Pinball (game)

Pinball is a game released for the Famicom in 1984 and the NES in 1985. It is based on the arcade. A competitive multiplayer version of this game was released on the VS. System under the name VS. Pinball. Hudson Soft had planned to release ports of Pinball for home computers in Japan in 1985 but they were cancelled for unknown reasons. The Famicom version was preceded by a Game & Watch version in December 1983. However, this version has no Mario elements.

The NES version of Pinball was re-released on the Family Computer Disk System, for the Game Boy Advance's e-Reader as part of Series One, and on the Virtual Console for the Wii and Wii U. VS. Pinball was re-released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch as part of 's Arcade Archives series on August 30, 2019.

Gameplay
Pinball is a game where the player controls the paddles of a virtual pinball machine. The game has two screens to represent the traditional pinball table and one for a bonus mode. Play begins when the player launches a ball with the plunger from first screen—the bottom of the pinball table—through the top of the screen to the second screen. Play will move to the first screen if the ball falls through the bottom of the top screen and will return to the top screen if the ball is hit back through the space at the top of the first screen.

If the ball falls through the hole to the right at the bottom level, the player will enter a mini-game featuring Mario and Lady.

The player controls the paddles on either screen to deflect the ball to keep it from falling off the bottom of the lower screen.

Mario mini-game
In this  mode, the player controls Mario (in his NES Mario Bros. palette) carrying a platform. The objective of this mode is to rescue Lady (previously seen in Donkey Kong and also as her first appearance as a brunette, predating the 1994 Donkey Kong for Game Boy). The player achieves this by bouncing the ball off Mario's platform and hitting various targets, the destruction of which also earns them points. When the blocks under her are all gone, she will drop. Catching her on Mario's platform earns the player bonus points, but allowing her to hit the ground causes the player to lose.

VS. Pinball
VS. Pinball made several changes in graphics, music, and gameplay. One example is that hatching three pink chicks will grant an extra ball.

References in later games

 * Family BASIC: This accessory to the Famicom has sprites for Lady and a penguin which are very similar to the ones found in Pinball.
 * Super Smash Bros. series: Mario's outfit on the American boxart of Pinball is used as one of Luigi's alternate costumes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
 * NES Remix / NES Remix Pack: Several challenges in NES Remix are based on this game.

Staff
Hirokazu Tanaka is credited for creating original music for Pinball.

Trivia

 * Pinball is the first released video game that Satoru Iwata programmed for Nintendo; his first Famicom project, a 1983 home conversion of the 1982 arcade game , remained unreleased for over four years until its eventual 1987 production by HAL Laboratory.
 * Pinball is a playable NES game in Doubutsu no Mori for Nintendo 64 and its GameCube port, Animal Crossing.