Kirby's Pinball Land

The game is a pinball with characters from the Kirby video game series , in which with the help of two flippers Kirby must be kept in the game, gaining points when confronted with walls, bumpers and enemies. Kirby himself acts as a ball. He has to go through three game tables, each of which consists of three main levels, a secret level with a mini-game and a level at which Kirby meets with one of three bosses. Kirby must make his way to the third floor with the help of the Main Star , which appears after the victory over all three bosses.

At each level, there are various chips that help Kirby get to the next level, for example, characters throwing Kirby up or pointing at the Main Star, to which Kirby can jump. Main Stars on the lower floor return Kirby to the table selection screen, Main Stars on the middle floor direct Kirby to a mini-game where he can earn extra points and attempts, and Main Stars on the upper floor direct Kirby to a battle with the boss. Each battle requires the player to inflict a certain number of blows to the boss, without touching the Main Star below and staying in the screen back. After defeating all three bosses, the player fights with the king DeDiDi. After defeating Dnem, the player can play the game again to score a higher score.

If Kirby falls to the bottom of the bottom floor of each table, he will land on the springboard. By pressing the "A" button at the moment when the springboard is at the lowest level, with a timely press, Kirby returns to the table. However, the springboard becomes smaller with each use, making it difficult for a successful return. If Kirby is unable to return to the table, the player will lose a life, and the game will end as soon as the player’s life ends. Additional lives can be earned by writing the word "Extra" with letters that appear on the table selection screen after the bosses have been defeated.

Kirby's Pinball Land received positive reviews. As of 2014, the game has an average score of 70% on GameRankings ^[2] . Electronic Gaming Monthly rated the game at 7.25 points out of 10. They criticized the Game Boy fuzzy screen, which made it difficult for the gameplay, but nevertheless consider Kirby's Pinball Land "one of the best pinball games for any system" because of recover lost balls, gameplay with several tables and a large number of hidden items ^[3] .

In a retrospective review, IGN praised him as a quality pinball game for a boy, describing it as attractive and fun. [3] Pinball Land Kirby was one

Thus, on the MobyGames website directory, the average rating based on several reviews is 84/100 ^[4] , and on the GameFAQs Internet portal it is 7.5 / 10 based on reviews from external sites, 9.0 / 10 based on our own reviews and 7.7 / 10 based on the views of visitors to the portal ^[5] . On the website of the commercial information base Allgame, the game received a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 ^[6] .

In the German magazine Video Games ( de ) in the February 1994 issue , Kirby's Pinball Land received a very high rating of 81%, including 69% for graphics, 72% for sound effects and 83% for music. The game was named on par with Revenge of the 'Gator, the most successful Game Boy pinball. Among the advantages of the game were high-quality drawing of objects, beautiful funny animation, sufficient variety and the presence of a built-in battery in the cartridge, due to which the game retained the maximum scores of players and position in the game ^[7] . At the English-language Electric Playground website, Kirby’s adventures were rated extremely high at 9.5 / 10 points. The game with its interesting gameplay was named one of the best on the Game Boy ^[8] 7.5 out of 10 points, the game was marked on the Nintendojo website. Kirby's Pinball Land graphics were named in the Nintendojo review as being pretty, reminiscent of the Pokémon Pinball game developed by the same company, the music and sound effects were quite successful, although they were pretty annoying ^[9] .

In a retrospective review, IGN noted the game as a quality pinball representative on the Game Boy, describing it as attractive and fun ^[10] . Kirby's Pinball Land was nominated for the IGN Award for Best Action Game for a Gameboy of All Time ^[11] . 1UP.com noted that “Spin-offs are an inevitable story for popular series, but Kirby's Pinball Land is one of those ideas that just make sense” ^[12] . The engine used in Kirby's Pinball Land will later be used in another Nintendo game, Pokémon Pinball .

• Kirby's Pinball Land (Eng.) (Eng.) On GameFAQs
• "Kirby's Pinball Land" (English) on the site allgame