Space World. Sega later announced that the game would be co-published by North American video game company THQ as part of a joint agreement to publish and develop games for the Game Boy Advance. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto was involved with the game's music. It was shown as part of THQ's E3 2002 booth. Pinball of the Dead was released in North America on June 18, 2002, and later on July 4, 2002, in Japan. Reception Previewing the game at the Tokyo Game Show, GameSpots Jeff Gerstmann spoke positively of the game's animation while criticizing the ball physics and the strength of the flippers. Upon release of the game, The Pinball of the Dead received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Critics compared the game favorably to Devil's Crush, Alien Crush, and Kirby's Pinball Land. The game was selected as the "Editor's Choice" by GameZone. It was a runner-up for GameSpots annual "Best Sound on Game Boy Advance" award, which went to Aggressive Inline. A writer for GamePro called the game's graphics "clean, detailed, and animated with flashing unlife", while being unimpressed by the bosses. Suzanne Ashe from GameSpy also called the graphics "terrific" in spite of the limitations on the Game Boy Advance. IGNs Craig Harris noted slowdown in the graphics when multiple objects move on-screen. Reviewing for GameSpot, Greg Kasavin, also noted the slowdown in the game and mentioned it throws off the timing in making shots. The sound and music to the game were also well received. Harris considered the sound effects to be a mixed bag, however. The gameplay physics received mixed reactions. One writer from GameZone described the ball physics as "accurate" while the GamePro writer thought it to be "spot-on". Both Craig Harris and Greg Kasavin thought the physics to be "floaty". Harris and AllGames Scott Alan Marriott recommended Muppets Pinball Mayhem over Pinball of the Dead, with Harris saying it had more realism in its physics and Marriott saying it was made engaging and there were more things to do in it. Writing about spin-off games, Justin Towell from GamesRadar called it "a solid and fun pinball game". In 2005, the game was later ranked #137 on Nintendo Powers list of the top 200 best games of all time. It was also listed as one of the best games for the Game Boy Advance by Den of Geek. References External