I spend more time playing pinball than video games these days. Combining my two favorite hobbies was a shoe-in for my favorite on the floor this year. I was not alone in this sentiment as Penny-Arcade’s Tycho also gave it a shout out.
Demon’s Tilt made its PAX debut in the Indie MiniBooth. It’s also already available via early access on Steam so you can already check it out for yourself.
It’s a retro 90s style arcade pinball game that’s got SHUMP (PAX is education parents! I learned a new acronym! It stands for Shoot ‘Em Up) and Hack N’ Slash elements. The table has 3 levels to battle through with lots of bosses that put the player through bullet hell. That’s right, pinball, bullets, and bosses! And it all flows together seamlessly for some frantic flipping fun. It's even got a back story with some occult elements going on. It has lots of awesome bosses including a cephalopod and skeleton soldiers.
Bosses set you up for an ultra jackpots if you can avoid their bullets. Excellent timing can also convert bullets into coins towards jackpots. Multipliers and combos are the way to amp up your score as you progress. There’s a wizard mode for beating all the bosses and if that’s still not hard enough for you there’s also Hardcore mode where you only have 1 ball, shorter flippers and dangerous outlanes.
I stopped by during the media hour and got to meet the game’s creators Adam Ferrando and Ralph Barbagallo. They were psyched to be at PAX and attendees must have loved the game as they sold out of all their merch. I had some hands on time and brought friends back to play once the floor opened. Pysched to be able to play at home as well. It fast action and you’ll always want to play just one more game! You can check out the trailer here or just buy it on steam now!
