Pinball Illusions

Title           Pinball Illusions
Publisher       21st Century Entertainment (1995)
Game Type       Sport
Players         1-8
HD Installable  Yes; CD32 version also available
Compatability   AGA-only (CD32 works on AGA-CD systems)
Demo            aminet: game/demo/p3_demo.dms
Game data/utils Show scores - aminet: game/misc/PinHi.lha
                Set parameters aminet: game/patch/PinIlluPref2_0.lha
Submission      Dennis Smith dmss100@hotmail.com

Review
After the success of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies came Pinball
Illusions, promising more of the same, only better. Three more colourful
tables packed with features including long-awaited multiball modes and an
enhanced score display panel, enabling new variations in the numerous
sub-games.

The first table is 'Law 'N Justice', with a law enforcement theme -
sub-games revolving around stopping criminals and quelling riots; there are
eight different missions and one special mission for when you have
completed all eight, along with a multiball sub-game and the usual run of
skill shots and bonus-multipliers. Next is the slightly tacky 'Babe-Watch',
all about doing various things to impress the girls, surfing, racing and
muscle-building - it's probably the weakest table but very playable all the
same - Digital Illusions have clearly learned plenty from their previous
two games. Finally there's the 'Extreme Sports' table which features six
extreme modes, ranging from rock-climbing to ski-stunts, along with a
'Speed' sub-game and the 'Extreme' sub-game in which you are rewarded for
such spectacular sports as chess and cricket (tongue firmly in cheek).

The three tables are as good as any of the previous eight, the graphics are
excellent, the music and sound-effects great, and the CD version comes with
CD-quality stereo sound-tracks for almost all parts of the game - a real
improvement on the ordinary Paula-generated tracks.

There are minor niggles - I have encountered a couple of bugs which should
have been ironed out in beta-testing - including one crash (CD version),
though I wasn't able to reproduce it. Also, on the average A1200-CD set-up
there are short freezes on the CD version whenever the CD changes track. For
the most part these don't get in the way but they are occasionally
frustrating, particularly on the 'Law 'N Justice' table. The CD soundtrack
makes up for this though, and you can install it on HD for a musicless,
uninterrupted version.

All in all, though, yet another excellent pinball game from the Digital
Illusions team.

Alphabetical list.