Game:

3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride (2000)

Duration: 38:20

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206

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"Ultra Thrill Ride Pinball" by Sierra is a pretty unique concept for a pinball game: it promotes the "Hersheypark" theme park in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, which is what the pinball "table" in the game actually replicates. I looked up the names of some of the rides featured in the game and it turns out the elements the ball interacts with on the playfield are real rides from Hersheypark. For a pinball game, the graphics are impressive: I'm no game expert, but to me it seems like quite an achievement of programming and 3D photography for the time, as all the rides in the game resemble their original counterparts very closely. Another interesting aspect is that you get 3 commentators: a woman and two guys, which is something you don't tend to see in a pinball game, since there is nothing to comment on most of the time ! Here though, it's executed pretty well and I like the idea. Not only do they cheer you on, but also give you instructions on what to do in certain moments. After playing the game for a while, I came to the conclusion that they might be a family visiting the park: the female voice is the mother, the man with the deeper voice is the father and the younger-sounding boy is their son. I thought of this after getting the "lights out" mode where the father says "That's it, let's wrap it up and go home" to which the son replies "But I don't want to go home", followed by the father's reply "Well, why didn't you say so ?" and then the game resumes. The game also has some "mini-games" or "sub-areas" which you activate when your ball enters certain spots or triggers the right element at the right time. These take you to another table entirely where you try to keep the ball in play as much as possible while performing different tasks, like knocking down boulders with the ball to allow rafts to go down "River Rapids" or hitting targets to create a "virtual roller coaster" based on the "Lightning Racer", which actually exists, as I said before. The soundtracks are also great - you could sell a CD with the OSTs ! There are virtually no flaws I can find in this game, no matter how picky I try to be ! Being more familiar with DOS pinball games than newer ones, it was a bit of a steep curve for me to adapt to its 3D style and gameplay, but once I did, it was an awesome experience, mainly because of the graphics and the high level of realism. It seems Sierra always makes great games: see After Dark Games and The Incredible Machine. Give 3D Ultra Thrill Ride Pinball a shot - it's awesome and you can tell there was a lot of effort put into it ! Two thumbs up from Danny for this title :D

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