We all know that the secret to creating a killer pinball game on the PC lies in recreating the look, feel, and excitement of a real table. Theres one drawback, though: How do you see the whole table? You can either squeeze the table into the middle third of the computer screen, or you can follow a narrower view that follows the action of the ball. Or, if youre Sierra, you can dump both those ideas and create a table from scratch, as they did with the suprisingly good 3D Ultra Pinball.

In 3D Ultra Pinball, Sierra created three space-themed boards made up of one center table and a mini-table on each side. The boards were fun to play because of the added gimmicks that you cant find in a real pinball table, but the action was pretty slow and somewhat unrealistic. Now, Sierra is back with 3D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night, which greatly improves upon its predecessor, and the action is faster, more realistic, and incredibly fun.

Creep Night gives you three boards to play. The castle board pits you against the castle and all its forces of evil: ghosts, goblins, spiders, and more. The tower board places you inside a scientists laboratory where a squid lives in a water tank and a monster hangs from the ceiling. The dungeon board puts you in the dungeon where you frequently have to stop prison outbreaks.

Aside from the creepy theme, the best part of Creep Night are the extras that you couldnt find in a “real” pinball game. There are flying gargoyles that carry your ball to new places, bumpers that spew fire when hit, creatures that scurry around the table trying not to get hit, evil spirits that take your ball (or eat it) — these are just a few of the evil gimmicks to be found in Creep Night.

In reality, there are two ways to make a great pinball game on the PC: Create a realistic board that captures the feel of a real table or create a board that includes gimmicks you could never find in a real table. Creep Night takes that latter option and turns it into an incredibly fun pinball game.DEMO REVIEW
The third in Sierra’s 3D Ultra Pinball Series, this time The Lost Continent attempts to actually tell a story.

It’s an original idea, but it doesn’t really work in practice. The tables are goal oriented, so you have to perform several actions in order to win the game, unlike most pinball games where you just smack the ball around the table and try to get as many points as you can.

In the demo you’re allotted 5 minutes per game - not really long enough but you can keep restarting the game as many times as you like. There are several hidden areas in the game, and the whole table in the demo has two mammoth sized play areas.

Archeologists’ voices guide you into new areas. The fall movement is a bit jerky at times, but the nicely designed table and sound effects of hungry dinosaurs make up for it.

While I quite liked Sierra’s Creep Night, The Lost Continent didn’t do much for me.

Reviewed by Holt Meyers.

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