Pinball Fantasies: Meeting in the middle

Digital pinball is a phenomenally broad and varied genre. Some choose to go down the more obviously game-y route—Alien Crush, Xenotilt, Sonic Spinball and similar—tables full of traditionally impossible elements such as roaming enemies, minigames, laser beams, and blue hedgehogs with attitude. Then there are hyper-realistic tables created chiefly for dedicated fans of the real thing to enjoy, full of intricate faux-mechanical gimmicks and scoring systems obtuse enough to make even a game like Hellsinker blush. And then there are those like Pinball Fantasies, content to make a comfortable little spot for itself as “just” a pinball game. It’s not wildly imaginative, the kind of game eager to stuff its four tables with a dozen novelty subtables or a clutch of bewildering states to keep track of. It’s not interested in challenging the genre’s biggest fans either, a place where every score multiplier is more convoluted than the last. The straightforward control scheme encourages me to pick…