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Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection
Score: 53%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Crave
Developer: FarSight Studios
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 4
Genre: Classic/Retro/ Arcade/ Action

Graphics & Sound:
When you pop in Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection, you’ll be instantly transported to the arcades and bowling alleys of yesteryear. I do have to hand it to FarSight Studios; they definitely nailed the sights and sounds of the world of pinball. Instead of having a boring list of pinball machine choices, they opted to place you inside of an arcade, complete with the blings and beeps you’d hear if you were actually there. Selections of pinball machines are there for the picking and as you just scroll through them, the camera rotates to the next machine. Nice little touches such as dangling stuffed animal prizes and the flashing letter in the restroom sign really help to convey the vintage arcade feel.

When the menu pops up, a 1970’s guitar rock tune plays in the background. Then you choose a pinball machine and you are off. Once inside your chosen pinball game, I can only assume that you’ll be hearing the actual sounds of the game. Each game has the year in which it debuted and the sounds are appropriate to those decades. Obviously, you get decidedly more electronic sounds when you move into the 1980’s machines and personally, I found these the most pleasurable to play. Flipper sounds are realistic, as is tilt. In the background during gameplay, ambient arcade sounds abound, and help to immerse you a bit more.

The look of the pinball machines is realistic, down to the wood grain found in the 1957 game Ace High. While playing, you can momentarily forget that you are playing a video game as the ball goes rolling around the table.


Gameplay:
If you’ve ever played pinball in real life, you pretty much know what to expect here. A ball readies itself, and you pull back on the analog stick to release it onto the playing table. Once in play, you will use your L1 and R1 buttons as flippers. Depending on which table you selected, your goals will vary. Your primary goal, however, is to keep that ball from rolling down that inevitable black hole of doom located under your flippers. Some of the tables in Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection felt as though they had a high powered magnet located in that hole that kept pulling on my little steel ball at warp speed. Not fun. Other tables were a little more playable.

You start the game with seven tables to chose from (the Play-Boy table is unlockable later):

  • Ace High - 1957
  • Central Park - 1966
  • Big Shot - 1974
  • Genie - 1979
  • Black Hole - 1981
  • Victory - 1987
  • Tee’d Off - 1993

I found I enjoyed Genie, Black Hole, and Tee’d Off the most of all the tables, but I’m sure your experience will vary. After you select your table, you will be presented with a menu of choices. You can see your options, which are pretty standard other than showing the unlockables that you will eventually open up. You can view the goal of the table as well as instructions on how to play the table, as each has specific goals to accomplish. However, like I said, my goal was always just to not lose the ball. You can also check out the history of the table and view an old flyer for the original table.

Once you get into the game, it does, at times, feel as though you are actually playing a real game of pinball. However, I found that, more often that not, the game felt cheap. What I mean by that is that I felt as though I didn’t even have a chance to hit the ball as it constantly seemed to zip straight to the losing hole. Perhaps this was the design of the original table -- I have no idea, since I really can’t recall whether I’ve played these exact tables in the past. However, I use to be pretty damn good at pinball back in the day and on some of these tables, the game just lost any appeal as I couldn’t seem to get anywhere.

So move on to a different table you say? That is what I did. As I said earlier, the more modern tables were the ones that seemed to hold the most draw for me. While there are unlockables in the game, I didn’t open any of them as the game didn’t hold my interest long enough at any given time. There were a couple of unlockable modes and a tour of the Gottlieb Factory which is interesting, especially to pinball buffs. These unlockables are listed out in the instruction manual, so there’s no real surprise as to what you are going to unlock.


Difficulty:
Well, that all depends on which table you select. On some tables, it seems impossible to keep your ball in play. Others, it seems hard not to get a score in the millions. Basically, I guess it all depends on your level of skill and your interest in pinball. To me, if the ball heads straight for the hole without even so much as a possibility of you hitting it with your flipper, it makes the game feel cheap. Some of the tables felt just like this. Others, such as Black Hole and Genie, seemed to be more fun and I found myself playing for longer periods of time. I guess it is a matter of personal opinion and skill.

Game Mechanics:
When I first popped in Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection, the disc didn’t work. Crave sent another disc and the same thing happened with this one. Here’s the deal -- I discovered that you cannot insert the game into your PS2 while you have a memory card in the machine. I don’t know about you, but I leave my memory card in my PS2 all the time. So if you get this game, take out the memory card, put the CD in the tray, let it boot up, and then reinsert your memory card. Of course, oddly enough, the game notes that you don’t have a memory card inserted, so your game won’t be saved. Duh. I wonder how many people returned this game because of this issue?

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll use your L1 and R1 buttons as flippers and you’ll use the Right analog stick to launch your ball. A few times I found myself using the Left and Right analog sticks as flippers, and this is a bad thing as Left causes the table to tilt. Yeah. My bad, but still. Then there’s the O button that changes the camera angle. I did this by accident once and had an interesting time trying to figure out which button I hit mid-play. It’s not a game killer, but it’s probably not something you’ll want to do in the middle of a game.

Overall, I have a hard time recommending this game to anyone other than hardcore pinball fanatics or to those who just want to experience the nostalgia of an old-school arcade once again. It’s fine for a rent, but I don’t see this one as a keeper, unless pinball is your thing.


-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins

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