Portal Pinball is a 2015 Digital Pinball Table by Zen Studios for their Zen Pinball and Pinball FX platforms. As the name suggests, it is a Pinball Spin-Off of the popular Portal series of video games.note
Guide Chell and Wheatley through six test chambers in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center while being monitored and antagonized by GLaDOS. Use your pinball skills to portal your way past obstacles, activate lasers, destroy turrets, and even discover the mysterious Ratman's den. Along the way, participate in some co-operative testing, detour into the turret factory and sabotage GLaDOS's production lines, and knock some cores around for some big points. Pass all six tests and you might just face off against GLaDOS herself. Can you survive her neurotoxin and turret assaults, and take her down once and for all?
Portal Pinball provides examples of the following tropes:
- Big "NO!": From GLaDOS once you defeat her.
- Combos: Shooting several major shots gradually increases their point value; long enough combos cause the value to go into obscene territories.
- Locking balls for Core Multiball is accomplished by shooting the side ramp, then immediately shooting the lock.
- Energy Weapon: The Thermal Discouragement Beams, which can be redirected via the cubes on the slingshots to award various bonuses and extra modes in addition to being the subject matter of the third test.
- Fake Shemp: Most of the voicelines are ripped directly from Portal or Portal 2.
- Kick Chick: Downplayed. A couple of times on the table, Chell kicks attacking turrets away, sending them flying off the table. Other than that, she still uses her Portal Gun to get around and solve the tests.
- Level Grinding: One of the Extra Balls requires hitting a specific target thirty times.
- Luck-Based Mission: The Ratman Hurry-up, as it's hidden at random in one of the main shots on the table.
- Mythology Gag: The minimum bonus one can earn on a ball is 60 points, which just so happens to be the test subject paycheck for 1970s Aperture. It's even listed in the Bonus countdown as "Standard Testing Fee"
- Post-End Game Content: Destroying GLaDOS resets the game back to the beginning, but the time limits to beat the test chambers become much tighter.
- Skill Shot: At the beginning of each ball, an orange portal will cycle between three panels. Shoot the ball into the portal to earn the Skill Shot, then immediately shoot the cross-ramp for a huge bonus. The portal cycles more quickly after the first successful Skill Shot, and cycles randomly after the second.
- Spelling Bonus: Spelling L-A-B-R-A-T starts the Ratman Hurry-Up, while spelling A-T-L-A-S and P-B-O-D-Y lights their respective locks for Co-op Multiball. Additionally, upon starting a test, the normally blank lane rollovers will change to spell out something related to the current test.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The second half of the GLaDOS battle involves launching bombs at her.
- Timed Mission: Most of the test chambers, as well as the first half of the GLaDOS battle.
- Wizard Mode: This is a showdown with GLaDOS in two parts. The first is an unlimited multiball in which you have three minutes to shut down the neurotoxin flooding into the room by shooting two pairs of lit shots to create portals, then destroy up to fournote turrets by hitting the bumpers 10 times per turret. In the second half, you must send your balls to Wheatley to turn them into bombs, then shoot four bombs into GLaDOS to defeat her and score a 100 million-point bonus.
