Portal Pinball
“Portal Pinball” seems like it could be a perfect companion to the “Portal” games from Valve. http://blog.zenstudios.com/

When game developer Zen Studios announced “Portal Pinball,” many fans of the Valve game became extremely excited, as the combination of a pinball game and the portal-hopping mechanic from the “Portal” games would make for a thrilling pinball experience. Fans no longer have to visualize how the game will look, as Zen Studios released a “Portal Pinball” trailer Thursday with plenty of gameplay footage.

The “Portal Pinball” gameplay trailer features a lot of callbacks to the original portal games, including the fan favorite antagonist GLaDOS, who continues to torment the player with turrets and gas. Thankfully, the player will not be alone in facing off against the mad AI, as “Portal 2” protagonist Chell returns, as well as Wheatley, Atlas and P-Body, who provide support and add variety to the gameplay.

According to a report from Pocket Gamer, players will have to guide Chell and Wheatley throughout the pinball arena as they go through various portals in hopes of getting rid of the turrets and taking out GLaDOS. The player will be taking GLaDOS head-on by attacking her with various pinballs, making the game feel like an actual part of the “Portal” story rather than just a clever marketing gimmick for fans of Valve.

Atlas and P-Body are also useful in the game like they were in the co-op mode of “Portal 2.” The two robots will be able to provide the player with some multiball action, making the game feel chaotic as well as challenging.

Players can also activate a hidden minigame when they find the hidden miniplayfield of Ratman, as noted by Touch Arcade. Once found, players will be able to destroy the turrets in the turret factory, once again just like in the “Portal” games.

So far it seems like “Portal Pinball” is a pitch-perfect companion piece to the acclaimed “Portal” games from Valve, with numerous callbacks to the series and a variety of cameos from its fan-favorite characters. “Portal” fans will be able to purchase “Portal Pinball” as DLC for “Zen Pinball 2” and “Pinball FX 2” for mobile devices and the PlayStation Vita next week, according to Touch Arcade.

Portal Pinball (Credit: YouTube/Zen Studios)