Pinball is a digital pinball game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1984 in Japan, 1985 in North America, and 1986 in Europe. Pinball was one of the original eighteen "black box" launch titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. The game is loosely based off of a Pinball Game & Watch from 1983.
Pinball is a simplistic, one board pinball game. It features normal pinball gameplay and a secret bonus level. The bonus level is a Breakout-style game featuring Mario and Pauline from Donkey Kong.
Pinball has been re-released for the Famicom's Family Computer Disk System, Game Boy Advance's e-reader Card, and both the Wii's and Wii U's Virtual Consoles. It is also one of the NES games available in the first Animal Crossing title.
Pinball contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Ornithology: The chicks that hatch from eggs are presumably penguins. They look nothing like penguin chicks.
- Bonus Stage: There's a Breakout-style bonus level featuring Mario and Pauline.
- The Cameo: Pauline and Mario from Donkey Kong are the only two humanoid characters in the game.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Pinball comes from that period in the 80s where many NES and Game Boy games featured Mario, both with permission and unofficially. The game is also from that period when Pauline was the Super Mario franchise's main female, not Peach. The game and its American cover show Mario in his old blue overalls and red shirt design.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a pinball game named Pinball.
- Non-Standard Game Over: If Pauline is injured, a ball is lost as if it fell past the flippers.
- Updated Re-release: The Vs. Pinball variant found in Playchoice-10 cabinets (and later ported to the Nintendo Switch) has a new title screen and redone sound effects to give the game a more mechanical presence, along with a proper high score screen.
