Galactic Pinball		Grade: A
	Publisher: Nintendo (1995) Reviewed: 2003/8/3

Not only is this one of the best titles for the Virtual Boy, but it may be the most innovative pinball game I've ever played! Galactic Pinball features four unique, well-designed 3D tables entitled Alien, Colony, UFO, and Cosmic. Each is loaded with cool targets, multiple flippers, and 3D mini-games. If you like those cool tubes and passages that run through many real pinball games, you'll really appreciate the ones that run both over and under these tables. The pinball actually looks more like a puck, but behaves just like a normal pinball would. The game's difficulty is just right and the variety of tables gives the game tremendous replay value. Complimenting the sensational visuals is an excellent futuristic techno soundtrack. As icing on the cake, the cartridge saves all your high scores. Galactic Pinball is an amazing title for the Virtual Boy. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

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1 player

Golf		Grade: C
	Publisher: T&E Soft (1995) Reviewed: 2004/3/23

Golf provides some decent, fast-paced sports action, but let's face it - the Virtual Boy's red and black visuals don't lend themselves to the sport. The greens, fairways, and roughs are rendered in various patterns of red, and it's hard to tell them apart, which may be why I found my eyes getting a little dry while playing. Fortunately, you can always reference an overhead view of the course. The main screen steps you through setting your aim, club, and stance (for draw and fade). Swinging is done via two meters: Power and spin. The power meter is a moving arc, and the spin meter is a huge ball with a dot moving side-to-side across it. It's a pretty clunky interface compared to most golf games, but it does give you fined-grained control. After swinging you see an animation of a realistic-looking golfer hitting the ball, but if you look close, he really appears to miss it completely! Watching the ball in flight over the patchwork landscape is not easy on the eyes, so keep an eye on the overhead view instead. Golf isn't as user-friendly as most other Virtual Boy games, but despite a steep learning curve the game is enjoyable once you get the hang of it. Play modes include stroke (for one or two players) and a tournament mode where you compete against 48 CPU-controlled players. The cartridge automatically saves records and statistics to internal battery, but for some reason a password is required to save a game in progress. Golf features some nice digitized "crowd reaction" sound effects, and the music isn't too bad either (and you can always turn it off). There are plenty of other golf games I'd rather to play, but this isn't a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon. © Copyright 2004 The Video Game Critic.

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1 or 2 players