Ok, I wrote this a while ago, in thr DS forum, but seeing as this forum is now here, I may as well post it.

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Consoles continuously churn out pinball versions of their most popular characters: Kirby, Mario, Sonic and Pokemon - with the exception of Pokemon Pinball, few are anything to get very excited about. The usual, boring, score-grabbing, plinky-plonky music and awful tilt systems, make the majority of pinball titles a chore and a bore to play. You'd think they'd run out of spherical characters to chuck into a pinball table. But no...

Ah, see, we forgot about Miss Aran. She goes into her Morph Ball, remember? It all makes sense now. Let's chuck her into a pinball machine too and poke her around the bottom with our flippers. Who knows - it may even be good.

The good news? This is good. The bad news? It's only a Prime fix until Hunters comes out in a gazillion years.

From the off, nostalgia kicks in. You're treated to the same creepy music that the Prime titles offered, and each sound effect makes you hungrier for Hunters and back in the mood to stick your Metroid Prime disk back into your 'cube and kick the Omega Pirate's arse once again

- he's a weakling anyways. Too many minions.

To begin, there is a choice of two different modes: Multi Mission and Single Mission.

The latter gives you little goals to achieve, in points, and a certain amount of Screw Attack symbols to collect and different levels/tables to achieve them on.

Multi Mission is basically the game's story mode. You get to choose from, either the Pirate Frigate, or Tallon Overworld, to begin. From these levels, you can progress to more advanced boss levels, in familiar places like the Phendrana Drifts or the dreaded Phazon Mines.

Elevating to these new levels is no easy feat - you have to rack up thousands of points, and be a pinball wizard to be able to hit targets needed to progress.

Most areas on the table are quite easy to get to: rolling into the Battle Mode hologram will trigger an enemy to appear and you're given a set amount of time to defeat them. Sometimes you'll hear the music change to that terrifying music we dreaded from the depths of Phendrana, and Space Pirates will appear, firing at you with their homing missiles (they never had homing missiles before!). Other times, the music will die and you'll hear the eerie screech of a few Metroids and they'll creep in from the bottom screen. Wait for them to land, then explode them with your Bombs.

Burrowers make an appearance, as do the annoying Triclops. Hit the Burrower when it springs up from underground; let Triclops pick up your Bomb, rather than yourself and watch it blow up.

That's what's nice about Prime Pinball - being a veteran of the Prime series gives you that extra knowledge. We know how to defeat those Triclops. We know that they're likely to throw you into oblivion if they catch you. We know to bang at the B button, laying bombs whenever a Metroid grips its claws into you, and we know that Shriekbats are suicidal. Knowledge gives us power. We like!

The aforementioned Shriekbats give another aspect of play - one which makes this game a true gem. Through a series of triggers, you can activate a mode where Samus comes out of her Morph Ball and stand in the centre, just above the flippers. On the top screen, hoards of enemies appear (either a Shriekbat frenzy or a Beetle mob). She continuously fires Power Beams and you just control which direction she fires. With the Beetles, they start with only a couple, then build up, all charging at you at once. However, with the Shriekbats, they all appear on the top screen at once, divebombing Samus at random. Take 4 hits and Samus reverts back to Morph Ball mode and fails to collect extra points for the completion of the little 'mini-game.'

Whilst triggering this mode is pretty easy to do, there is another feature, which makes this game unlike any other pinball game - the Wall Jump feature. Hard to accomplish, but when you fire Samus exactly the right way, she'll enter a new area, and be faced with two walls, side by side, with an artifact at the top. Tap the |R| and |L| buttons at the right moment to make Samus Wall Jump all the way to the top, destroying War Wasps or Puffers on her way.

It gets better. Hit the right target three times and Samus will gain the clone multiball mode, cloning herself twice, meaning there are three Samus's darting around the table, boosting the points all the while. Keeping track of all three is trick, but once you master it, those scores will shoot up. Once she gets going, it can be completely chaotic.

Aside from all these extra modes, Samus can activate the 'Change Location' hologram. From the Pirate Frigate, or Tallon Overworld, you can gain access to Phendrana or the Phazon Mines, where you must defeat the boss there.

In the top screen, a power up awaits. Smash the forcefield and you can acquire either the Power Bomb or the Super Missile. This will help greatly when the bosses rear their ugly heads.

In Phendrana, Thardus awakens from his rock cocoon and attacks, firing avalanches of rocks and rolling all over the top screen. Escaping this rollout is seriously tricky, and even when you do, those pesky Triclops await you on the bottom screen, ready to hook you in and throw you down the hole to oblivion.

In the Phazon Mines, the wicked Omega Pirate emerges, equipped with his little army of Space Pirates. This battle in much harder than Thardus. Escaping his circle of energy which he fires is something which I haven't even worked out how to do. Taking damage seems to be the only solution. Doh. Activate the panel below and allow Samus to come back out of her Morph Ball and fire her Power Beam at the Pirate. Hitting |X| will fire the Super Missiles, which are vital to beating the Omega Pirate.

Beating the bosses unlocks new levels in Single Mission. As yet, the Omega Pirate and Thardus are the only bosses I've seen, but, rumour has it, that you can reach new stages like the Magmoor Caverns. Will there be a boss there this time? There weren't any in Prime. Perhaps a new boss shall appear... Perhaps.

Aside from the amazing gameplay and wicked soundtrack, Prime Pinball delivers some gorgeous graphics. Seeing Thardus appear for the first time on the top screen will leave you wetting your pants with joy and terror all at the same time. And out-of-game menus and enemy pictures look near identical to the 'cube offerings.

If this is Nintendo's idea of giving us something to have our appetites well and truly whetted until Prime Hunters, then they've gone completely the right way about it. Although not quite the Metroid game we're all gagging for, Metroid Prime Pinball delivers, not only one of the best pinball games of all time, but one of the best games on the DS so far. Well worth it.

From me, your #1Corsola fan ^_^