Pokémon Pinball: a new high score, and the 0.83.0 update

A few months back I wrote that Pokémon was a fun shooter held back by genuinely rough software, and that I’d probably never buy a brand-new Stern again because they were too slow to ship the updates that make a game better. I even said I might come back someday to report things had turned around.

Well, here I am. The 0.83.0 code came out this weekend, and I really enjoyed it.

That’s a new high score for me: 1,208,820,370. I’m pretty happy with it.

The thing I like most in this update is the new use of the middle button during hurry-ups. It gives you something to actually do with your hands in a moment that used to just be a countdown, and it makes those stretches feel a lot more active. Being able to change biomes is great too. That little bit of control goes a long way toward breaking up the loop that used to wear on me.

It’s not all the way there. There still needs to be more to do here and there, and trainer battles in particular feel few and far between, which is strange given how central they should be. But I caught some new Pokémon this weekend, so I think I’m up to around 60 now, and chasing that number is its own kind of fun.

I’m still waiting on the achievements and the Pokédex that were promised for the Insider Connected app. Whenever those land, I’ll have even more reason to keep coming back to this one.

On the hardware side, I ordered art blades and an expression lighting kit yesterday. They should show up in the next few weeks, and I’m looking forward to dressing the machine up a bit. I’ll post photos once it all comes together.

So, no, I’m not trading Pokémon away. Not right now. This is the update I was hoping for, and it nudged the game from “fun but repetitive” to something I keep walking back downstairs to play.