‘Cult of PiN’ Plays Roguelike Pinball Across Cursed Tables

Cult of PiN finds you playing a distinctly corrupt pinball table, smashing corrupted eyes to keep moving onto the next challenge.

I’m not sure what went down at this arcade, but this pinball table sure has a lot more tentacles and eyeballs than usual. Some horrifying force has started creeping into our world through these pinball tables. However, their vulnerabilities are basically the same as The Three Stooges: poke them in the eyes enough and they’ll give up. As this is pinball, you’ll need to send the ball hurtling into every eyeball bumper you can see on each table. If you clobber them enough times, you’ll escape this table and move onto another one.

Now, there are some useful bonuses to help you out as you attempt to purify these sinister tables. For every round you complete, you’re rewarded some mana. This can be used in the shop (which you can hit by getting the ball to specific locations on each table) to buy some upgrades. These make you do more damage, give you a helpful multiplier, give you more mana when you finish around, buy extra balls, and more. You can do a lot to make your shots count, and you’ll definitely need all the help you can get because this game is just as unforgiving as real-world pinball. Things move fast and your ball will be down the drain in an instant as you get used to tracking the ball’s movement. But even if you lose all your balls and die, it’s hard not to jump right in again.

Cult of PiN is a sharp take on pinball that uses roguelike mechanics to capture the tension of trying to keep the ball in play in a game that technically lets you play pinball as long as you like for free (although just on the first table). It does an excellent job of capturing the feel of pinball and I’m excited to continue playing (poorly) as the game develops.

Cult of PiN is available now (as an extremely expansive demo) on itch.io.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.