Pinball Hall of Fame review (PlayStation 2)

Pinball Hall of Fame also contains a series of unlockable items and options that are earned by completing specific goals on each of the game's tables. Some of these let you turn off tilt, play with a custom-colored ball, or even gain access to quirky little arcade throwbacks, like a love tester machine or a Xolten fortune teller machine (similar to the Zoltan machine that Tom Hanks used to grow bigger in Big). On the Xbox, the game also adds a level of depth by offering online scoreboards for each table. Since pinball machines are all about getting the highest score, it's good to be able to see how your score stacks up. The PlayStation 2 version will save scores locally, but it lacks an online scoring feature. It also lacks progressive scan support and has slightly longer load times than its Xbox counterpart.

The game's sound attempts to re-create how a table would sound in an actual arcade setting. So you get a lot of background noise (some of it taken from arcade offerings like Galaga and Joust) thrown in with the table's sound effects, which are played back in a slightly distant way. This is sort of neat, but being able to isolate the table's sound effects and turn off the background noise would have been a good option to have. The game also has an announcer who reads off brief historical and instructional information about each table, which is a nice, helpful inclusion.

Overall, Pinball Hall of Fame offers a fine collection of classic pinball machines. It looks good, controls well, sells at a budget price, and should be a no-brainer as an addition to your library if you're a fan of simulated pinball.