Flipnic. It's out today in the U.S. and it's budget priced at $19.99.
Boxart:
I picked this up earlier today and have been playing for the last few hours. Here are some impressions:
So, Flipnic is a pinball game. It has everything you would expect from pinball. A silver ball, various boards to play on, tilt and lots of crazy gimmicks on the boards to screw around with. To accompany these boards, there are a set of missions that you must complete and a set of optional missions. The missions that you must complete unlock new boards.
The boards are divided within five themes. The five themes are Biology, Metallurgy, Optics, Geometry and Theology. So far, I have only been toying around with the two Biology boards that I have unlocked and trying to complete the missions on these two boards. At any time when you're playing on a board, you can press Select, to access a list of the missions and there is also a little blurb that accompanies every mission on the list so you have a good idea of what you need to do to complete the mission. You can also check these missions before entering a board and it keeps a running tally of which missions you have started, and which ones you have completed.
Now, moving on the design of the boards. I have played the two boards that I have in Biology extensively and have demoed the first boards in a few of the other categories. All of the boards a very well designed and they all look great. There are various lanes and different areas for your ball to reach and there are effects that can change the layout of these various areas. For example, on the first Biology boards, after completing a certain mission, the entire board will freeze and there is a waterfall that will freeze. You can then proceed to shoot the ball up a set of ramps that are created to destroy the frozen waterfall which will reveal a whole new area.
There are also FMV's that play when certain areas are reached, or certain missions are completed. Sadly, these FMV's are not skippable but are usually very short and at least a little bit entertaining. The voice work in the game is very well done. So far, I have only encountered a male and female voice which describe various things that are happening on the board.
Finally, the controls. To control the left paddle, you use the left directional button and to control the right paddle, you use the O button. To bump to the left, you press L1 and to bump to the right, press R1. To bump up, press both. In other pinball games I have played, you could abuse the bump feature but in here, if you use it too much, a warning will appear on screen, and then you will tilt and lose a ball.
Overall, the game is fun so far. I have yet to try out the multiplayer mode but I haven't played a good pinball game in a while and this is welcome, especially at $19.99. I would definitely recommend it. It's enjoyable and there are quite a few missions so you will get your 20 bucks worth.
Anybody else pick this up today? I am aware that this game was released in other regions earlier but I never bothered to import it and I never saw an official thread.
Oh, and sorry for the long post.
Boxart:
I picked this up earlier today and have been playing for the last few hours. Here are some impressions:
So, Flipnic is a pinball game. It has everything you would expect from pinball. A silver ball, various boards to play on, tilt and lots of crazy gimmicks on the boards to screw around with. To accompany these boards, there are a set of missions that you must complete and a set of optional missions. The missions that you must complete unlock new boards.
The boards are divided within five themes. The five themes are Biology, Metallurgy, Optics, Geometry and Theology. So far, I have only been toying around with the two Biology boards that I have unlocked and trying to complete the missions on these two boards. At any time when you're playing on a board, you can press Select, to access a list of the missions and there is also a little blurb that accompanies every mission on the list so you have a good idea of what you need to do to complete the mission. You can also check these missions before entering a board and it keeps a running tally of which missions you have started, and which ones you have completed.
Now, moving on the design of the boards. I have played the two boards that I have in Biology extensively and have demoed the first boards in a few of the other categories. All of the boards a very well designed and they all look great. There are various lanes and different areas for your ball to reach and there are effects that can change the layout of these various areas. For example, on the first Biology boards, after completing a certain mission, the entire board will freeze and there is a waterfall that will freeze. You can then proceed to shoot the ball up a set of ramps that are created to destroy the frozen waterfall which will reveal a whole new area.
There are also FMV's that play when certain areas are reached, or certain missions are completed. Sadly, these FMV's are not skippable but are usually very short and at least a little bit entertaining. The voice work in the game is very well done. So far, I have only encountered a male and female voice which describe various things that are happening on the board.
Finally, the controls. To control the left paddle, you use the left directional button and to control the right paddle, you use the O button. To bump to the left, you press L1 and to bump to the right, press R1. To bump up, press both. In other pinball games I have played, you could abuse the bump feature but in here, if you use it too much, a warning will appear on screen, and then you will tilt and lose a ball.
Overall, the game is fun so far. I have yet to try out the multiplayer mode but I haven't played a good pinball game in a while and this is welcome, especially at $19.99. I would definitely recommend it. It's enjoyable and there are quite a few missions so you will get your 20 bucks worth.
Anybody else pick this up today? I am aware that this game was released in other regions earlier but I never bothered to import it and I never saw an official thread.
Oh, and sorry for the long post.
