When it comes down to classic games from the Game Boy era Pokémon was huge during the mid 90’s-early 00’s. While titles such as Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow were best sellers on Game Boy & Game Boy Color; there were also some fun spin-off titles within the series like Pokémon Pinball which many people loved as well. Pokémon Pinball was developed by Jupiter Corporation and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo and released for Game Boy Color in 1999. The Pokémon Pinball game was unlike any other title within that genre that anyone had seen prior to 1999. Pokémon Pinball actually had game modes that allowed players to capture and evolve Pokémon which was very interesting. However, both Catch Mode” and “Evolution Mode” were far more challenging than they looked; since players only had about two minutes to catch or evolve a Pokémon they already had. With Catch Mode players had to hit certain pop bumpers a total of six times to unlock parts of an image that form a Pokémon picture. After a picture certain Pokémon was completed they could be captured successfully inside of a Pokeball after hitting them four times during the pinball game. Also, after capturing Pokémon players could earn jackpot bonuses which could exceed one million points. Along with jackpot bonuses players were able to earn more points during gameplay through Bonus Multiplayer and the activation of BIG.
Despite, being a fun game Pokémon Pinball is known more for its difficultly level than anything was because it required too much for players to accomplish seemingly simple tasks. Along with having a nice soundtrack the rumble feature included in Pokémon Pinball was pretty cool but unnecessary depending on who you ask. Similar to most Pokémon games the main objective of the Pinball title from ’99 was for players to fill up their Pokédex. In Pokémon Pinball players were expected to catch up 151 Pokémon; but considering how difficult Pokémon Pinball was they would be lucky to catch more than twice a dozen creatures within that game. Also, in order for players to increase their Pokédex players had to take part in “Evolution Mode”. In Evolution Mode players had to hit three different targets either on the Red or Blue pinball field; which contained items necessary to evolve their Pokémon before sinking the ball in a hole in the middle of the pinball field. Pokémon Pinball was so popular in ’99-’00 that it managed to reach over 5.3 million copies worldwide in sales. Even though, countless players had their own frustrations with the difficulty of Pokémon Pinball; the challenge it presented ended adding to the game’s overall replay value.
Gaming Hearts Collection 