KMGR of "Pac Man Pin Ball DLX"

We all know the venerable Pac-Men, the pursuing bots, the board, the music and so on. How well do they translate into a pinball game? Not too bad, surprisingly.

The game is structured into three tables. You need to score at least 15 million to unlock the next table, and 30 million to unlock the bonus table. There is only one "bump" button, instead of the usual two or three. I never got a "tilt" warning.

Controls are simple: up to trigger all paddles, left to trigger left side peddles, right to trigger right side paddles... down to "pull back" on the initial shot. Space to "bump", and that's it. Periodically the Pac-Man minigame will start, and you will play it like any other Pac-Man game.

The balls seems to be responsive enough, but there doesn't seem to be enough bumpers and alternative ramps, as well as "bounce-back" if the balls went to the far side. The graphis are fast and crisp, but it's also not very realistic.

You can get music, sound effects, or none, which are bad choices. Sound effects are okay and sounds pac-man-ish, as are the music and graphics. The problem is in the incidental animation... Too long and too many. Takes a second or longer to select one choice because PacMan needs to eat the dots all the way across. Wasteful of time, this is.

All in all, the PacMan pinball is a has-been and nothing too new. Even the tables aren't explained, period.

Overall rating: 5.5 out of 10
Pros: easy to learn, no complicated controls
Cons: no fine control either, menu takes too long