I LOVE PINBALL AND I LOVE THIS GAME!
Now for the PROS:
- Excellent interactive menu with speech. You actually enter the "arcade", as you "wander" past the different machines a voice says the name of the machine you are in front of.
- Great intro to each table. There are several different things you can select before actually playing the machine. The Instructions, Goal and History are printed and also spoken to you. You can even view the original promotional flyer for each table. This adds a very nice touch!
- Playing the tables themselves feels very realistic. The controls are very good after you get used to them. You can tell that the maker of this game spent a lot of time figuring out the ball physics as it is the best I've experienced. The ball actually feels heavy! The graphics are excellent, there is even a slight reflection on top of the "glass". There are about six different angles/views you can choose from depending on how close or far you want to be.
- There are quite a few unlockables on this game that can be won after reaching the different goals for each table. These features can also be unlocked by using a three letter code, but you have to enter the code each time you turn on the game, so it's better to just practice and meet the goals.
-Unlockables include a few fun things like custom ball, unlimited last ball, turn off tilt, a love machine, fortune telling machine, Playboy machine and even a picture tour of the Gottleib factory!
CONS:
- There aren't too many cons I can think of, but the one that really comes to mind is the way the game tilts. It is practically impossible to be good at any of the tables without turning tilt off because it's way too sensitive. To nudge you must use the analog control stick and it's really hard to nudge effectively without tilting (so I just turn it off to avoid frustration).
- I have noticed just a couple glitches in the game. My ball got stuck somehow in Black Hole and would not come out. I couldn't even pause to restart so I had to turn off the console. Another time my ball got stuck behind a target in Central Park. I didn't mind too much this time because it kept moving around and racked up the points and credits! I finally nudged it out of there, didn't want to get a high score by taking advantage of a glitch!
I can't really think of any other cons... just wish there were more tables to play! Eight 'aint enough!!! ;0) I really hope this game sells well enough to warrant a Pinball Hall of Fame 2, I would definetly buy it! I have already spent a ton of hours playing this game in the past two weeks since I've owned it.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
I really do love this game and if you enjoy playing pinball, you will love it too! It's nice to have a large variety of machines to play on one disc, make you feel like you own them all! If you purchase this game, you absolutely will get your money's worth out of it... so go buy it and support the making of Pinball Hall of Fame 2 (I hope)!!!