Its Time To Roll
I’ve never quite understood why pinball games are so popular on consoles, as they always seem to be an inferior recreation of the real thing. Some try to be an honest simulation whereas others settle for a fleeting resemblance to the real machines. Momonga Pinball Adventures tries to deliver a twist on the standard pinball game, but overall it misses more targets than it hits. Paladin Studios have brought us a game that was originally for mobile devices (and it shows) which does away with the steel and glass of the traditional pinball table, and introduces us to a story involving evil owls and cute rodents.
To say the story is a little bizarre is an understatement, but here goes; The momonga are a small tribe of flying squirrels living peacefully on the islands in the river Yana on the continent of Aya. All was well until their village was raided by a band of bandit owls, led by General Kuton. All the momonga were kidnapped, except one, our young hero Momo, who was saved by Panda (who is a panda of course). Momo was taken to a sanctuary high in the mountains to be healed and then trained by Panda, and now they team up to save the rest of the momonga.
Each level pretty much involves Momo rolling himself up into a ball to be batted by the pinball flippers to knock down targets and obstacles, and then landing on a mark to be catapulted over to the next part of the level. The pinball ‘arenas’ for want of a better word are very small, which are ideal for a game played on a mobile device but on a big TV screen you want something more expansive. There are 9 stages in total, along with three little bonus levels, and with each stage only taking a couple of minutes, your first run through the game should only take about 45 minutes. The first couple of stages are more of a tutorial, and although the latter stages take a bit of concentration on your part, there really isn’t much content involved in the game. There are a couple of stages that involve Momo flying about, and again they are very short, but at least they add a little variety and it gives you a nice break from the pinball stages. What the game does well is introduce variety with the different levels, either with bosses to defeat in different ways, or allies to rescue and that can help you. For example, in one stage you rescue a rat like character that helps you by also rolling itself up giving you a multiball game.
Graphically the game isn’t great and reminds me of something from an N64 game, but uses a nice colourful palette that lends itself well to the frivolity of the action. The soundtrack is very limited and repetitive, and although the physics aren’t the smoothest or most accurate, once you get going its not an issue that would spoil the game for you.
There is an attempt at a Leaderboard feature for high scores and times but its poorly executed and just shows some scores close to yours, with no option to compare yourself to the top players or the best scores of your friends. The brevity of the game is addressed by encouraging you to make multiple playthroughs in order to complete challenges, of which only one is available at a time. In order to complete them all and gain the full 1000 gamerscore, you need come back and play each level numerous times. The Gamerscore achievements on the whole aren’t tricky, just time consuming, so by the time you’ve got your 1000 stars and played 500 levels you’ll feel like you’ve got your monies worth.
The story mode of the game finishes on a bit of a cliff-hanger (assuming you’ve managed to follow the somewhat ridiculous storyline), and the developers re calling this game Episode 1 of the adventure. Whether that means added content or more likely a series of sequels, we’ll have to wait and see. While fun to play in short bursts, Momonga Pinball Adventures is far too brief to stand up well in comparison with other indie games in the Xbox Store.
Huge Thanks to XCN for the review copy.
Game: Momonga Pinball Adventures
Developer: Paladin Studios
Publisher: Plug In Digital
Genre: Arcade
Price: £4.79