Mario Pinball Land

Mario Pinball Land
Super Mario Ball cover art
Developer(s) Fuse Games
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Producer(s) Shigeru Miyamoto
Composer(s) Nimrod Productions
Platform(s) Game Boy Advance, Wii U Virtual Console
Release date(s)

Game Boy Advance

  • JP: August 26, 2004
  • NA: October 4, 2004
  • PAL: November 26, 2004

Wii U Virtual Console

  • PAL: September 11, 2014
  • JP: September 17, 2014
  • NA: November 27, 2014
Genre(s) Pinball
Mode(s) Single player

Mario Pinball Land, known internationally as Super Mario Ball (スーパーマリオボール Sūpā Mario Bōru), is a pinball video game that was developed by Fuse Games and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance and released in 2004. It is the ninth Mario game for the Game Boy Advance and is a spin-off of the Super Mario series that began on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Gameplay

Mario, a ball, has just been hit by a flipper. Note the counters for stars, coins, and lives on the HUD.

To proceed, Mario must collect enough stars to open specific doors, a gameplay element borrowed from Super Mario 64. There are 35 stars to collect in total. In typical Mario fashion, Mario must explore different areas to reach his aim of saving the princess. There are five different worlds, each guarded by a boss. There's The Fun Fair (the main starting area), Grassy Greens, Frosty Frontier, Shifting Sands, and Bowser's Castle.

Plot summary

When Mario and Princess Peach visit a funfair, Peach steps into a cannon, but the cannon is operated by Goombas. The Goombas shoot Peach from the cannon into Bowser's Castle, and Mario must save her. He does this by using a machine that makes him a spherical ball, allowing for the pinball action of the game.

Development

As Adrian Barritt and Richard Horrocks, veterans of the Pro Pinball series, had founded Fuse Games, they decided that, in the words of Barritt "we needed a bit of impact before they would even bother to speak to us". So they thought about a Mario pinball game, and produced a playable demo, featuring both the possible first area and the last one with a showdown with Bowser. Afterwards Barritt and Horrocks went to Seattle to pitch the idea to Nintendo of America executives, and were approved. As the resources were limited, Fuse decided not to develop the game for the Nintendo GameCube, resorting to the Game Boy Advance instead. Barritt added that he considered the portable "[an] ideal platform for a pinball game, something that you can just pick up and knock the ball around for a bit" and stated that "with experience on systems like the Super Nintendo we knew we'd be able to push the hardware of the GBA very hard to its limits". Despite Fuse hiring more people, the whole game was created by a small team of only five people.[1]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic62 of 100[2]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Edge4 of 10[3]
EGM4 of 10[4]
Eurogamer5 of 10[5]
Famitsu29 of 40[6]
Game Informer7.5 of 10[7]
GamePro[8]
GameSpot7.5 of 10[9]
GameSpy[10]
GameZone8 of 10[11]
IGN5 of 10[12]
Nintendo Power3.8 out of 5[13]

Mario Pinball Land received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of three sevens and one eight for a total of 29 out of 40.[6]

Most reviews praised the excellent graphics, but criticized the game for being pointlessly difficult and having overall poor gameplay. IGN's review in particular criticized the gameplay for having "bad table layouts with an overwhelmingly annoying 'playfield reset' element". The review concluded that "the gameplay itself is far more flawed and annoying than it is fun to play".[12] Adrian Barritt later admitted that during development they wound up not making the game easy enough for pinball beginners as "you had to take the time to control the ball", which led to Fuse trying to not repeat the same mistakes in follow-up Metroid Prime Pinball.[14] Not all reviews were negative, however, as GameSpot said that the game "combines Mario with pinball to create an interesting kind of adventure game".[9]

References

  1. ↑ Harris, Craig (September 20, 2004). "Fuse Games on Mario Pinball". IGN.
  2. 1 2 "Mario Pinball Land for Game Boy Advance Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  3. ↑ Edge staff (December 2004). "Super Mario Ball". Edge (143): 115.
  4. ↑ EGM staff (November 2004). "Mario Pinball Land". Electronic Gaming Monthly (184): 152.
  5. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (December 2, 2004). "Super Mario Ball". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  6. 1 2 "スーパーマリオボール". Famitsu. 820. September 3, 2004.
  7. ↑ Helgeson, Matt (October 2004). "Mario Pinball Land". Game Informer (138): 147.
  8. ↑ HP Keefmaker (November 2004). "Mario Pinball Land Review for Game Boy Advance on GamePro.com [score mislabeled as '4.0/5']". GamePro: 130. Archived from the original on October 11, 2004. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Provo, Frank (October 4, 2004). "Mario Pinball Land Review". GameSpot. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  10. ↑ Theobald, Phil (October 1, 2004). "GameSpy: Mario Pinball Land". GameSpy. Archived from the original on February 8, 2006. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  11. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (October 2, 2004). "Mario Pinball Land - GBA - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on January 18, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  12. 1 2 Harris, Craig (October 4, 2004). "Mario Pinball Land". IGN. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Mario Pinball Land". Nintendo Power. 186: 142. December 2004.
  14. ↑ Ba-Oh, Jorge (September 3, 2013). "Interview: Barnstorm Games Talks Pro Pinball, Metroid Prime Pinball and Super Mario Ball". Cubed3. Retrieved October 28, 2013.
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