3DO

PaTaank

Pinball purists will tell you there's nothing like the tactile feel of pulling a plunger and punching flippers. But there's nothing like PaTaank, either.

A video pinball game from the point of view of the ball — or, rather, what looks like a cross between a hockey puck and a giant, digitized nipple — PaTaank is so relentlessly innovative that it veers dangerously close to complete incomprehensibility.

All in all, PaTaank is a good game. It's fun to shoot around the table in a first-person perspective and the video clips and humorous goals add to the enjoyability. The one problem with the game is how confusing the controls and the perspective can be. The only solution is to practice and once you overcome the obstacles, the game sees a little too easy. PaTaank is an original game, but it's easy to see that future limitations will improve on the drawbacks.

Pataank is an original game that is not only addictive for pinball fans, but also for every gamer in search of wild action.

It is surprising to see a pinball game in this 3-D type of format. I like pinball games, but generally don't find them too good when they are made into video games. This one, however, has an original look and does play pretty well. There aren't a lot of items to collect or power-ups, but you must remember that it's pinball after all. This game will appeal a lot more to hardcore pinball players than the average video game fan.

This game is billed as "the first 3-D Pinball Thrill Ride". Let's hope it's the last, because PaTaank is an awful mess. I suppose the designers were trying to be original and innovative, but this "first-person pinball" project should have never seen the light of day. The goal is to bounce around a pixelated 3D world trying to hit specific targets, but the choppy frame rate makes it hard to tell what the hell is going on! The three tables (carnival of love, surf, and disaster) are flashy but fairly small and uninteresting. Even when I got the hang of the game I wasn't having any fun. I'd have to chalk PaTaank up as a bad idea that was poorly executed. And who was the marketing genius who came up with that idiotic name that no one can pronounce?