Have you played… Demon’s Tilt?
These days, there are two main types of pinball game. There are those that attempt to create an authentic virtual pinball experience that is as close as possible to playing “the real thing” on a computer or games console — or perhaps even a specialist virtual pinball setup if you have such a thing available. And there are those that use the concept of pinball as a jumping-off point to create a fun video game. Demon’s Tilt very much falls into the latter category, following in the proud tradition of Naxat Soft’s classic Devil’s Crush and Alien Crush titles for PC Engine.
Both options have their place in the modern market, with real pinball machines being pretty rare to come across in the wild these days — and being tough to maintain for those who do have them in their collection. Video pinball games also provide the opportunity to do things that are simply not possible on a real pinball table; other great examples from over the years include Senran Kagura Peach Ball on Nintendo Switch, and Flipnic on PlayStation 2.
Demon’s Tilt takes the form of a large, three-tier virtual pinball table that is presented from a top-down pixel art perspective. Each tier has its own flippers and features to engage with, and attaining high scores is, as with any good pinball table, a matter of learning what everything does and when is the best time to shoot the ball in various directions.
Each tier of the table has a ramp that can be shot to trigger “rituals”, which typically involve hitting specific targets a certain number of times. Once successfully completed, the ritual in question lights up a letter in a word for its tier, and lighting up all the letters triggers a special “Wizard” mode. What’s particularly nice about Demon’s Tilt is that it’s always very, very clear what you should be doing if you want to pursue this aspect of gameplay; the ramps you need to shoot are prominently marked, and if you pay attention upon triggering the ritual, the targets are clearly defined, too.
Of course, part of the fun of pinball for beginners is simply bopping the ball around the table and seeing what happens, and Demon’s Tilt caters well to that style of play also, with lots of interesting interactive features, enemies to destroy and special effects to trigger. Jackpots, super jackpots and ultra jackpots make regular appearances on the table — and, like the rituals, are clearly marked — allowing for the attaining of high scores without necessarily having to follow the missions, and there’s always something interesting happening on all three tiers of the table.
Like real pinball, nudging the table is an important part of higher-level play in Demon’s Tilt, and, like everything else in the game, the implementation of this is made clear and easy to understand. Simply tapping the analogue stick in a direction will send the ball moving in that direction, and an on-screen indicator of the “pendulum” inside the machine indicates how close you are to overdoing it with the nudges and triggering a Tilt.
This latter feature in particular is surprisingly empowering; with most other pinball games completely and deliberately obfuscating this information, it’s hard to develop the confidence to use nudging effectively, but with Demon’s Tilt always giving you a clear, easily understandable indication of how much you can get away with, you’re much more likely to develop the confidence to make good use of what is an important pinball skill.
The presentation of Demon’s Tilt is immaculate, paying homage to the Naxat Soft classics of yore with lovely pixel art, while simultaneously bringing things beautifully up to date with high-resolution interface elements and often an absurd number of interactive objects moving on screen at once. Many table elements shower you with collectible gems and gold, and some features even fire out bullet-hell style patterns for you to contend with, and there’s not a trace of slowdown, even on the Switch version.
The soundtrack, too, complements the action perfectly, with its FM synthesised music designed to pay deliberate homage to the Sega Mega Drive specifically. Noisy, bass-heavy sound effects and sampled speech are strongly reminiscent of what classic pinball machines sound like in their native arcade environment, and those with certain… tastes will almost certainly find themselves deliberately draining balls (if you’ll pardon the expression) just to hear the evil satanic nun laughing at them over and over again.
Like most pinball games, Demon’s Tilt takes time to master, and thus in order to get the best out of it it’s a game you’re going to have to practice. It deliberately eschews a mountain of “content” in favour of one extremely detailed table that can be played in various difficulty modes — again, just like the classic Naxat Crush titles — and thus some types of gamer may find themselves craving a bit more variety from the experience.
But if you’re willing to engage with the game as intended — by gradually developing your skills over time, and being rewarded by watching your scores climb the leaderboards day by day — then this is an absolutely wonderful game to add to your collection. Bonus points if you have a Flip Grip for Nintendo Switch and can enjoy it as the dark Gods intended, in vertical “tate” mode.
Demon’s Tilt is available now for Windows PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch and PS4. Limited-print physical releases for PS4 and Nintendo Switch exist, but you’ll have to search the second-hand market for those now.
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