Pinball Planet

Pinball Planet is a proper pinball table, not a top-down approximation. The ball has weight: it rolls down a sloped playfield, hugs the ball guides on a fast orbit, rattles in the bumper nest and dies in the outlane if you let it. The flippers transfer real angular velocity, so a late flip fires the ball harder than an early one, and a cradled ball released at the tip is a completely different shot from one caught at the base. Nudge with X or a quick upward swipe to save a drain, but lean on the machine too hard and it tilts, the flippers go dead and the ball is gone.

Every shot on the table does something. The rollover lanes across the top spell P-L-A-N-E-T and each completion steps the end-of-ball bonus multiplier up; the flipper buttons rotate which lanes are lit, so a well-aimed orbit can finish the word. The five asteroid drop targets light the black hole, the black hole starts a mission, and the mission lamp rotates while it waits so you can pick the one you want before you shoot. Moon Landing wants three Saturn ramps, Asteroid Belt wants the bank twice, Ring Run wants three full orbits, Comet Chase wants the flashing planet, and Wormhole locks the ball for two-ball multiball. Finish all five and Planet Hop lights: everything scores double while it runs.

There is a satellite spinner in the left orbit, a captive ball you hammer into the comet target, a kickback that saves one left outlane drain per ball, a skill shot on the plunge and a full bonus tally on the dot-matrix display at the end of every ball. Play Classic for three balls, Time Attack for two minutes with unlimited balls, or Two Player alternating. Keyboard: left and right Shift, or Z and /, or A and L for the flippers, Space for the plunger, X to nudge, P to pause, M to mute. On a phone the whole table fills the screen: tap the left or right half to flip, drag down in the plunger lane to launch and flick up to nudge. Your best five scores are saved in your browser with three-letter initials.