Pinball Dreams II is yet another great Pinball game from the publishers 21st Century Entertainment and was designed by Spidersoft. The overall style is, not surprisingly, very similar to the previous Pinball Game, Pinball Dreams and if you like that then you will definitely like this second version. Like the first game this one consists of four separate pinball tables, called Neptune, Safari, Revenge of the Robot Warriors and Stall Turn and each table has a theme that ties in with the table name.
The Neptune table has an undersea theme and has a big picture of the man himself along with various fish, a mermaid and a treasure chest. There are lots of targets to aim for in the form of groups of letters that spell undersea related words such as Squid, Gold and Sea - hit all the letters of a given word to score big points. In keeping with an undersea theme this table is predominately shades of blue. A nice moody table with plenty to shoot at and lots to collect.
The Safari table has a desert bush scrub theme with various animals portrayed such as a large Elephant, a Lion and a Monkey and a very nice usage of a black and white zebra
skin pattern molded over all the static walls and edges of the playing surface. Plenty of targets again and unusual positioning of ramps and rails - an interesting table.
The Revenge of the Robot Warriors table has a retro science fiction theme with a large metallic muscled robot and a space gun toting swimsuit babe. This table is more about firing the ball through tunnels and up ramps as there are only three letter targets (spelling POW). This table seems to be most people's favorite as it is mine also. Action packed fast shooting - quick reflexes required.
The Stall Turn table has a flying theme from days gone by as there are a number of bi-planes depicted. Once again plenty of letter targets, two loops and a ramp leading to a small upper table. Another enjoyable table and probably my second choice.
Each table has two flippers conventionally positioned at the bottom left and right of the table and operated by the two respective shift keys on the keyboard. The flippers are very responsive which allows for some high speed game play. Each table scrolls vertical very smoothly approximately two and a half times the height of the PC screen and follows the motion of the ball perfectly. There is a high score table for the top four scores for each table and you can play on your own or against up to seven other players each taking one ball in turn. Each game has only three balls though so each ball counts and unlike a lot of other pinball games there is no "ball save" so you have to be careful not to loose the ball too soon.
All in all, a must have for all retro gamers.
