Pinball Palooza: Demon’s Tilt (Xbox One)

At first, hearing a pinball video game only has one table can be a bit disheartening. On the surface, such a fact makes it seem like the game would very quickly show all it has to offer, the quest for a high score on an all too familiar board the only reason to continue playing. However, while Demon’s Tilt has only one pinball table technically, that single table has more depth than some games that have quite a few on offer.

 

Demon’s Tilt’s pinball table is presented through the poster orientation common to video game pinball even though the physics in it feel like a proper fit for a real world tilted machine. Rather than plummeting down as fast as it can, the ball takes an appropriate amount of time to travel so you can react to it, but bouncing off objects or ending up riding rails can boost its speed to make its travel more chaotic. It can’t really be called fully realistic, mainly because actual magic will have an influence over your ball at parts, but when the ball is freely moving, it maintains consistent rules and you can anticipate its path. More importantly, the physics involved in aiming with your flippers is consistent, and with all the targets you will need to hit to explore the depths of the game’s one table, that aspect is key to getting the most out of Demon’s Tilt.

While technically one table, the play field in Demon’s Tilt is a three-tiered pinball machine with each one having distinct goals, a very different structure, and plenty to interact with. The top lair contains a massive chimera, the creature starting with a mask over its lion’s face as its snake tail guards one of the main rails you can hit your ball through. While there are many rails and rings to hit your ball in up here, the area near the flippers is more compact than the other areas and thus maintaining control of the ball for long periods is made difficult, especially once it has built up momentum through the rails and bumpers. Falling below the Chimera portion will bring you to the Priestess’s domain, a more horizontal part of the table where a woman’s face dominates the center. While it is much easier to stay in this segment of the board, the priestess’s magic will sometimes snag you and whip you around. However, some of that magic can benefit you if you build it up by destroying the demons she summons or by breaking apart spikes with your humble metal ball. A cup above the priestess’s head is the key to unleashing her more powerful and higher scoring magics, but if you drop to the bottom layer of the board, you will find yourself in the Hermit’s lair. A more vertically focused portion, the hooded hermit himself lingers above your flippers, but if you can defeat him, you’ll call in a new monstrous enemy, the aggression of these creatures progressing as you work your way through the different creatures that can appear. However, this portion of the board is also the most dangerous, because while your ball can survive all the demons and dark magic found around the table, it will be defeated if it falls through the flippers at the bottom.

 

The player only has three balls to interact with the table before the game wraps up and your final score is totaled, but each ball is more than just a chance to earn more and more points. Each layer of the board is packed with goals to complete that reward you not just with higher points, but shakeups to the way that area is played. Defeating the Hermit and the other monsters that replace him was already mentioned, but the Chimera can be released from its mask and battled, and by casting magic on the Priestess, you can make her more aggressive as well. They’ll call in demons, blood bats, and skull-faced matyroshkas to fill the board, each one easily dispatched with your ball but providing bonus points as you do so. More interestingly, the later you are in the progression of a board segment, the more they’ll begin firing pink blasts at you, light bullets bursting out of the boss-like enemies that will force your ball around if you aren’t careful about navigating them. They aren’t ever so overwhelming or devastating that you will feel unsafe plunging your ball into them, but hitting your ball around them is preferred save if you can reach the special bullet that will change all others into points instead of problems. They can still arrest the pace of a game that otherwise can be enjoyably frenetic though if they begin to dominate the screen and force too much caution from the player. For the most part, the dangers board objects pose derives from being unexpected obstacles to your ball’s movement, the swarms of demons and the priestess’s magic altering the trajectory in a way that must be watched carefully, but the Hermit does pack a move that feels a little less fair than most in the game. When hit, he’ll briefly control your ball and swing it around him before hurling it down at the flippers, and since he’s in charge of its destination, he might just hurl it between your flippers in a way that’s hard to respond to.

 

Perhaps the most important part of building up higher scores is building up point multipliers, some of these earned through the pseudo-boss battles and others earned by engaging in rituals. Each lair has a small set of rituals you need to first activate by taking the appropriate ramp, your aim key here as each of these is slightly difficult to line up and not likely to just constantly crop up by luck alone. Once a ritual starts, a goal will be given such as hitting specific bumpers a certain amount of times, killing a certain amount of the small demons, or getting your ball to certain areas of the board. So, on top of trying to get a high score as the main goal, you also want to fight the table’s central enemies and perform the rituals while doing so. You are never without a goal in Demon’s Tilt, some long term and others much easier to complete if you maintain control of your ball, and with each part of the board packed with so many interactive parts like teleports that relate to these in different ways, uncovering the secrets of Demon’s Tilt makes the game fun even when you first plunge in unaware of what might be waiting for you.

There are two modes beyond the Normal play style, one being Hardcore where you have one ball to accumulate score on a harder version of the standard board, and EX Mode. EX Mode sort of has a few alternate pinball tables, but these are secret bonus games. You need to both acquire a special token to access these and then find the part of the board that will take you to these minigame like diversions. Much smaller and less complicated than the main board, you have one ball to complete the little battles or bonus games found herein, losing your ball only resulting in you being thrown back to the main pinball table to build up score there. The small differences in the modes do add a bit more longevity to the experience if you feel you’ve had your fill of the rituals and board bosses alone, although it is surprising these modes aren’t more different besides subtle changes to increase difficulty.

 

The visual presentation of Demon’s Tilt is wonderful as well. The dark Gothic look of the board’s cathedral like design gives the game a moody look that matches the initial state of the board where everything is calm yet sinister. As you make progress though, flames burst off the board, the bosses send blasts of magic all about, demons move across the board freely, and the gorgeous sprite work moves with a surreality that fits the increasing embrace of actions only possible in a video game form of pinball.  However, it can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially during multiballs or other big board events that include all kinds of color and animation work that can distract from your simple metal sphere amidst the mess. This is why it’s rather strange you need to head to the pause menu yourself to enable some of the features that help improve the experience rather than having them on by default. A ball trail will really help the pinball stand out amidst these busier moments, but other options like disabling board shake can prevent it from becoming too much for the eyes as well. Sadly, the retry option is buried in these menus too if you want to begin the board again, the player needing to slowly move through every option on screen to reach it. The real baffling menu option is that by default, the game has your music set to only one of its small selection of songs. It is admittedly its strongest piece, but being able to randomly shuffle between them will keep it from getting old even if some aren’t the same excellent fit for the game’s sacrilegious styling.

 

There are other menu options in the pause screen that are appropriate, things like the Suspend option so you can resume a run later a natural fit for the menu and the Ball Attendant a good way to help ensure that if the ball is stuck, it can be retrieved and put back into play. I never had need for the Ball Attendant though, mainly because there is, appropriately enough, a nudge option with a possibility for a disabling tilt if overdone, one that can help you have even more control of your ball. Jabbing the control stick in a certain direction will alter the course of your ball, allowing you to overcome things like the Hermit’s attempt to drain your ball or giving you a way to hit an area of interest you might have otherwise missed. It does have limits like most pinball games, but it seems somewhat hard to get penalized for tilting unless you do it constantly and vigorously.

THE VERDICT: Demon’s Tilt may only have one true table to play on, but it’s one with so much depth, atmosphere, and interaction that it can make for hours of entertainment before you even see all it has to offer. There are so many activities to complete at each of the three tiers that are not only just enjoyable as challenges to overcome, but they feed into the quest for a high score that never becomes repetitive because of how many moving parts can increase your multiplier and provide huge jackpots. Demon’s Tilt has its quirks, mostly in regards to the pink bullets and the game trying to push you into losing a ball in its lowest tier, but by making a goal oriented pinball experience with plenty of style and game-altering variables, Demon’s Tilt still ends up a blast to play.

 

And so, I give Demon’s Tilt for Xbox One…

A GREAT rating. Demon’s Tilt not only made me gasp the first time I got a multiball because of the opportunities that provided for completing goals more quickly… I gasped the second time I got a multiball as well for the same exact reason. Demon’s Tilt balances a good selection of activities to ensure its three tiers all provide something different to do that makes a visit to them worthwhile. Dropping to a lower one or hitting your ball up to a higher one is never a waste of time, very few goals in the game time sensitive so that you can not only just return to your work in a different layer whenever you naturally return to it, but you can split up the work in that area across all three of your pinballs if need be. Rather than chasing the intangibility of climbing numbers, Demon’s Tilt makes progress to the score interesting because of the changes to the board, the dramatic flourishes to the highest scoring moments making them glorious to see even before you comprehend their importance in earning more points. Rituals, bosses, EX bonus games, and unique board pieces give the board plenty to engage with, and if the game had been a bit more reserved with its attempts to drain your ball or crowd the screen with light bullets, you could more freely engage with the thrilling action or better focus on purposeful shots. They aren’t such a huge deal breaker that they make progress in Demon’s Tilt too hard to achieve, but it can be disheartening to scroll through your pause menu to retry after the Hermit hurls your ball down the middle before you’ve even started to work on the many objectives.

 

It took a good degree of restraint not to list out every part of Demon’s Tilt’s board because of how wonderfully they all come together as a full package. Part of the enjoyment is definitely figuring out how these pieces work together or help with the larger goals of the game, but there’s also the element that simply reading how different things will modify your score or move you around the board will gradually become tedious as well. Thankfully, Demon’s Tilt isn’t tedious to actually play since it’s always providing something to do on a table with enough complexity and flourish that it stays fresh for quite a while, and even after you put it down, the call of Demon’s Tilt might bring you back soon as you’re sure you can complete all the rituals or find those EX tables this time around.