Platform reviewed: Steam
Price: $14.99
Having mentioned Space Cadet Pinball in my bio when offered to review Pinball Spire I couldn’t help but give it a try. Apparition Games mixes the style of Metroidvania and Pinball physics into a unique style of gameplay called “Pinballvania.” Bringing with it a need to strategize.
I couldn’t get away with just mashing the bumpers, each floor brought with it a unique problem to solve, trying to figure out what ability to use when to get higher in the spire. Giving me many mana ability options such as slowing time down to turning myself into a ball of fire. This is where the Metroidvania style really shined, getting to a new area realizing I didn’t have what I needed to progress and go back to find an alternate path giving me just the ability I needed to keep moving up the mysterious spire.
Having pinball mechanics the randomness can sometimes get annoying, in regular pinball I’d want the ball to stay away from my paddles hitting bumpers and getting my score higher and higher, in Pinball Spire however it can get annoying waiting for the ball to calm down again to attempt another shot to progress further. When my ball falls past the paddles instead of “game over” the ball falls back down a level, making me have to sometimes make a difficult shot over again. While sometimes I found this annoying I couldn’t help but want to know what was on that next floor.
While I didn’t have time to get to the top of the spire and complete the game there isn’t much of a story besides the premise of the mysterious spire appearing and during the game was sometimes being observed by a mysterious floating eye. Are they friend or foe? I’m excited to find out.
Final Grade: A
A fun spin on two classic types of games, making it hard to put down. This game has found a permanent spot on my Steamdeck for when I have just a few free minutes to relax and play something.
Review code provided by indie io.
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