A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad: An infuriatingly addictive Foddian that you need to try

There is nothing I love to hate more than a Foddian game that gets under my skin and makes me want to call my computer all sorts of horrible names for merely existing. I’m prone to rage, although I try to take deep calming breaths, but there’s something about the rage induced by a good Foddian that has me laughing and masochistically wanting more. 

A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad is a Foddian game developed by Devin Henderling that seems to have appeared from nowhere on my radar, and yet has me obsessing over it like it’s my new favorite hobby, even though it makes me want to force-close my PC and walk away from it for a few days. 

With a mocking narrator and an absolutely infuriating lack of control over yourself at the best of times (and no, we won’t talk about the worst of times), A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad absolutely lives up to its name. 

What is happening here?

In A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad, you are a man trapped in a pinball, flung around an increasingly challenging obstacle course using paddles strategically dotted around the edges. I have no idea how we came to be trapped in this ball, but that’s the state of things, and we must make the best of a bizarre situation. 

Perhaps even more bizarrely, this strangely organic-looking pinball course seems to be situated in the far reaches of space, and there is a bunch of ‘life clutter’ floating around in the background. I’ve seen everything from cockroaches to armchairs to hot dogs out there, and I cannot think of a logical explanation for it at all besides a bad drug trip. 

Still, there’s little use trying to form a logical conclusion to any of this – we are, after all, trapped inside a pinball being flung around a course in the middle of space. A couple of dinosaurs in the background are the least of our worries.

I’m no pinball wizard

In the interests of full disclosure, I obviously had Pinball Wizard by The Who playing as I dived into this for the first time. Because how could you not, really? I got about halfway through the song before I realized that I had just descended into hell, and, actually, I wouldn’t mind being deaf, dumb, AND blind if it meant I could escape.

But of course I can’t quit, because like any well-designed Foddian, A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad is infuriatingly addictive and, thanks to the particularly sassy narrator who pipes up at the most inopportune moments, you’re left feeling like you have to keep trying just so you can finally turn around to him and flip him the bird. 

He also pipes up if you’ve left the game running for a little while. This scared the bejeezus out of me when I got distracted in the kitchen and heard a random voice asking me if I was “planning on doing anything anytime soon”. I didn’t need to be called out like that, to be honest.

Devin, the developer, describes A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad as “Pinball Getting Over It”, and, honestly, that is a dead-on description of this absolute hellscape of a frustratingly addictive game. I fear that, since getting hold of the demo, my neighbors may be under the impression that I am now possessed. I’m expecting a visit from a priest at any moment.

What do all these buttons do?

Discounting the buttons used to slow down time (incredibly helpful) and speed up time (less helpful unless you’re severely caffeinated), A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad is essentially just one button on the controller. You press A to flip ALL paddles and try to use them to throw your little man within his ball through the impressively difficult little space-based obstacle course. 

That’s not to say that the other buttons don’t do… Stuff.

One button brings up a jumpscare-worthy flash of Devin, accompanied by at best a lovely hello, or at worst a high-pitched scream that’s enough to make you drop the controller, especially if you didn’t even mean to push the button in the first place. On the plus side, this man’s face is now seared into my memory, so I know who to thank/rage at for creating this gem of a rage game that I can’t seem to put down, however much I may realize that it would be beneficial for me to do so.

Another button appears to do nothing more than make the narrator say “lemon” in a variety of different ways, and another causes random growls to occur. I have no explanation for either of these things, although I’d be interested to hear the thought process behind their addition. Even though they appear to do nothing of worth, I still find myself pressing those buttons occasionally to lessen the rage.

Rage and catharsis

Being totally real, I fluctuate between adoration and hatred when it comes to A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad, with clear moments that exemplify each emotion. Adoration comes when I’m doing well, and I feel like I can actually progress. Hatred comes when I fail a jump or, worse, find myself failing a jump so spectacularly that it sends me backwards and means I have to get back to where I was before I failed the jump in the first place. 

But all of that is just part of the Foddian experience. We don’t play these games for a good time; we play them to get angry, and we expect to feel that rage. In a way, playing these games feels like a twisted and bizarre form of therapy. 

They do say that a good way to release pent-up emotions is to scream it out, preferably in the middle of an empty field. I can’t say I’ve taken this game into a field with me, but as I said, I think my neighbors fear for my sanity thanks to the screaming (and amount of swearing) that has taken place. Regardless of what the neighbors think, I do feel slightly less weighed down by life after I’ve cussed out this poor man trapped in a pinball. 

If someone had told me even a week ago that I’d be obsessed with a rage game based on pinball, I wouldn’t have believed them, yet here I am. If you want to get obsessed (and angry) too, the A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad demo is coming to Steam on October 6 for everyone to suffer through enjoy.