"The Sweetest Pinball on Earth."
by Stuart Newsom

As you probably well know from my Adventures in the Magic Kingdom review, I’m a Disney Parks nerd. Well, I’m not really that pigeonholed, I’m truly an all around theme park nerd. I love um. Not just the attractions within, but the parks themselves. If you’re a coaster credit person, I’ve got 116 under my belt with 23 parks around the world. Not shabby, but no where NEAR the top. But here’s something you might not know. I’m also a huge pinball fanatic. That’s the saddest casualty of the downfall of the arcade, in my humble opinion. I love a good pinball machine, though I’m painfully average in my skills. I’ve even gone so far as to contemplating a pinball video segment for this very site. Maybe. Sometime. Not guaranteeing it. If I find the time…or equipment. ANYWHO! Blend those to joys together, with a dash of PC gaming joy and what do you get? 3D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride!

The 3D Ultra series were a series of “sport” simulators that used “3D technology”. OOOH! Well, I put sports in quotations because the two they made were pinball and mini-golf. The first 3D Ultra Pinball were a series of space themed fields, which were then followed yearly by 3D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night (horror), 3D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent (Dinosaurs), 3D Ultra NASCAR Pinball (cars making constant left turns) and finally 3D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride! I’m not super excited by that sentence; just the exclamation mark is in the title. 3D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride! is obviously themed to a theme park, but not just any theme park. It’s themed to the Hersheypark in Hershey, PA. Yes, Hershey, PA is a real place, as is Hersheypark. And yes, I’ve been there. Many times as a matter of fact. It’s was one of my favorite parks to go to growing up. So pinball + awesome park= awesome! Well, kinda.

See, the field is awesome, the Thrill Zone and Fun Zone play modes are cool, the multi-balls are intense (that’s what she said), and seeing some of the awesome Hersheypark coasters and attractions, like the Coal Cracker, Great Bear, The Wildcat, Tidal Force and even the Kissing Tower, as different ramps and targets is amazingly cool and all, it just makes me wish this was an ACTUAL playfield. I get the simulation aspect and that the way this is set up, it’s pretty much impossible to make as a real playfield, but still. It makes me just wish it could be a real playfield and machine. The physics, while good, still are “game” physics, so the ball can fly off in weird unnatural directions. Now, for some of the special effects aspects, like the ball locking on a Wildcat train for a multiball while on the ramp, that’s cool. But when trying to do a flip trap or a hold pass, it can cause the ball to do wacky things because the flipper is always launching at full speed and you can’t really finesse the ball (that’s what she said).

So, is it fun? Absolutely. 3D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride! is one of the better pinball sims out there and a real blast to play. But, it’s only one playfield and, after a while, can get a little tiring. But, if you’re a theme park fan like me and you love pinball, it’s a beautiful blend. Like chocolate and peanut butter…I wonder if anyone’s done that…

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10