There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of new activity on the gaming front this week…at least as far as disc-based games are concerned. Last week was Xenoblade Chronicles and Devil-May-Cry-1-3-and-some-other-disconnected-game week, so apparently the floor is being conceded to the download realm while the gaming world takes its time playing those games.

I grabbed The Pinball Arcade on PlayStation Network last night. It was out on Xbox Live Arcade the week before, but I chose to get it at the same time as the release of Skullgirls to save myself some time. Unlike Zen Pinball and Pinball FX, this game has four different based-on-real-life tables such as Theatre of Magic and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! I haven’t played any of these machines in real life, so I’ll just have to take Farsight’s word that they’re accurate down to the last detail. I’ve made it onto the top five (local) high score lists on all four tables, but just like in real life, getting the top score on each is going to take a lot of work.

Speaking of Skullgirls, I’ve followed this game pretty much since its first announcement last year. I’ve finished the story mode with three characters so far – Filia, Cerebella and Peacock – and even actually won a one-on-one game online. I’ve practiced a bit with Filia (and her living hair parasite, Samson) and picked up a few decent combo strings (without looking at combo videos on YouTube, even!) Of course, I had to download a character guide from the website since the movelist isn’t included in-game… I like her style, though, and she may be my “main” character for now, until I figure out how to effectively use the other characters. Painwheel looks promising, of otherwise completely insane.