Format: Advance
Genre: Pinball
Developer: Fuse Games Limited
Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.

It's been a while since I've played a genuinely good game. Mario Pinball Land was the small break I needed from SpOrTz GaMeS. Nintendo at it's finest, the plot is pretty simple, mario, toad, and peach are enjoying a carnival and shooting themselves out of a cannon, when in come some goombas who are up to no good, starting some trouble in the mushroom hood. Mario got into one little fight and bowser got scared n said "I'm kidnapping girl cause I'm king of my lair". Mario sets out in the only way he knows how... by getting paddled on the ass, repeatedly. 5 worlds, each world containing a plethora of zones to accumulate stars in which unlock new doors to get more stars, much akin to super mario 64. This game also had a storable powerup system and tons of secrets and challenges. There aren't any real options to speak of in this game, or if there are, I never found them. It's a 'pick up, play, go!' type of game. The best or worst part of the game is that even when you game over, you keep the progress you made. The only thing that hurts from game overs is your pride... sweet delicious salty pride. Among the worlds in the game, there's a desert region, an ice region, a meadows region, and the carnival region which you start in. There's also Bowser's Castle of course. Each World starts you off in a basic zone, and to advance you usually have to knock the ball up to open a door, then again to go through it. Sometimes there are special conditions to unlock an area, like hitting a switch, or triggering an entrance or having a specific powerup. Each World has a "World Boss" hidden in it, that you must find and challenge. Each boss has it's own gimmicks, but once you defeat them you get a star key. 4 star keys unlock Bowser's Castle. Of course, the big baddie isn't going down so easily himself, you still need 15 stars to even challenge Bowser! Of course it wouldn't be Nintendo if that were the end of it, there's far more than 15 stars in the game, and plenty of challenges in each area to offer more score and more stars. The comical nature of the game and light play make this one of the better games on the GBA, as the soundtrack is on point, the graphics are fantastic, and the classic Mario style remains intact, as well as the references. Highly recommend at least trying this game even if you're not good at pinball. Super Fun.

All in All, a dramatic 10 is perfect for this game that wasn't too short and wasn't too long. The only real downsides to this game were trying to get it through some doors to advance to other areas and the Big Boo fight. The game has some legitimate challenges and aiming is always hard in pinball.