I really used to enjoy pinball in my not-really misspent youth. I wasn’t the greatest player in the world, so I didn’t generally earn extra balls, and my quarters only stretched so far. I was excited about getting some pinball action on the Wii where I could play as long as I want and not go broke in the process.

There are six different pinball tables with Dream Pinball 3D. They’re all the fancier, more high-tech kind of tables that I saw toward the end of my pinball-playing phase. The tables are Knight Tournament, Monsters, Dino Wars, Aquatic, Spinning Rotors and Amber Moon. To the best of my researching abilities, it looks like all of these games are new as pinball sims. I would like to see some old classics converted, but that’s not to be with this package.

There are four levels of difficulty available for each game. Easy gives you seven starter balls, normal gives you five balls, hard has three balls and expert has one ball. Beyond that, the higher the level of difficulty, the shorter amount of time you get in your save period during gameplay. If I look in the manual, I’ll also see that the level of difficulty sets how many points you have to earn before your ball changes materials (more on that in a bit) and sets how long the special modes will be active once earned.

One of the special things about Dream Pinball 3D lauded on the box is that the balls can potentially come in six different materials: steel, ivory, oak, walnut, marble and gold. This is supposed to give them each different properties — how they react when they hit bumpers, when they roll and when you hit them with the flippers. My gaming skill is such that I have not experienced all levels of ball types. I have to say that I didn’t really feel any play difference when my ball changed. To me, the appearance changed, but that was about it. It could be a more hardcore player would be more sensitive to subtle nuances.

The voice over and sound effects for the games were about what I’d expect from a pinball machine. They aren’t going to win any acting awards — but then it is a pinball game. The graphics and sound effects definitely varied from game to game. Were you not looking at the screen, you would be able to tell which game you were in by the sound effects (of course, you’d be playing really poorly — unless you were Tommy).

There are two different ways to do the controls for the games. I tried both. You can either hold the Wii-mote sideways and use what would be the up arrow and 2 button as flipper controls. The A launches the ball, and what would normally be the left and right arrows adjust the camera. The other way to control is holding the Wii-mote normally in one hand and the nunchuk in the other. The B and Z buttons are flipper controls. I had a bit more difficulty launching the ball in the two-handed method. You actually hold the A and pull the remote back and release — like pulling the plunger in a real game. I had to play with my timing on that one. Overall, I found the two-handed method more ergonomic, but I did have to be careful not to tilt if I reached up to scratch my nose while holding the controls.

Yes, you do have the option to tilt in virtual pinball. That motion-sensor technology will pick up your moves, so go ahead and nudge that board if you want. I’m not super-skilled at pinball as it is, so I tend not to try the nudge. I suppose I should play with it now. At least in the privacy of my own home, I won’t experience the scorn of other players if I tilt.

You can have up to four players on any of the games. Much like a regular pinball machine, this is just a matter of taking turns.

I think my biggest issue with the game was the camera controls. There are seven different potential views — six of which are dynamic. Sometimes the ball moved faster than the cameras adjusted, and I had to try to hit the ball when I couldn’t even see that area of the board. Maybe some people can go for the ball and adjust the camera at the same time — that’s not particularly easy for me. When I was first looking at a new table, I would have liked to scan around and try to see where all the flippers are and get a better look at things. I could change my camera views, but I didn’t figure out a way to just pan around and look at the thing. Maybe there is a way to do this — but if there is, it wasn’t very intuitive. There is a map of each table in the manual, but that’s not the same as having a look at the real thing. There is a view of the whole table, but for some reason, they thought it would be fun to add glare to it — I suppose so you think you’re looking at real glass. Adding in a view hazard doesn’t really improve game play, in my opinion.

Some of the games have an upper-level area that you can get the ball on to. Sometimes it was a little tricky for me to track the ball and see where I was — and the upper area is pretty unforgiving for any lapse in concentration. The flippers are smaller, and the ball can drop through pretty fast. Yes, I know you need to pay attention, but when I’ve played games in the arcade with an upper level, it was much, much easier to see where the ball was and to see what I was doing.

It’s been a really long time since I played on a real pinball machine, but the physics of the balls seemed within reasonable parameters to me. Again, I didn’t feel any real difference between the types of ball materials. The tables were all OK — but they were just OK. Nothing jumped out as being spectacular. Basically, if you can deal with the camera issue, Dream Pinball 3D is an OK pinball game for the Wii. There are other pinball games out there, though — and I think I’m going to keep looking to satisfy my pinball needs.