Quick Look: The Pinball Arcade

One night of drunken Medieval Madness in the university pub sold me on pinball. Shortly thereafter, an imported copy of Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection sold me on virtual pinball with real tables.

Now I just wish they would release this in Europe:(

PS while Jeff's been called a demon in public, the piece of sorcery on the Theater of Magic table for the MK codes works still & glad that they left that easter egg code in there. As for the trick on how to get the MK code, here's the secret...hold the right flipper while pressing start.

@Goblin said:

One night of drunken Medieval Madness in the university pub sold me on pinball. Shortly thereafter, an imported copy of Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection sold me on virtual pinball with real tables.

Now I just wish they would release this in Europe:(

Huh, i don't know what you're talkin' about, because the Williams collection came out in Europe, and Pinball Arcade, it's XBLA, i think it gets out at the same time no matter where you are in the world, but still, it's out in European XBL...

BTW, they should try to get Space Jam, that table was AWESOME!!!

@BPRJCTX said:

@Goblin said:

(...) Now I just wish they would release this in Europe:(

Huh, i don't know what you're talkin' about, because the Williams collection came out in Europe, and Pinball Arcade, it's XBLA, i think it gets out at the same time no matter where you are in the world, but still, it's out in European XBL...

Oh, I probably should've mentioned: I don't have an xbox.

Amazon.co.uk only have US imports and... German imports(?) of the Williams Collection for PS3, and I can't find it in any stores here in Sweden. I thought there might have been some licensing problem involved, but if it was released in some parts of Europe and on other platforms (and the Gottlieb Collection did come out on PSP here), then I guess there is still hope for a release on European PSN (just a month or so later, as usual). Yay!

Ah, Bride of Pinbot. I played the hell out of that when I was a kid.

After the QL I downloaded this on my Android device before going to work - the free table on the Android version is Medieval Madness, and it is bloody amazing. The various goals and the funny dialogue work too well for me - I'm a sucker for lampooning pop-culture medieval tropes.

The free table changes at the end of the month or something, but for 4/5 bucks you can buy 'full' access to Medieval Madness and Bride of Pinbot (which I played two or three times as a kid at "Wizards" in London ON). I think I'm definately going to pick that package up.

I played Zen Pinball on my Ipod Touch previously, and I like the feel and based-on-a-real-table-ness of Pinball Arcade quite a lot more than ZP's fantasy tables.

@SpydrMrphy said:

@thebigJ_A said:

@tescovee said:

yeah

@Jeff just a heads up funspot is in NH not shitty ole Taxachusetts

He never said it was in civilized Massachusetts. No, you have to travel to the redneck sticks of Laconia, NH to get to Funspot.

Whoa there flatlander. You keep that kind of junk talk to your selves now. Just because we don't feel the need to tax everyone all the time, doesn't make us rednecks.

BTW: Pinball Wizard is also in NH and it is amazing. More people should go there they have some classic pinball action as well as some really killer arcade machines and there all usually in really good condition.

I agree! I am going to Pinball Wizard tonight, as a matter of fact!

I loooooove them balls!

Had the same reaction after my first game of Black Hole. "Umm... Okay... Awesome."

Seriously though, love this series of Pinball. Williams Pinball Hall of Fame was awesome, so I'm looking forward to the DLC tables in the coming months. Love the Zen series too, but there's nothing quite like the authentic tables.

I've been having a lot of fun with this game, it feels great. The main reason I picked it up was to play Attack From Mars later, I have a lot of fond memories with that one.

Does anyone remember a skiing-themed table that came out in the 90s that had a working ski lift built into the multiball mechanic? I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the title and find it on Google. My dad and I played so much of that table in our local arcade, it's a sentimental favorite.

Edit: Oh shit, I think it's Wipe Out by Gottlieb.

This is definitely worth a buy if you are a hardcore or old-school pinball fan. Overall, I think Pinball FX2 is more polished -- especially the user interface and the online leaderboards. Pinball FX2 also has the online multiplayer real-time score-race mode that is not present in Pinball Arcade. However, if you consider yourself to be a pinball fan you should really get both Pinball FX2 and Pinball Arcade. They both have very different focuses in terms of the kind of tables they feature.

I did encounter a few bugs when playing Pinball Arcade, including one time where the game ceased responding to controller input and I had to quit back to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Another time the game lost track of a ball and even the "Call the Attendant" button did not fix the problem, and I had to quit back to the Pinball Arcade game menu. If those bugs had occurred when I had a high score in progress I would have been pretty upset. Also, sometimes the LED score display in Ripley's Believe It or Not goes blank temporarily until you hit a target or start a game mode that refreshes the display.

I'm hoping that the developer fixes these bugs and enhances the online leaderboards so you can tell your friends' rankings on the global leaderboard instead of just being able to see their high score. I'm looking forwards to more tables being released, and would especially love to see Terminator 2 and Addams Family.

Great game but it seems easier to play on a tablet since you can try to react faster by holding it close to your eyes.

BTW I saw a Twilight Zone machine but it wasn't on so it might be busted, is that a big deal?

If they ever bring this out on the PSVita I might get it, looks awesome for trips!

Watching this quick look made me realize that I know absolutely nothing about pinball.

Except maybe Pokemon Pinball and Sonic Spinball, I got nothing.

If they ever bring this out on the PSVita I might get it, looks awesome for trips!

@mbdoeden:

Coolos, I'll be sure to pick it up if they also release it in Europe :)

Damn, now I want this game.

I did a review of my own on Pinball Hall of Fame for the Wii. That is an awesome pinball game. The Wii is a great platform for pinball because of having two controllers in your hand. Makes it feel more like an actual pinball game. Black Knight is already on it. Graphics? Yeah, they are not as good as other systems obviously, but the controls are fantastic.

back in the day, this chick i knew dad had a pin bot machine. man i cant tell you how many hours i sunk into that thing. we played that thing until it broke... sadly his kids are all idiots and will probably end up junking it or selling it for nothing. i really really miss that machine. 

What makes virtual pinball so goddamn fun?

Jeff: "I'm just trying to lock some balls here."

Nice.

just a lil pinball... waaayyaaaahhhhh