If you read Kotaku regularly you may have noticed I'm a sucker for some video game pinball. Give me a controller and a relatively accurate rendering of the silver ball and I am a happy camper. A while back I wrote up a press release about Crave's Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, which is being released sometime this year on the PS2, PSP, and this time around the Wii. A follow-up to the previously released Gottlieb Collection, this anthology features one of my favorite tales of all time, Pinbot. When I visited with Crave at E3 I got a chance to get hands-on with the Wii version of the game, and I have to say that after playing through several balls on good old Pinbot, I am spoiled for virtual pinball on any other system

To get an idea of why I say this, grab your Wiimote and nunchuck attachment. Now hold them with your hands about as far apart as your average pinball table. Pull the trigger buttons, imagining the left and right flippers kicking up. That's how pinball is played, and that's how Willliams plays on the Wii. Such a simple mechanic works wonders in recreating the feel of actually playing at a pinball table. I'd daresay you could even craft a little mount for them to recreate the feeling of resting your thumbs on the glass of the machine, which could even help a little bit considering shaking your controllers acts like smacking the machine, possibly tilting the game if you shake it too hard.

Pinot was recreated in painstaking detail, with the original bells and whistles intact. The gentleman showing me the game explained that Williams has been very hands-on with this project, testing the game at every juncture and coming back with little changes and tweaks to make sure that every table included in the collection was as authentic as video game pinball can get. I'd daresay they're doing a bang-up job so far.

If you're a quarter of the pinball fan I am and own a Wii then you'd be doing yourself a favor to keep an eye out for Pinball Hall Fame: The William's Collection. While I am sure the PSP and PS2 versions will be at least passable, the Wii version of the game looks to bring all new levels of realism to the world of video game pinball.