-world pinball machine with little effort. At no point did the game seem cheap, either. The paddle control felt organic and natural, and unlike many pinball machines, I could usually save my ball with some fancy tilt work or just hitting both paddles at the same time.
I do mourn the fact that Galactic Pinball has been wasting away in the Virtual Boy library for 30+ years. The 3D effects are fine, but they’re also a novelty at best compared to the joy of playing the game itself. I really enjoyed my time with Galactic Pinball, and I really wish I didn’t have to use Virtual Boy to experience it.*
B+
*I am aware I can emulate the game, but if you want to play it on actual Nintendo hardware, it’s either Virtual Boy itself or Switch 1 or 2 with an additional must-have accessory.
^screenshots courtesy of Moby Games and YouTube user g68unit - I tried taking my own screenshots on my Switch 2, but they looked absolutely horrible.
I need to give this one a try. I have it and I love pinball so it’s odd that I haven’t really dug into it. Time to fix that.
- music that sounds completely lifted from Sonic 2’s “Casino Night Zone”
Interestingly, I was thinking the rings on top of the screen were reminiscent of Sonic. Wonder if that all is a coincidence. Overall, that looks like a fun game.