Gimmicky take on pinball
Pinball games such as Silverball and Pinball Dreams generally follow pretty much of a formula. They might dress things up with fancy tables and slick effects but they all boil down to the same thing: a fairly realistic interpretation of the real-world game. However, as the name suggests, First Person Pinball attempts to mix things up considerably by changing the player's perspective completely. Unfortunately however, while this is a bold move, it largely fails at improving the concept thanks to poor implementation and the simple fact that it is actually rather pointless in practice. There's only one table on display here, which is disappointing for veteran players but which is understandable given the game's age, but it does make up for it slightly by allowing up to four players to participate and which adds to the competitive nature. In addition to the first person perspective, you can switch to a more traditional view but as the whole point of the game is to take a different look at things, most players are likely to be keen to check out the new style. As mentioned though, it doesn't really work for any length of time as it is simply too confusing to make the game even remotely enjoyable and the sense of having no control as seen in many pinball games, is made even worse here. Things are not made much better by the rather bland design of the single table, which lacks personality or enough interesting features to make it worthy of anything more than a short investigation. The 3D graphics are reasonable but the ultimate problem is that the game just doesn't deliver a satisfying pinball experience and as such it remains little more than a curio.
