Pro Pinball Review

The Who's Pinball Wizard praises its titular character's supple wrists, but to enjoy Pro Pinball from Barnstorm, you just need a good pair of thumbs. This classic PC pinball simulation is finally on mobile thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, and it looks, sounds, and feels pretty authentic.

At the time of this writing, Pro Pinball has a single table available: Timeshock. More are reportedly coming, but Timeshock isn't a shabby start.

You operate the flippers by pressing on the sides of your mobile device, and the response time is beautiful. The table clicks, whirrs, and shines with a flood of rainbow lights. The back display flashes messages and, if you manage to shoot the ball into the sweet spot, becomes a miniature arcade game that lets you rack up more points. All that's missing for a 100% authentic arcade experience is a sticky floor and the stale smell of plastic cups mouldering behind some cabinet.

Pro Pinball is free to download, and you can sample the game at no cost until you hit an accumulated score of 30 million points. That's a decent chunk of time to decide whether or not you want the full experience. If you decide to continue your digital pinball career, you have two options: the standard version ($2.99 USD) and the Deluxe Version ($6.99 USD). The Deluxe Version lets you "remove" the table's glass covering to fiddle with the ball. You can also enter the Operator's Menu to delete high scores and customize the game.

I found the Operator's Menu unintuitive to use, however. There are a lot of cool options to play with, but no instructions on how to use the arrow keys that appear at the bottom of the screen whenever you opt to play Pinball God.

Another problem arises when you play Pro Pinball on a phone: it's very hard to see the messages on the back display. While the actual experience of flicking the flippers feels super-comfortable on a small device, it's best to play on a tablet for the sake of your poor eyes.

Pro Pinball may be a bit barebones content-wise, but there's no denying its single table feels solid and genuine. With more content on the way, it's definitely worth a few of your quarters.