Mt. Pleasant, MI is home to this great little arcade called The Malt Shop. My family would visit the quaint establishment on our visits to Grandma’s house throughout the year. I loved checking out the latest pinball machines. But in recent years pinball has seemed to go by the wayside in favor of the more techno-yielding video game. A melding of modern technology and classic pinball gaming has been my dream ever since. Low and behold IUGO Mobile Entertainment has answered my call (and that of many others) with Freeballin’. Freeballin’ is just what the doctor ordered -- a modern spin on classic pinball gaming. On the first launch of this game, it is clear that IUGO has given it their all. And the result is a highly rendered, extremely fun title.

IUGO stretches the realm of game play by letting users choose between three modes. Score Attack mode is the most traditional where you attempt to rack up the points before your balls (called Orbs) run out. Time Attack mode places you in a challenge to reach one million points as fast as you can. Adventure Challenge is the most unique and creative of the three modes. Here you must explore and collect artifacts throughout the playing field. Within each mode, four exciting themes are available: Tiki Trouble, Monsteropolis, Dreams & Nightmares, and Neometric. This adds up to an almost endless variety of mode/theme combinations!

The main menu presents an Options tab where you can select if you want the audio to play the in-game score or music from your iPod. This is an AppSmile favorite feature that is often missing from iPhone titles. We also love that you can adjust the volume of the music and sound effects as well has activate vibration (for iPhone users only). This is a huge wow factor that really gives a true pinball feel to the game. A How to Play section is also accessable from the Options menu in case you are new to the pinball scene or just want a few pointers.

Overall game play is just what you’d expect from an experienced iPhone development company. Controls are intuitive and easy to pick up. Touch the left side of the screen to hit the left flipper/s and the right side for the right flipper/s. The screen quickly but smoothly follows the ball -- even to different levels within the playing field. This works well, but we hope IUGO adds to the size of each playing field as there really is no limit to where players want to explore. Hit objects to accrue points and watch the objects react. Tons of elements are at work within each theme: stairs, elevators, tiki masks, car crushing, a ride on Godzilla’s tail, you name it.

One of our favorite features is an interesting addition to the pinball idea -- Missions. Activate a sequence of lights or objects and a mission will begin. The game will tell you what the mission is and how long you have to complete it. Successful completion of a mission will bump you score up or open different areas. One thing we do wish Freeballin’ offered is the ability to tilt the board. This would probably work best if you could turn the option on or off as it could get annoying.

We are completely satisfied with the musical soundtrack included in Freeballin’ It totally fits the fast paced pinball setting. IUGO provided a different sound experience for each of the four themes as well as one for the menu environment.

Graphics are well suited for this genre and fit well on the iPhone screen. The score board gives a nice nod to the pinball units of yesteryear by presenting in an almost dot-matrix format. AppSmile thinks you’ll be lovin’ the entire Freeballin’ experience.

AppSmile Team Favorite Features:

• Wonderful artwork, sound, and user interface all deliver what iPhone gamers will want
• Themes and Modes create a variety of game play experiences
• Play your own iPod music
• Fun and entertaining object interaction will keep you amused for a long time
• Overall, a realistic pinball experience for the modern mobile age and one of our AppSmile favorites!
• Mission give you a goal other than point accumulation

Recommended Improvements:

• Increase the playing field size and let us explore a little more
• Crashes more than expected but never during game play
• Enable table tilting

Freeballin’ gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating: