Pure Pinball Review

If there is one thing that the success of iOS has brought about, it is the rebirth of franchises that haven’t been around for eons. Case in point - the Pure Pinball series. In celebration of the brand’s decade away the game’s original developer, Legendo Entertainment, has brought back the quickly forgotten PC and original Xbox flipper simulator. Hanging its hat on realism, can it manage to compete with the stiff competition across the platform, or will it not be able to maintain the same level of momentum that it has in the past?

It pretty much goes without saying at this point, but iOS devices are darn near perfect for consuming an engrossing pinball experience. Pure Pinball makes a solid effort towards following this trend while running into a few technical issues along the way. However, one thing remains very true: when it comes to physics emulation this is a title that can hold its own. Now if only the base download included more than just one pinball table.

The first and only solo table available in the collection so far is the newly designed “T-Rex Savage.” Following the model of table re-creation collections like Pinball Arcade, this offering is reality based and contains little to no elements that couldn’t be present on a physical table. For this reason, the grounded physics play well into the design. That said, at times it does seem rather sparse in the way of set-piece missions and goals.

One area where realism can bite a designer in the butt is in handling the crazy one-off situations. For example: if a player actually manages to hit a ramp harder than expected, the ball can actually fly off the playfield, effectively grinding all gameplay to a halt. The problem is that nothing has been done to account for this scenario, which leaves the only possible outcome to restart the round entirely and void all progress up to that point. This is not an effective way to deal with this semi-frequent occurrence.

Sadly, there is nothing about Pure Pinball as a whole that warrants heaping praise; aside from the physics engine. “T-Rex Savage” plays well enough but lacks the smooth flow of action, rendering the play slower and far more deliberate than what one might expect. Maybe once more impressive table designs are offered this may be worth looking at, but those days are not here yet.