Game: Pokemon Pinball:

Ruby & Sapphire

System: Game Boy Advance

Publisher: Nintendo

Web site: www.nintendo.com

Price: $29.95

Rating: E (Everyone)

Nintendo’s Pokemon has been around for several years and has seen phenomenal success. The franchise includes about a dozen video games, several movies, a cartoon series, a wildly popular trading card game and millions of dollars in plush toy sales.

In the new Pokemon Pinball game, players can find and snag more than 200 of the little critters by bouncing a Pokeball around two lively pinball playing fields. You’ll find Pokemon from the Ruby and Sapphire games as well as many favorites from older versions.

In Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon are hidden in both the Ruby and Sapphire playing fields, and players will need to hit the correct bumpers and pins and other pinball fixtures in the correct order to coax them out.

Some of the creatures are easy to find and will appear with just one or two flips of the Pokeball. But sometimes catching the more stubborn ones requires a complex series of steps and a variety of conditions. You might need to build up a certain amount of points, hit several targets, trigger some switches and stop a slot-machine wheel before some Pokemon appear.

Once a Pokemon appears, it’s usually a matter of whacking it a few times with the Pokeball. This dazes the Pokemon so that the Pokeball can open up and trap them inside.

Pictures and information about that Pokemon will be stored in your Pokedex, so you can go back later to read about all the Pokemon you’ve collected. If a friend has the game, you can connect GBAs to share information and compare high scores.

If you’ve caught a Pokemon that can be evolved, you’ll have to perform an additional series of precise moves back on the playing field in order to make the transformation. Some Pokemon need to go through several stages of evolution, so catching and transforming every creature can take some doing.