As a history lesson or trip down nostalgia lane it's great because of its top notch visuals and accuracy. As a game Pinball arcade fails because the tables just aren't much fun. In fact, the whole giant pool ball in the center of the board really detracts from the experience instead of being the creative touch the designers were hoping for. Between the voices, the skill shots, the cheesy pool theme, and the dozens of flashing lights this game is far more impressive to watch than to play. This is the table you'll play the most if you buy this product. The sounds are all classic 80's arcade though, so get ready for lots of bleeps and bloops. The haunted house theme is nice with a graveyard and ghoulies everywhere. With three levels and plenty to do, haunted house is a lot of fun. If one remembered this Pinball machine fondly it might be a good trip down memory lane, but for the average pinball player it's just not exciting.įinally, a pinball machine that is close enough to modern day to be fun.
In today's terms it's about as generic as it gets with 3 bumpers at the top and a few scattered targets to knock down.
It's really depressing and you'll feel quite hopeless the first time this happens because, no matter how well you've been doing you're going to die soon.
To prevent you from dying there is a barrier in this gap for a little while, but once you hit a certain score it drops and you die. This flaw is, of course, the huge gap between your flippers which leaves approximately 1/3rd of the board undefendable when the ball comes down at you. The boxing theme is well done and the game is actually moderately fun to play except for one big fatal flaw. This game actually resembles the pinball we know and love today except for the lack of real targets and the inhuman space between your two flippers. This table is just barely interactive and there isn't really anything to score on. Well, there are flippers in this game, but they adorn the side of the board all of the way down and the object is to keep the ball from reaching the bottom. There are no flippers and you just shoot the ball and see what you score. It's amazing that pinball ever got off the ground as a pastime if this is its roots. History is great, but in the end we need to have fun playing the games as well. It's just not the same experience and not all tables can successfully make the jump over to video simulations because of the obvious differences in the two mediums. The real problem lies with the fact that video pinball is entirely different from real pinball. In fact, gazing at a shot of the game the only way it's possible to tell that you're not looking at a real table is because of the lack of spilled beer and cigarette burns - visually the game is simply amazing. Even the tiniest details have been reproduced like the reflection of the table on the ball. The graphics are crisp and clean, the ball physics are great, and the sounds are as accurate as they can get. The really sad part of this whole story (if you find this type of thing to be emotionally involving that it) is that the games are all flawlessly produced. Out of the seven tables presented only two are worth playing, and despite the overall high production values of the pack nothing can really save a bad table from being immediately boring. Unfortunately, if you are a casual pinball player, this pack will only make you conclude that pinball as a genre has always sucked.