One of my favourite studio names of the last few years comes from the team that made PinOut.
PinOut was basically Tron: The Pinball Game.
It was a rush, a trip.
The studio was called Mediocre.
Who wouldn’t love a studio that made a classic and still named itself Mediocre?
The thrill of it.
My cheeks grow flushed.
My hands sweat a little.
The night, as the poet says, opens its eyes.
Nothing Subpar about it.
Sink the balls, but do it before you run out of shots.
This is really a game of timing, trajectories, vectors and lucky outcomes.
It’s gorgeous stuff.
The basics are thrillingly basic.
Newton would be very satisfied.
Thing is, this setup is just the beginning.
So the tables you play on are procedurally generated with their own lumps and lacuna.
Maybe you want lots of balls on the table, more space, more walls?
I love this, and I can see a world in which players share card recipes they’ve found.
That’s an afternoon right there.
This all sounds complex, but it’s a friendly rabble on the table itself.
And at best, it’s genuinely euphoric.
This is my favourite thing about the game, which I have left to tell you about last.
Yep: nothing subpar about it.
