Jason Coker here, Producer of the new downloadable PSP title, Pinball Heroes, which is available beginning TODAY for download onto your PSP from the PlayStation Store for $3.99 each. So, what is Pinball Heroes? Well, the Pinball Heroes team loves pinball – go figure – and we also love the games that Sony Computer Entertainment publishes, so we figured, “Hey, what if we were to make pinball tables based on SCE titles?” We approached some of the internal teams here at Sony, made the magic happen, and we’ve put together a really fun mix of tables, both in the range of pinball game play types and in the titles we’re representing. Please take a look at the trailer below to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

There are four different tables available to download, which are based on High Velocity Bowling, Hot Shots Golf, PAIN, and UNCHARTED. For me, the coolest thing about Pinball Heroes is that if you dig pinball, you’ll really like any of the tables because of the diverse set of challenges that each one features, including an in-game trophy shelf, in-game trophies, online leaderboards, and an assortment of modes that keep the game exciting and fun. On top of that, if you’re a fan of the titles that we represent on each table, you’ll really enjoy the way we’ve incorporated the flavor of each game into Pinball Heroes. If you happen to be a pinball lover who is also crazy about the games we’re basing our tables on… well, you’ll be in PSP nirvana.

For example, the High Velocity Bowling table actually has a section that has ten pins set up that you can knock down once you’ve released the sweeper. In addition to your pinball score, the game will be tracking your strikes and spares as you advance through “frames” on those ten pins. On the Hot Shots Golf table, there are several unique “holes” to play. You’ll be challenged to knock down targets marked with a certain distance until the total distance gets you to the “green”, at which point you must knock the ball through an opening to the green and tap it into the hole. There are also wind conditions that will affect the ball differently on each hole, so bring your A game.

PAIN fans will recognize things like Fun With Explosives, PAINdemonium modes and the Manhole that can be opened as a ball lock. The UNCHARTED table actually tells the story of Nathan Drake’s’s adventures in the first UNCHARTED game, “UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune,” through a variety of modes that will test your pinball skills.

We’ve put plenty of familiar sights and sounds on each table and all in all, we’ve put together a really cool mix of pinball and the things that make our first-party games so fun.

For your convenience, you can play zoomed in so that the camera tracks the balls around the table, zoomed out so that you can see the whole table, or in portrait mode, which lets you see the whole table with the PSP turned sideways, so it’s a lot larger than the default zoomed out play style. Whatever your play style, there’s something here that will suit you.

So there you have it – Pinball Heroes – Coming to a PSP near you. I’m really proud of how nicely the Pinball Heroes tables turned out. Teri, Josh, Joe, Larry, and I look forward to hearing your feedback once you get hands-on with the tables because there are more tables in the works, and we want to make them as good as we can. Till then, break out your Tommy albums and get your Pinball Wizard on. We’ll see you on the Leaderboards. I’m the cat with the ill high scores because that’s how I roll. Get it? See, it’s a pinball joke because the ball rolls, and…ah, forget it. Pinball Heroes for the win!!

Not only does Sore Spots continue the rich tradition of the silly fun that is PAIN, Sore Spots also includes a new multiplayer Mode that I’d like to introduce. It’s called “PAINalympics”, and it’s where two to four players can compete in the following events:

Horseshoes – There are four giant horseshoes floating in front of the launcher, and your task is to snatch them and try for a ringer. You have four launches.Whatcha gon’ do?

Bull Ride – Imagine a large group of mechanical bulls, each atop a large column. Launch, grab, and hold on to as many bulls as you can. Ready to ride, cowboys and cowgirls?

Rope Kick – Test your Ooching skills by launching and grabbing a rope that you have to hold onto and swing on, knocking down as many of the characters in the area as you can in 30 seconds.

Balloony Bin – You have 45 seconds to push, pull, drag, or otherwise force balloons into trash bins. Extra points for the red ones!

Stack Whacker – All you have to do here is knock down a wall of boxes in as few launches as possible. If you’re good, you can probably use some exploding objects to help do the job more quickly.

Anvil Toss – Snatch an anvil out of the air and chuck it as far as you can. Watch out for the cherry bombs and exploding chemicals on the floor, though!

Relay Race – Keep your Pimp Slap Hand strong and smack, smack, smack your way to the finish line in the best time…and don’t forget the baby powder!

Punt Ball – Knocking a ball through a goal is sometimes a lot harder than it seems. Extra points if you hit the characters who are dancing between the goal posts.

Swing N’ Dunk – Grab the ring, swing, release…wait for it…wait for it…Oooch your character through the basketball hoop. Harder rings grant a higher reward.

Sore Spots is headed your way on Thursday, May 14th, and we’ll be releasing Ded Baron, a new launchable character, the following week. At the same time as Sore Spots, though, comes a little bonus – You’ll also be able to get a free download of another beloved PlayStation personality, which you may have just read about. He’s a little shy, but here’s a screenshot that will give you an idea of who we’re talking about.

See you in Sore Spots!

Coke

PAIN was never designed with online play in mind. The sheer number of active objects flying around at any given time during a single launch is ridiculous to process, and then when you factor in the possibility of each of those objects hitting another object – perhaps an exploding one – the situation becomes even nuttier. With that in mind, we were a bit stupefied when the People said that they wanted PAIN online. That is by no means a small task, but somehow the evil geniuses at Idol Minds have managed to pull it off, and the patch is now live. The patch is free, and it will allow you to play all your favorite multiplayer PAIN Modes against your buddies online. You can get your text chat on, of course, but it wouldn’t be PAIN without being able to talk trash, so we’ve included voice chat as well. Personally, I think that getting a strike or even a spare in PAIN Bowling with Jarvis’ L2 + X pose says more than I ever could, but it’s your world.

We’re about to drop the Smack Pack on you (sold separately), which includes the Darts and Fortress game Modes. As I’m sure you know, traditional Darts wouldn’t be suitable for PAIN. We wouldn’t dare make something as simple as launching a character into an oversized dartboard. Instead, you have to launch you character toward a giant sticky billboard with multiple bullseyes painted on it, in the process grabbing another character (or bomb) and chucking it at the billboard. Sounds simple enough, eh? Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that your opponents have distractions to jack you up during your flight to the billboard. It makes it even more satisfying to clear the distractions and pull off a bullseye, so I hope your game is in order.

Fortress is the other half of the Smack Pack, and it pits you against up to three opponents, each of you with a giant fortress on a floating platform in the sky. On offense, your task is to aim at an opponent’s fortress, launch and grab an exploding object, and chuck it at their fortress to inflict maximum damage. Every bit of damage you do costs that player points, and when their score reaches zero, that player is eliminated. Obviously, we’d never make it easy for you to do something like that, so at the beginning of each game, every player gets a chance to select their defenses, which range from everything from reinforcements that toughen up your walls, to flying mailboxes and cereal that knock launching enemies out of play, to blue screens that fly up and take out enemies and/or their projectiles. Fortress is a blast to play (no pun intended), so make sure your trash talk is ready.

Like all of the current offline multiplayer Modes in PAIN, Darts and Fortress are playable offline, too. In both modes, the various objects and distractions in the game depend on the environment in which you’re playing. For example, if you’re playing Fortress in the Amusement Park, you’re grabbing and chucking exploding teddy bears. Likewise, if you’re playing Fortress in the Movie Studio, you might see some cameras being used to strengthen your opponents’ walls. Both Modes will be playable in all future environments as well.

As always, we look forward to hearing back from you all on online multiplayer once you get a taste. It’s a nice addition to the world of PAIN, and I have a feeling that everybody’s going to be “leveling up” their PAIN skills as a result of the new competition within the community. Let us know what you think. As always, we’re listening. So get out of here and GO ONLINE LATER TODAY!!!!!!

When people ask me, “Hey Coker, what project are you working on?” I reluctantly tell them that it’s PAIN. I say “reluctantly” because I have found that it’s pretty much impossible to do the game justice without actually having it right in front of someone to show it to them. Sure, I tell people that it’s a crazy game in which you launch a character from a giant slingshot into a downtown area and smash him into stuff and blow stuff up and you snatch Mimes out of the air so you can slam them through plate glass windows and you blast monkeys out the side of a building in an attempt to stop another player’s character from successfully crashing into bowling pins and you can play as a dude named Ed in a cow suit and so on and so on…

[catches breath]

…but it’s actually a lot more than that. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you exactly what because it’s too impossibly fun to put into words. You’ll have to try it for yourselves, and you definitely won’t be disappointed.

What I CAN tell you is that it has been a blast to work on. It hasn’t been easy, but it sure has been hilarious. Here are just a couple of the gems I’ve heard (or said):

* “Coker, can you write up a description of a little person hip-hop pirate right quick?” (Yeah, I had the same reaction. You’ll see.)

* “Ummmm….who did the voice-over for that? That’s nasty.”

* “Hey man, if I get you a big glass of water, can you step into the recording booth and belch for about half an hour?”

* “Check the Leaderboards, Son. Spank. The. Monkey.”

* “Dude, I just really don’t think the farts are loud enough.”

* “Did you just grab that Granny by her head? Do it again! Do it again!”

* “That’s him right there. We call him the Ooch Master. He can’t be touched.” (You know who you are at Idol Minds, and I’m coming for you. The student has become the Master, baby!)

* “OH, *&%*!! THAT *^&%*#@ DONUT!!!!!!”

And that was just in one afternoon.

Probably the most important thing I can tell you about PAIN is that the game is really what you make of it. There is sometimes this misconception that it’s this cool experiment in physics that’s fun to watch. Hardly, it’s much, much more.

Fact is, I’ve been working on this game for quite a few moons, and I’m STILL finding new things to do and new trash to talk (I’m quite the PAIN Bowler, and I EARN my trash-talking rights, thank you very much).

Check it out when it hits PSN, and if you want some multiplayer action, come see me. You bring the Kool-Aid, and I’ll bring the PAIN!

In the meantime, check out the OFFICIAL PAIN SITE to stay hip to the world of PAIN.