Graphics: Dream Pinball 3D’s big claim to fame is right there in the title, advertising a three dimensional experience as if the table was right in your living room. Sadly, the rendering of the objects has been done so poorly, that this feature is much more distracting than alluring. The graphics are cluttered on top of each other, making it hard to discern one object from the next. On every game board the flippers are so grainy and rough, that they never look real and calling them crudely animated would be generous. When the camera hits just the right spot pixel gaps are noticeable. This is a major offense at this stage of videogame design. The only visually redeeming aspects of the game are the flat surfaces of the pinball tables. The Aquatic themed table, for example, is the least convoluted containing minimal ramps and levels, which makes it much easier to see and enjoy the lights and blinking signs. The flat, open areas of the tables are certainly passable as far as graphics are concerned, but unfortunately most areas are overcrowded with shoddy 3D objects.

Interface: If I feel as though I need to read the instruction manual, or pause the action to figure what the heck is going on, the game has failed. The menu is simple enough: pick your table, skill level, and go, but once the game started, I was at a bit of a loss on how to even shoot my ball. When I did manage to get rolling, I lost two or three balls before I figured out which buttons activated the flippers. Don’t even get me started on the camera angles. There are a whopping seven of them, and that’s probably about five or six too many. To start with, it’s nearly impossible to remember what each of them are, and you can only cycle through them after your ball has been launched. Suddenly zooming in and out, trying to find that one good view out of seven, while your ball is careening through obstacles almost guarantees a blunder and another turn straight down the hole.

Gameplay: Dream Pinball 3D made it far too difficult for me to enjoy it. I love the simplicity of pinball; you mash a ball with a multitude of flippers and get millions of points for hitting colored lights and stationary targets. But here, because I could rarely tell what was going on, that faux-feeling of skill pinball players experience was completely lacking. Take for instance the fantasy themed table Amber Moon. A good third of the board has a secondary quasi-transparent level, complete with its own set of flippers and bumpers, on top of the main level. The problem with this, which becomes obvious rather quickly, is that it’s extremely difficult to tell which level your ball is on. I guess you could always change camera angles somehow, but I’ve already told you about the disaster that system is.

Some of my fellow critics have complained that they felt the ball physics were slightly amiss. To me, the ball and its interaction with the obstacles and flippers felt fine, but I raise issues when the material of the ball is altered mid-action, and the game doesn’t even tell me what the change is. I think the concept of having balls made of wood, various metals, and plastic is a great idea; it can really add some fun variety to the game by changing the way ball moves and responds, but Dream Pinball 3D, makes two major blunders with this concept. You can’t choose the ball material as an option, and you never get to know the type of ball you’re playing with. One minute my ball was as heavy as a brick, the next it was as light as a feather, and it threw me off too much to accept the novelty of it.

Multiplayer: The multiplayer aspect of Dream Pinball 3D is perfectly average. It does exactly what it’s supposed to- keeps track of four people’s scores so one can be declared a winner at the end. It would be nice if there was some variety or other creative options to get multiple people to play at once, but this a budget title, so I can’t really fault it for being basic.

Sound FX: Sometimes things are so embarrassingly bad that they become funny. That’s exactly the way to describe the sound effects in Dream Pinball. The narrator for all the tables is a woman who has the enthusiasm of a slug. She consistently announces your score and achievements in a monotone voice, using the exact same inflection whether you tilt the table or score a 100 million point bonus. But the best parts are the table specific quips. My favorites come from the Dino Wars table, where the girl randomly shouts “Oh my, a T-Rex!”, “It’s a trap!” and the curious exclamation “Betrayal!” which seems to have no relevance to the game what-so-ever.

Music: Each table has about 45 seconds of themed music which simply loops. The Monsters table has a chilling piano ballad, reminiscent of the “Halloween” theme, and the Knight Tournament table has a light fanfare which makes you think of a renaissance festival. It’s all fitting music and doesn’t get in the way of playing, but it’s nothing you’d want to put on repeat on your iPod.

Difficulty: There are a few difficulty settings that can make the game harder due to the fact that you get fewer lives, the “shoot again” trigger is less frequent, and it takes more points to get onto the high score board, but Dream Pinball 3D isn’t terribly challenging to play. The only real action is to press two buttons at the correct time to prevent a ball from slipping by.

Overall: This is the kind of game you’ll find in the $2.00 bin in about a year. If you’re craving a pinball based game for your Wii, you’re better off picking up the far superior Williams Collection. Dream Pinball 3D is a budget title, but even still, it’s probably priced a little too steeply for an experience you can get for free if you have Microsoft Windows and an Internet connection to play the countless online java based pinball games. Sometimes, despite whatever technological advancements come our way in terms of graphics and motion controls, it’s best not to mess with the formula of simple and fun.