Pinball machines have a tactile quality that video games can never capture: The weight of the ball as it rolls down an incline, the satisfying "thwack" of the flippers, the bumpers that cause the whole contraption to light up and tremble as they volley the ball between them. To their credit, the makers of Flipnic Ultimate Pinball know they can't beat the game, so they don't bother playing it. Granted, there are still flippers and bumpers and a pretty silver ball, but Flipnic goes to places that defy the laws of the physical world, with tracks that lead to other gaming dimensions, crab-like UFO bosses that gobble up errant balls, and a few stages that are set in zero gravity. The entertaining first challenge wends through multiple environments, from a lush tropical jungle where turquoise butterflies land on bumpers to waterfalls that freeze and shatter when you drive a ball into them. Yet over time, the fun gradually evaporates until the game invites active antagonism; that's the net effect of repetitive and increasingly uninspired "missions," overaggressive visual and sound effects, and a synth score that plants in your brain like a cancer.
Set in a variety of futuristic-looking themed "environments" with scientific names like Biology, Metallurgy, and Optics, Flipnic requires you to complete a range of tasks in each one before advancing on to a higher level. After a strong first couple of stages, which include a few alien showdowns with the retro-charm of Space Invaders, the game actually gets less intricate as it goes along, bottoming out in a disco-neon setting that's so dark that it's hard to tell what's going on. Worse still are the two-person mini-games, which include a game of foosball where only bumpers are used (more often than not, to hit the ball into your own goal) and a basketball contest in which hitting a ball perfectly off the end of the flipper lets your opponent score.