Pinball Hall of Fame

Crave is on a roll with their Pinball Hall of Fame franchise. Designed to replicate the best in pinball titles from years past, the series offers fans entry into a period of nostalgia absent in more traditional games.

Now Crave is gearing up to bring the franchise to the 3DS. In 3D, the games look fantastic, accurately recreating the tables of Funhouse, Whirlwind, Taxi, Pinbot, Space Shuttle, Black Knight, and Gorgar. Considering Crave and developer FarSight Studios have lowered the camera for closer and more pronounced 3D vision, the visuals are rather impressive.

It wouldn’t be a 3DS title without some sort of dual-screen functionality. In Pinball Hall of Fame, the bottom screen acts as the traditional backboard of a pinball table. It’s a nice touch, but feels odd for those used to the orientation of pinball games.

Thankfully, FarSight has a neat trick up its sleeve. If players flip the 3DS upside-down and control the flippers by pressing their thumbs up against the 3DS triggers, the game will reorient to better look like a pinball machine. It’s a bizarre way to play, but feels very intuitive and accurate to pinball. Nintendo still hasn’t signed off on this feature, but hopefully Crave can convince them.

For fans of mobile pinball, Pinball Hall of Fame intends to keep its high pedigree, with a Metacritic score of 82 on other platforms. The game launches in June, perfect for those lazy summer days.