Obsession

"This is Obsession, the highly acclaimed pinball game, featuring four different pinball tables, each with its own set of graphics, music, sound effects and gameplay. Obsession will take your machine to new heights, technically, visually, aurally, and most importantly, playability wise."

Atari owners got there pinball fix quite late as the Atari market was surly massively reduced by 1993 with Falcon owners left wanting. The following year it came to the Amiga but it would have been up against stiffer competing from the likes of Pinball Dreams and Slam tilt. Anyone owning Pinball Mania would probably have been put off Pinball games forever. The game opens with a fairly basic menu system but it gets the job done as you just want to get into your chosen table. All the tables have fairly simple objectives but annoyances arise from target placements that are nearly impossible to hit with any kind of accuracy.

Aquatic Adventure. An undersea theme and maybe the best table. The top ramp is easy to hit to spell pearl for the 3 and 6 million bonus. Bonus multiplier and missions are both activated by spelling Dive but you have to make a choice with upper left ramp claiming a multiplier or the right ramp starting a mission. Each mission requires only hitting a single highlighted target. Once you have completed all missions they loop back to the first with a big reward but no real fanfare.

X-ile Zone. A spy mission that has you taking out bad guys. A small table that has some annoying target requirements. Spelling bar allows you to collect a bonus multiplier from the skulls but getting them to stay lit can be troublesome as the balls flies around. Spelling death starts a mission but you simply have to hit the mission ramp to complete it. After completing them all, you get a big reward before it loops back. Hitting the Berserk ramp appears broken as you can hit it multiple times for a bigger reward but going through the open gate at the top to collect does nothing.

Balls & Bats is a baseball themed table. Fairy easy this one and very generous with scoring and number of balls. Hit the ramp behind the Baby Ruth card and start a run. If you skill shot it you can complete a Homerun instantly. Do this a few times to win the American and World series for big bonuses. If you miss the ball you get a strike. You get up to three of these so it's quite easy to keep the ball in play. I found the Bonus multiplier really tricky to hit as you need to hit the three arrows on left side and then the fielder ramp which is easier said than done.

Desert Run is a Rally themed table. Another small table but you need to hit objectives in the correct order to progress. Firstly hitting the ramps on the left or right for money, then up the middle for the gas station. Then you can go up the pit stop lane to complete a rally stage. Before doing so you can also hit the lower middle ramp to accelerate past the car in front. The better your position before completing a stage the more score you get and an extra ball! Bonus multiplier is again a little tricky firstly needing to spell oil and then hit the gas station. IF you are good at getting the extra balls then you can score on the table for quite a while.

Overall, whilst not a match for the quality of Earlier Amiga Pinball Dreams or Fantasies, Obsession still looks good and plays well enough to be fun to play. The game is better compared to the pinball games released by Spidersoft which tended to be simpler to play yet to buggy to be enjoyable and lets not mention the wacky ball physics that are controllable in flight.

00:00:00 Titles / Credits
00:02:08 Aquatic Adventure
00:26:58 X-ile Zone
00:44:40 Balls & Bats
01:09:44 Desert Run