I’ve by no means occurred upon Roxy Raccoon beforehand, however was instantly taken in by the premise on supply in Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic. I imply, a reimagining of Roxy’s best platforming adventures, however in pinball type? What on earth might go flawed?
Nicely, because it seems, quite a bit. In reality, I’d go as far to say that regardless of whether or not you favored Roxy Raccoon on Steam, or love a little bit of pinball, it’s best to in all probability be tilting away from this one.
Issues don’t begin nicely in Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic and that’s all all the way down to one of many worst UIs I’ve skilled in years. Even now, with hours of playtime underneath my belt, I nonetheless can’t get a deal with on the clunky, unintuitive, mess of a consumer interface, clicking by menus which might be arduous to learn and intensely clumsy. It’s so unhealthy that we’ve discovered enjoyable in passing a controller to a different individual and watching them wrestle too. Trying to maneuver from one stage to the subsequent is a chore, choosing one of many numerous recreation modes on supply, an absolute ballache. And that’s when these menus work, with ‘again’ buttons disappearing at occasions. It actually shouldn’t be troublesome to permit a participant a simple route right into a recreation, but it surely’s been completely muddled right here.
Handle to get in to Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic and issues wrestle to get a lot better. From the off are decisions to make with regard to recreation modes, with Story, Pinball, Speedy Ryan’s Arcade (Ryan being a rabbit, obvs) and Customisation on supply. The latter does what you’d count on, and so long as you play sufficient of Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic you’ll get to unlock numerous skins and cosmetics. Once more, you’ll must battle by the unwieldy menus simply to try this.
For a lot of, it’ll in all probability be the Story mode that’s most tempting. It’s this which seemingly takes the identical story discovered within the unique recreation, twisting it barely to suit a pinball theme. Frankly, I’d fairly fortunately have jumped from one desk to the subsequent with little requirement for the backstory or lore, however for these in search of it, that narrative might nearly intrigue. Once more, we guess that if you happen to performed Roxy Raccoon, it will really feel a pleasant match.
No matter, this one is all in regards to the pinball, however once more, Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic struggles. A ‘Desk Overview’ continues the drained and clumsy navigation, while numerous digital camera angles do little to assist. We’ve discovered that just about the one digital camera value utilizing is that of the top-down overview, giving a full desk entrance and centre; enjoying Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic with something however that has simply given us a headache.
From there, it’s in regards to the pinball on supply and it’s right here the place the sport nearly picks issues up; ever so barely. Pulling again on the set off will see a ball fired off into the play space, filled with bumpers, spinners, flippers and extra. A few of these tables are fairly first rate too, with numerous lanes to shoot and parts to contain your self with. And as you make progress by the story, ticking off highscores with a purpose to unlock extra, the desk selection on supply is sweet. We gained’t go as far to say that it provides Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic a go, however no less than the pinball aspect of issues is playable. Is it on Pinball FX ranges? Not an opportunity, however it’s best to discover slightly little bit of enjoyable made attainable.
Witch Trials assist construct scores and provides some form of goal and mission construction, coming about through the evil depraved witch of the west who has landed in Roxy Raccoon’s world. Trying to fireside your balls in direction of sure areas of every desk means that there’s a bit extra to this pinballer than simply whacking the flippers in blind hope. Add some collectible gems that, nicely, are collectible, and Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic doesn’t do ‘pinball’ too badly in any respect.
Tire of navigating by the story and also you’ll discover a couple of additional choices. These discovered within the ‘Pinball’ sub-menu land on variants of Traditional play, Time Assault, Survival and the like, every doing as you’d count on. However it’s in Speedy Ryan’s Arcade the place this one actually goes to city.
See, Ryan is a rabbit, a key character in the entire Roxy-verse. All you have to find out about Ryan is that he’s speedy, and he loves a mini-game. This little bunny appears to like an arcade a lot that he’s put collectively a group of cupboards so that you can play by. We’ve misplaced rely of the sheer variety of variations which might be accessible in right here, with twists on pinball, some Bagatelle/Peggle vibes, soccer, match ‘ems and pathway puzzlers. The issue is, we will rely on one hand the variety of these mini-games that are ok to play greater than a few times, with the overwhelming majority of them falling even shorter than that. Think about that to ensure that every to be ‘accomplished’, you’ll must nail some highscores, a few of which really feel stupidly unobtainable, while others shall be ticked off inside mere seconds, and the curiosity ranges wane, quick.
Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic isn’t helped by some visuals and sound that shouldn’t see the sunshine of day in 2024. Admittedly vibrant and largely clear sufficient, we’ve rolled our eyes on the screams emitted each time we’ve tilted a desk with a face button, wanting away from the display screen in anger and disgust upon visible lag and glitches. It’s arduous sufficient to nail among the required scores in Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic as it’s, however when your ball is stuttering its manner round a desk, or warping by limitations, all of it will get even more durable to deal with.
And that’s the general vibe of Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic – a clunky, clumsy pinballer that tries so as to add in a narrative for no actual purpose. While there’s little doubt that the quantity of content material included in Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic is excessive, not often does any of it work as meant. We’d have killed for some QA testing, and would have taken half the quantity of ranges and mini-games if any had been truly any good. As it’s, Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic goes for amount over high quality – and that’s an enormous downside.
