I'm a really big fan of pinball in general and pinball video games. Looking thru my
collection for pinball video games, I see that I've got Worms Pinball and Extreme Pinball. Worms Pinball looks cool, but I'll get to it later.
Extreme Pinball was I'll say extremely...
disappointing.
The first and most noticable thing, before the game even starts are the long load times. When I first start the game, I get a static load screen. 10 seconds, nothing. 20 seconds nothing. Is the game frozen? It was so long, I counted and the first load screen went
over 30 seconds when counting fairly slow. And what does the first load screen actually load? Oh no, not the GAME, but that first load screen is loading the freaking START MENU!!! So I go thru the options, select a table that I like, which brings me to another static load screen for the table I selected. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .... 30, ... Again, it was so long, I counted
over 30 seconds yet again for the table load screen.
So long load times aside, I can deal with long load times if a game is good - or at least if once the game is loaded initially, it goes to memory and doesn't need to go thru the long load times again during the same gameplay session.
As far as loading, if I exit a table, I need to go thru the same 30+ second menu to again just get to the start menu. And then, I am allowed to sit thru another 30 second static loading screen while the table loads - even if it is a table I already played. Sitting thru more than a minute in real time of combined "LOADING" screens before I play a table, I would expect some fancy features. The game? Bleh, its like a
Genesis game with better sound. The tables are basically flat 2D with no especially original style for a pinball video game that I haven't seen similarly before. The table gameplay is generally too fast, with the path the takes after being ejected from the Cannon the Rock-Makers table going straight down the middle every time. Ridiculous, that makes the table basically unplayable if the ejects always go straight down the middle.
The most interesting thing I noticed about the game is a quoted review on the back which says, "The
Greatest Pinball Game of All Time!" (smirk)
I wonder WHO said that??? I have played LOTS of pinball video games (and games in general) since the 80's, and I honestly can't see how anyone could honestly even CONSIDER this game to be in the
discussion of the greatest pinball games of all time, not if it is greatest or not, but just even to consider it in discussion. The game is that poor in my opinion. I'm pretty tolerant of bad or cheaply made games and can enjoy most pinball video games even if I see its not the greatest thing in the world - but Extreme Pinball... is just extremely unplayable to me.
What are these icons for? 
