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Daily Mac App: Pinball HD
Looking for some classic arcade gaming action on your Mac? Pinball HD might just hit the spot. Originally released for iOS, Pinball HD has made the jump to the Mac App Store bringing you three tables in one and upping the graphics to take advantage of modern Mac hardware. Tables include Wild West, where you have to try and rob a bank and kill Dirty Harry; The Deep, which takes you down to the sea floor; and Jungle Style, which yes, you guessed it, takes you on a trek through the jungle, pinball style. Pinball HD looks great either windowed or fullscreen, with three graphics modes and 2x and 4x anti-aliasing to suit every Mac (a 2011 15" MacBook Pro didn't even break a sweat with everything maxed out). You've even got the option of playing in 3D using some traditional color-based 3D glasses if you have them. Game play is pretty good, with realistic physics and no detectable latency. Each of the tables have missions, which you unlock as you might expect, by hitting targets and fulfilling certain criteria. In Wild West for instance you first unlock the bank vault by hitting targets up top, then you can go rob it by firing the ball into the vault. It's pretty easy to keep up with the action, as the three camera modes do a good job of keeping an eye on the ball. For US$2.99 of your hard-earned cash, Pinball HD brings you enough pinball action to your Mac to keep you entertained on a rainy day.
Pinball HD for the iPad: It doesn't get much better than this
Gameprom has taken their three popular iPhone/iPod touch pinball games, The Deep, Jungle Style Pinball and Wild West Pinball (US$.99 each), and rolled them into one amazing iPad app: Pinball HD selling at $2.99. The iPad app is much more than just a simple port with better graphics, it adds so many features and so much additional value over the iPhone apps that I consider the price to be a huge bargain. I haven't played every pinball game out for the iPad at this point, but with some minor technical quibbles, I really can't see pinball on the iPad getting much better than this. At least not for now.
