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While fans may find it amusing for a short while, others will be pretty disappointed in this yawn-worthy experience.

Global Star Software had a huge opportunity with the Austin Powers license and blew it like an 8 year old blows their allowance on candy - too fast without much thought as to how long it will last. It would seem that they put too much stock in the AP franchise to carry the game and left out a couple of major things...like fun.

After installing, the player is given the option of selecting one of two tables modeled after each of the first two AP movies: International Man of Mystery and The Spy Who Shagged Me. One is not really better than the other; they’re both equally boring.

Before firing them up though, you’ll want to make sure you’ve disabled the handicapped accessibility features that pop up when you hold down the right shift button for more than about 10 seconds or so. This is important because the shift buttons are the flipper buttons and trying to hold a ball for too long will make the little confirmation window pop up and kill your game.

The differences between the two tables are the layout, and the sounds used. There are several modes of play available, from novice to tournament — the only differences I could figure out is the number of balls you get.

Once the game is started, the game's physics, table layout, and sound are what will ensure the player has a good time. Unfortunately, of the three, only the sound was done adequately and that cannot balance out the frustration generated by the other two. The table rulesets are equally as disappointing. To put it bluntly, they are shallow, uninspired, and can't compete with the likes of the Pro Pinball series.

The physics seem worse than Balls of Steel (a game from many, many years ago), and nowhere near as realistic as any of the Pro Pinball games. Yep, not even The Web. By the physics model, we are talking about how well the movement in-game mimics the way it would in a real game - the way that solid steel ball interacts with bumpers, flippers, and other solenoid powered wonders. In fact, the physics don't even allow you to perform standard pinball moves such as flipper passes or bang bucks.

The table layouts are decent, but fairly boring. In fact, I was a bit peeved to see Mini-Me featured on the International Man of Mystery table when he didn’t make his first appearance until the second movie. It may seem like a small thing, but since AP fans are who they’re trying to appeal to, little details like that are enough to be an annoyance.

Overall, the sounds are pretty good, but with more than 3 hours of raw material to work with, it may seem that they stayed away from what could be considered more interesting sound bites. This may have been a conscious decision to avoid overplayed cliché, but to make a game with a teen rating and make no mention of the Swedish Suck Machine (perfect idea for a pinball loop, multi-ball, or any other double-entendre-worthy feature) is just criminal.

The sounds also seemed to have a tinny quality to them. It may have also been a conscious decision to try to replicate that arcade feel, but since no other arcade aspect was kept, why start with sound, take advantage of the quality sound cards people have these days...crikey! I am a major AP fan so I’m not biased against it for that reason either as he tends to be one of those love him or hate him characters with no happy medium.

As much as I’d like to say that the game is worthy of the AP moniker, it’s not. Poor interface, so-so table designs, muffled and generally adequate sounds all add up to a game that’s better off trying to weasel its way into those $3 billion in free software packages that you get when you buy a computer from people on TV. You know, those ones that were selling shoes last night but they’re selling you a computer tonight. If the physics were equal to or better than the Pro Pinball series, and the rulesets were tweaked a little, this could be one hell of a game.

Review by Chris Long.