Black Belt Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

BLACKBELT RETRO

Matt on Black Belt: A table with this theme should be an expression of fighting discipline and mastery (even a retro one) and not random bouncing and frenzied flipping. The 6 drains and the opportunity to flip the ball straight into the underside of the other raised flipper do not commend this table to me. I would add at least two upper flippers, straighten out the middle flippers, and replace much of the upper playfield bumpers with rollover targets and drop targets like boards to break or throw things at.

When the most satisfying aspect of a table is getting on a lucky bounce parade that no amount of nudging is going to be all that helpful with, it’s probably a bad table. It’s only because there’s no slingshots to block a rebound against the wall that the BAD voters  didn’t send Blackbelt to THE PITS. But the shooting angles to reach the bumpers are too tight and you’re still going to need lucky bounces to get the ball above the bumpers, which is where the points are scored. Finally, we weren’t fans of having one lit outlane that scores 1,000 points. If it scored 1,000 points and gave you another ball, that would be one thing, but these Zaccaria retro tables are really stingy about extra balls. Which is odd because add-a-ball style games are a hallmark of this era. They could probably add a full point to the scoring averages of most of these tables with that add-a-ball. Anyway, Black Belt is pretty damn terrible.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Table Type: Woodrail
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: BAD
Jordi: BAD
Dave: THE PITS
Matt: THE PITS
Dash: THE PITS
Scoring Average: 1.5 – Very Bad
Final Average: 1.5 – Very Bad

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Author: Indie Gamer Chick

Indie game reviews and editorials.

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