Halloween may be over by now but there is something I’ve wanted to cover that is associated with the holiday. That would of course be Halloween Pinball, the newest entry in EnjoyUp’s lineup of $1.99 pinball games on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Just as the pinball tables follow an established theme this one decides to tie in with October’s highlight event.
Graphics
Halloween Pinball is the best-looking game in the series, bar none. While I already enjoyed the details that made up Mummy Pinball, this game combines those techniques with richer and more vibrant color schemes. It’s simply a lot more appealing to look at Halloween decorations than a mummy’s tomb and Halloween Pinball takes advantage of that appeal. The framerate is also as nice and smooth as you can hope to expect for the fast-paced action of pinball.
Audio
The game has some orchestra backing up the spookiness. It actually fits with the theme greatly, as if the player’s visited the front yard of a haunted house or something. The jingles that play when beating or failing a mission add to this nature. If nothing else, Halloween Pinball truly is a Halloween-feeling game.
Gameplay
I say that because this is perhaps the weakest table when it comes to the actual gameplay. That is even despite the fact it features table missions and multiball unlike earlier EnjoyUp tables. What good are those things, after all, if the table’s mechanics have gone questionable? More than ever does the ball careen straight into either one of the outlanes, sometimes not even within a minute of play. It’s harder to hit anything, too, because the playfield feels oddly cramped. The two-ramp setup also feels overplayed by now. Surely, there are different building blocks for an interesting table?
Verdict
Still, you could do worse on the eShop I suppose. $1.99 is nothing to cry over. Regardless, Halloween Pinball feels like a step backward compared to what we’ve previously had. It’s almost as if there was more time spent on making it look cool than making the table itself mechanically enjoyable. I guess that’s what happens when you have a deadline based on the holiday you intend to tie in with.
Review copy provided by EnjoyUp Games
