The Pinball Arcade

 PC
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. IGN
    Nov 19, 2013
    90
    For pinball fanatics or just those curious about gaming’s relatively low-tech past, Pinball Arcade is an excellent starting point for re-experiencing the golden days of quarter-munchers.
  2. IGN Italia
    Jan 31, 2014
    88
    A great service that gives you the opportunity to play with almost perfect reproductions of many classic tables. Any flipper fan should at least try the free part and then decide if he needs to buy more of it.
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Dec 5, 2013
    88
    Playing The Pinball Arcade is as funny as it was in real life during the last century. With lots of tables really existed, it's definitely a must-have for pinball lovers. But they will need to spend some money to enjoy the game.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 35
  3. Negative: 9 out of 35
  1. squeax
    Nov 6, 2013
    3
    A demo version that's labelled as a 'free to play' game. Once you hit the high scores you will be barred from playing and forced to buy. OfA demo version that's labelled as a 'free to play' game. Once you hit the high scores you will be barred from playing and forced to buy. Of course I was expecting to have to buy additional tables but this is just false advertisement. It is also a poor excuse to charge people outrageous amounts of money per table instead of selling the entire game for say $30. Don't fall for it, just find an actual buy-to-play or just play pinball for free on some website.… Full Review »
  2. Darkin20
    Nov 7, 2013
    6
    This is not a free to play but more of a try and buy game. It does give you one pinball game free and you can play all the others until youThis is not a free to play but more of a try and buy game. It does give you one pinball game free and you can play all the others until you hit a score cap (which is rather low) and then you have to pay to "unlock" them permanently.

    The gameplay itself it superb. Very faithful recreations of old pinball games. Makes me a bit nostalgic for the old arcades. Though I was never very good at pinball games and for some reason only did well on the last ball. But that is just me.

    If you love pinball games, this is for you. You will have to pay for it though. If you are not into pinball games, then give this a pass.    … Full Review »
  3. Retron
    Nov 7, 2013
    10
    There have been several attempts by others over the years but this is by far the most comprehensive commercial collection of simulated pinballThere have been several attempts by others over the years but this is by far the most comprehensive commercial collection of simulated pinball machines on the PC. There are still several rough edges in the UI (such as the menus not working with the escape key) but the main focus the tables play well and look great, at least they do on my nVidia card. The purchasing method (via in-app purchases) is odd, but it worked well enough for me.

    Gameplay wise the tables seem harder than say Pinball FX2, but that'd be because they're based on real tables designed to suck away quarters! The only glaring ommission compared to Pinball FX2 would be the lack of portait mode support, although that'll be coming in a future update. A fun featrure is the online leaderboard support which allows you to compare your scores with other players.

    The price is very reasonable compared to traditional PC pinball games the classics (Pinball Dreams, Tilt, Psycho Pinball etc) were all around £30 for 4 tables, whereas you get 38 tables for around £50 ie the same in today's money as the 4 tables of Pinball Dreams cost 20 years ago. You can pick-and-mix which tables you want to buy as well if you don't want to buy them all, but buying them en masse is the cheaper option in the long run.

    Yes, you could use one of the free pinball construction kit type programs but even it its somewhat rough UI state the Pinball Arcade is more polished than they are.    … Full Review »
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