Snowball: excellent and addictive Flash pinball

Snowball is Pixeljam's Flash take on a computer pinball game, and it's an incredibly fun table. I intended to play for a few minutes to try it out and got sucked in for an hour. Snowball is simultaneously very true to the spirit of physical pinball while managing to deliver a board and several mechanics that would be nearly impossible to create in a mechanical game. The vertical scrolling mechanism is also a nice way of transcending the constraint of the usual landscape aspect ratio in computer displays.

* SNOWBALL! * (via Waxy)

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http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

Cute little game, indeed.

Though, the vertically-scrolling screen gets hampers gameplay once you have multiple balls in-play. I found times where focus was on the top of the screen but balls were disappearing off the bottom and no way to react to that. A bit of lag on the flippers, too.

Still, good fun.
chgoliz

Damn you!
http://zombo.com MalcoveMagnesia

I thought Flash was dead?

can HTML5 do that?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QRR5BOIQUEPTR6ZV7KCXY6C6CE Steve
  
  yes
http://profile.yahoo.com/7C5D6VA4ONMYS4JUJKIBU4SAP4 Allen

Meh. You’re right about the addictiveness, but I’m not sure it’s earned. Frankly, MS’s Space Pinball is way more interesting as you progress. Which reminds me, Hearts still rocks. Shoot the moon!
penguinchris

I like the design, though the balls are hard to see (white on white). I found the ball getting stuck in one spot or another for too long… couldn’t get it to be very exciting. And the flippers on the sides have reversed controls, I guess because of the direction they’re facing… very confusing.

I was glad to try it though because I can’t even remember the last time I played a flash game :)
cellocgw

I think the fine folks at VPforums.org would roll their eyes in disgust. I know I do. I mean, *scrolling*? Really? That was dead, so far as pinball sims go, 15 years ago. Honestly: there are many much, much better pinball sims out there. The Android “Arcade pinball” re-creates 5 or 6 real pins and does so quite well indeed.
http://redesigned.com redesigned

it was fun, but i wish it was a snowball pinball adventure, with a much larger map, a few different powerups, more interactive scenery, etc. then i would waste hours.