Modern pinball has been around since the 1940s when Gottlieb hit upon the idea of adding flippers to its popular tables. What began as simple electromechanical novelties made up of switches and levers has evolved into computer-controlled marvels with complex tables and full-color video.
Just as physical pinball tables have evolved over the years, digital pinball tables have seen their own evolution. The primitive graphics of Atari’s 1977 Video Pinball gave way to Nintendo’s 1984 two-level penguin-adorned classic, which in turn stepped aside for the over-the-top madness of Devil’s Crush on the TurboGrafx-16. Today’s pinball games have taken the traditional forms to their limits and, in some cases, pushed beyond them with some of thebest Android gamesaround. If you want to push your phone,we have some excellent recommendations.
22 best retro ports on Android
Let’s take a trip down memory lane
6Vector Pinball
Vector Pinball doesn’t have any business being as good as it is. It eschews graphics in lieu of gameplay and accurate physics. The tables are nothing but lines and circles displayed in different colors, paired with pentatonic sound effects straight from an 80s synthesizer in place of flashing lights and clanging bells. The game currently offers seven tables to play on, and it’s actively supported, which means new content can drop at any time. Best of all, Vector Pinball iscompletely open source(GPL 3), and if you’re feeling up to it, there’s even anexperimental table editor GUIyou can play with to create your own content.
The best way to describe PinOut is that it’s pinball meets an endless runner. The game has one objective: advance your ball as far up the table as you can before time runs out. Along the way, there are bonuses to increase your time, power-ups to help you out, and mini-games just for funsies. The art style is reminiscent of Tron, with neon and black tables. It’s also worth it to play with the sound up because thesynthwave soundtrackperfectly accents the vibe of this game and pulls everything together.
4Pinball Deluxe: Reloaded
On the surface Pinball Deluxe: Reloaded looks like a traditional pinball game that offers polished graphics and satisfying physics, but if you give it a little bit of time, there’s a surprising amount of depth waiting to be uncovered. There are six tables you can unlock for free and six you can purchase, although you can play any of the tables on the Ladder Mode, which lets you pit your skills against other players for a chance to rank up. But one of the most refreshing parts of the game is how original and different the tables are from the “traditional” pinball games, so give this a look if you’re hunting for something a little different.
3Pinball Kingdom: Tower Defense
The mashup of pinball and tower defense works surprisingly well. The tables are made up of simple obstacles you have to avoid while destroying the enemy spawn points before their mobs can overcome your village just below your flippers. Everytime you let a mob slip past your defenses, you lose a bit of health, and everytime you let the ball through, you lose a big chunk of health. Thankfully you can unlock upgrades to purchase with earned in-game currency that will boost your village health, or provide you with a faster, more powerful ball. If you don’t have the coin for an upgrade, you can always spend real money to buy more.
2Pinball Flipper
Pinball Flipper is a great game for a quick game of pinball. The controls are solid, the graphics look good, and the physics aren’t too wonky. There are 12 tables to play on and all of them are unlocked right from the beginning. Some of them are traditional tables, but others borrow from other games like the unlicensed Pokémon table or the pinball/break out fusion table. Pinball Flipper also does something most pinball games don’t, they’ve got achievements, both for the game and the individual tables.
1Pinball - Smash Arcade
Pinball video games are best when they change the formula a bit. Pinball - Smash Arcade does that by requiring you to hit a bumper at the top of the table until its health is reduced to zero. Your ball deals out more damage based on the bonuses you pick up on the table. It also has a bit of a Candy Crush vibe where you are clearing tables and playing new ones (over 100 tables). The only caveat with this game is it’s best played on airplane mode, otherwise the ads can be too aggressive, but barring that, this is an enjoyable, unique entry in the library of pinball games.
Have some flipping fun on your phone
Pinball games are far from the largest genre on the Play Store, but there are more than enough titles out there to satisfy your pinball cravings. Despite the dearth of titles to choose from, there is an abundance of creativity, with many titles taking advantage of mechanics that could never be possible on a physical table. That, and digital pinball offers up its pleasures for free — no more making change to feed quarters to the table. Between all these great titles (and the massive table libraries from Zen Studios and others), there’s something on the Play Store to pique the interest of every pinball enthusiast. But if skill shots aren’t your thing, perhaps you shouldcheck out these awesome FPS games on Androidfor an adrenaline rush.
