GraphSim's foray into porting and publishing PC titles for the Mac OS has included many "serious" games such as Descent 3 and Baldur's Gate, but they haven't left the "casual gamer" out in the cold. After it was revealed that the team who developed Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey had created a Mac version which was never published in the US (or indeed outside of Germany) GraphSim snatched this one up for republishing. While the result was a game with the usual Pro Pinball play and polish, it does have some differences from previous titles in the series. Here's an excerpt:

On the Mac or PC (or Playstation) platform, it has long been the case that if you wanted to play a really amazing and extremely accurate pinball sim, you only had one company to turn to: Empire Interactive. Beginning with Pro Pinball: The Web and continuing with Timeshock and Big Race USA, Empire has practically been the only game in town for “pro” level pinball play, and with good reason -- no one else has been able to top their realism, quality of play and eye-popping graphics...

As the fourth title in this series, Fantastic Journey has a lot to live up to; frankly, Timeshock and Big Race USA are very tough acts to follow. While Fantastic Journey retains the same flash and dazzle as the previous titles and continues the high quality of realism and “polish,” the developers seem to have gambled on the play itself by choosing to simplify the sim greatly -- perhaps as a way of attracting new gamers to the fading genre of pinball.

Review:Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey

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