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Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball
From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all
But I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall
That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball

He's a pinball wizard, there has to be a twist
A pinball wizard's got such a supple wrist
How do you think he does it? I don't know!
What makes him so good?
Pete Townsend "Tommy"

If you've ever played, you know the appeal of the game. Its fast, its furious and its all about a little spherical piece of steel. Its just you, the ball and the flippers, as the bumpers and buttons ping and the score goes up you lean into the machine and become one with it and then you bump the table a little to much to the left and TILT! AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Well, there's always the next ball….

Pinball Hall of Fame takes you right back to the days of the pinball arcade, the sights, the sounds and the atmosphere of the days before virtual reality and DDR. All through the game you get to hear in the background the sounds that you would associate with a pinball arcade, the game immerses you into the past as you play.

At the start of the game, you have immediate access - free play - to four of the tables, Genie, Big Shot, Victory and El Dorado. From then on, its all up to you to play the game, get your name on the high score list and earn yourself some tokens that you can use on the other tables. Should you at some point get tired of playing pinball and want to do something a little different, there are also a couple of games that will tell you all about yourself like the Love Meter and Xolten. You can also use your tokens to buy free access to different tables, or gain the Tilt ability.

All told there are ten pinball tables that you can play on ranging from 1957 through 1995 and all from the Gottlieb stables. The first time you go to play any of the tables, the game will give you a short history lesson on the game, when it was made and a bit of trivia about it.

As you play and accomplish specific goals, either in minimum scores or just by simply playing a certain table, you will unlock other aspects of the game or make other tables into free play tables. There is a tour of the Gottlieb factory that is an amazing thing to watch on the PSP. Even though I grew up with pinball machines I had never actually considered how massively enormous the pinball business was, and still is. Or how many hundreds of different pinball machines were made over the past 50 years.

Gameplay is fairly straightforward. You shoot the ball, then hit it with the flippers to keep it in play and make your score go up. Simple right? Heheh… Don't forget that there is a gap between the flippers at the bottom of the table and the ball seems to have this amazing knack for finding that space. Different tables have different goals and scoring that you will want to be aware of. The game supplies you with the information you need from the main screen where you can read about each table.

There are also two basic views of the table that you can choose. This is the first game that I've played on the Sony PSP that makes use of the unique aspects of the system. You can flip the screen so that you are playing with a view using the length of the screen, which will give you a better overall view of the table. There are also zoom options so that you can either zoom in on the ball and follow it as it spins across the table, or lock the view out so that the entire table can be seen; or any of a number of steps in between.

Pinball Hall of Fame also has a Gottlieb Challenge mode that will run you through all ten tables in order. To move on to the next table you have to hit a minimum score on the table your on. There is also a tournament mode where you can play against others, you accumulate points for high scores on the various tables.

The graphics in the game are fantastic, the reproductions of the tables are exquisite and true to life. I spent a little bit of time searching for various pinball games online and found a few sites with pics of the tables and the screens from the game look exactly like the originals. Pinball Hall of Fame is a true Blast from the Past.

The game plays with what appears to be real world physics in the way that the ball moves around the table. At times its moving so fast you can't really keep track of it - hey that sounds just like what happens on a real pinball table, fancy that. My only minor gripe with the game is that there is no pressure sensitivity for the flippers.

Pinball Hall of Fame is the first PSP game that I've found that I think will never lose its playability. I've been playing pinball in the arcades since I was a kid and now I can take it with me in my pocket. If your looking for a keeper for your PSP, this is it. Go get a copy and relive the days of the pinball arcade.