Grimm Tales (Pinball FX Table Review)

Grimm Tales
First Released February 16, 2023
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: NOT RELEASED ON SWITCH
Designed by Zoltan ’Pazo’ Pataki
Stand Alone Release ($4.99)

Okay, so using a gigantic castle placed in the center of a table isn’t exactly original. But don’t mistake this as a Medieval Madness wannabe. This is a fantastic original table.

Think of Grimm as being the unholy offspring of Medieval Madness and Tales of the Arabian Nights. The layout borrows heavily from Medieval Madness, maybe a little too closely. Oscar really thought it was just a touch too derivative, and not just because of the castle. Both the left and right long orbits feel very close to MM’s side shots and are such a cinch to shoot and spoon-feed the bumpers that tying a multiball just to them he thinks might have been foolish. I don’t disagree with him about the layout, either, but there’s plenty of effort to make it feel different as well. The ultra-steep damsel ramp has no evil twin in Grimm Tales. Instead, the game utilizes two very tough but fairly well-done toe shots for the gingerbread house (which lights modes) and Magic Mirror. The castle includes new angles as well, including a deceptively tricky “sneak around the back” shot that’s actually the REAL driver of the table, acting as both the mode start and extra ball shot. This is a table that has a lot of very fun shots, and while the ramps share similar placement as Madness, they don’t feel like the ramps on that table. The flow load is completely different.

**Signature Shots – The Castle**: Grimm Tales’ castle is four shots in one. The table’s driver is in a tiny orbit just left of the castle, and is also the extra ball shot. The gate switches which mode is lit and is always the final shot to end any mode. The two gatehouses act as ball locks for Crystal Multiball and might be *too* easy to hit, but there’s an inspired twist to that. The locks are still active when you actually start the multiball, and NOT locking a ball doubles the value of jackpots, adding a layer to ball management that we all thought was very clever. That was the part that sealed Sasha’s **MASTERPIECE** vote when she couldn’t decide which way she was going.

One of the “ANGRY MODE” effects. You’re lucky if you get this one.

The Tales of the Arabian Nights DNA is in the modes. Each mode is based on a fairy tale instead of an Arabian Night, but they’re all relatively short. So short that it’s kind of surprising for a Zen table. Plus, most of the modes are actually a lot of fun. The problem is not every angle is. The “grandmother’s house” bat flipper pathways are maddening to shoot (see the caption below), and the Snow White mode uses the bumpers, which are overvalued in a table with THIS easy of access to them. The easiest extra ball to light is done by juicing the end of ball bonus to past 10x. In our duel, not a single Vice missed that EB in any game. Otherwise, the modes are punchy and rewarding, along with a pair of multiballs that are quick to activate and can be used to finish the modes. I also like the concept of being able to charge-up the table’s score via T-A-L-E lights, which could potentially multiply your score by 2.4x the playfield values. Not after the ball, mind you. DURING PLAY! That’s bold.

**Signature Mode – Little Red Riding Hood**: as unlikely as it seems, this short little shot is the hardest in the game. Nobody could get a feel for it, but if you’re going to miss, miss late instead of early. Just under the path is a hidden Ritchie Loop that gives you another crack at the shot. Neat. Not neat, and in fact one of the most annoying features on the table, is that in the Little Red Riding Hood mode, the ball is held over the flipper for far too long. “Slow pitch softball” is what Oscar called it, and he HATED it. Cussed a blue streak every time. Angela said “I’m never teasing the dogs by holding the ball too long when we play fetch ever again.” None of us hated the shots. On their own, as part of the Crystal Multiball? They’re fine. Tough, but we like tough. The delay before serving the ball in the Red Riding Hood mode? Well, it didn’t cause Dad or me to drop our score by itself, but we were certainly thinking about it when we voted **GREAT** instead of **MASTERPIECE**. It’s so bad that it feels almost like a glitch left in the game. It happens on the lower shot too.

VUKs that aim for the tip of the flippers? Not so much bold as it is annoying, but at least the physics are good enough to be able to clock the throw and take control of the ball. Actually, this is one of the rare Pinball FX tables that doesn’t feel like it’s specifically trying to prevent ball control, which is why I think the Vices all liked it so much. I’d even say Grimm would make a great trainer table, except one thing: the table seemingly randomly enters “Angry Mode” that screws with the physics or visibility of the ball. One of the “curses” is having a very strong wind push the ball to the left. I’m almost never a fan of screwing with live balls using video game physics. There’s also a witch who flies over the playfield during multiball modes and it’s so distracting. Don’t let any of that turn you off of trying Grimm, though. It’s one of the best stand alone pins you can get for FX and easily worth the $4.99 asking price. There’s a LOT to like about this table, and for some of us, it does enough to reach elite status.

For me, it’s GREAT but just short of the upper echelon. Jordi and Dash were frustrated by the stop-and-go nature of the table and the distracting ANGRY MODE and photo-bombing witch, which are also the reasons I didn’t vote MASTERPIECE. Oscar didn’t because he thought it didn’t have any stand-out shots. It was two kids who really loved it, (but don’t mistake this for a kids table, as both Angela and Sasha are highly skilled pinballers). Sasha was just barely MASTERPIECE, almost agreeing with Oscar that the lack of transcendent shots hurt, but the shot selection and heavy emphasis on flexible strategy won her over. Meanwhile, Angela said Grimm Tales was second only to Battle of Mimban as her favorite Zen original. “Maybe there’s more balanced tables or tables with better shots, but Grimm is just fun. It’s everything I love about pinball and isn’t afraid to be silly. Originally I felt bad giving it MASTERPIECE, but if I had more fun with it than some tables where I did vote that way, why can’t I? It does offer everything pros love, too. Maybe not as well as other top tier pins, fine, so don’t play it for flow. Don’t play it as a test of your skills either, even though it offers that as well. Play it to remind you that pinball is a game and games are supposed to be fun!”
Cathy: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: MASTERPIECE (5 out of 5)
Angela: MASTERPIECE
Oscar: GREAT
Jordi: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Dash: GOOD
Scoring Average: 4.0 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜

Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray (Pinball FX Table Review)

Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray
First Released August 29, 1990
Zen Build Released October 20, 2020
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Designed by Dennis Nordman
Conversion by Zoltan Vari
Set: Williams Pinball Collection 2 ($23.99)
Links: Internet Pinball Database Listing – Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki

Sasha looked at me like my head was on backwards when she found out I rated the Pinball Arcade version “**MASTERPIECE**.” I’m not doing a bit here for comedy. She thought we were kidding. “THIS table? Dr. Dude? You think THIS is a top tier table? Maybe it’s better when the physics don’t kick the ball out of the Mix Master after a couple bumps, but even then, a **MASTERPIECE** should be reserved for a table with flexible strategies. Dr. Dude doesn’t have that except for the order you check off the three main shots to light the mix master. The shots are fun, so I could see going GREAT, but this isn’t a **MASTERPIECE**, ever.” Everyone else and Dave backed her up. You’re all wrong and I’m right so pooey to you.

Much like the Pinball FX 3 version, Dr. Dude still features a ball that could go straight down the drain off a plunge. No ball save. The awesome series of sequence shots is hard to appreciate when you don’t even get a swing at the ball. It’s why Dr. Dude and his Excellent Ray is one of the few Pinball FX tables where I still prefer the now decade-old Pinball Arcade release. It’s just more forgiving, with a nudge that’s much better at defending against this type of thing. This isn’t a table for the faint of heart, with brutal difficulty and hair-raising angles. Oh, and the Dude-o-Meter doesn’t carry over between games, so you can’t even hit the Gazillion Point Shot unless you start the multiball five times in one game, an especially tough task for a table this heartless, with a key shot (the Magnetic Personality) that isn’t easy to lock onto.

Having recently played a real Dr. Dude AND the Pinball Arcade version, I was reminded of how fun Dr. Dude can be. It’s one of my favorite underrated tables. But on Pinball FX, the Mix Master is significantly less likely to hold a ball. A reminder that, as much as we admire Zen Studios, the engine for Pinball FX is lousy. Sorry, it just is. Real tables do not behave this way, and it wasn’t rare to have the ball pass through it doing only a single bump per shot. The physics are just too heavy whether you play classic, pro, or arcade.

The good news is Dr. Dude still has one of the best “awesome shot” to “meh shot” ratios of any alpha-numeric table. Nobody can ever accuse it of being boring. The key shots that actually matter are too exciting for that. Do you know what Dr. Dude reminds me of? An old, dependable car that puts up a fight when you turn on the ignition. The tricky part is just getting it started. Once you do, you know it’ll get you where you need to be. Once you find your rhythm in Dr. Dude, you’re in for one of the most satisfying pins of the late alpha-numeric era, where every shot, and even the act of trapping the ball, is rewarding. Despite being one of the few times Zen didn’t handily defeat the efforts of Farsight doesn’t matter all that much. Dr. Dude is still really good. We’re giving it an award and everything! But it’s a table I’m willing to rate MASTERPIECE and accept all the eye rolls in the world for, and I can’t for this build. It’s just not the best digital build modern gaming technology can do. Or 2010’s technology, for that matter.
Cathy: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Angela: GOOD
Oscar: GREAT
Jordi: GREAT
Dash: GREAT
Dave: GOOD (Played on Nintendo Switch)
Elias: GOOD (Played on Nintendo Switch)
Primary Scoring Average: 3.66 CERTIFIED EXCELLENT
Nintendo Switch Average: 3.5 🧹CLEAN SCORECARD🧹
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.

Primal Carnage – Solid State (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

PRIMAL CARNAGE – SOLID STATE

The solid state version of Primal Carnage shoots well enough, we suppose. What limited targets are here work. So, why were we so bored playing it? We were all sort of taken back by how subdued PCSS is. It’s not exactly a dynamic table. Honestly, we didn’t expect Magic Pixel would ever make anything this rudimentary again. The Taito tables kind of felt like the last hurrah for that. Guess we were wrong. This has no modes. It has no multiball. It gives the appearance of two distinct forms of gameplay: humans or dinosaurs. You pick one or the other at the start of each ball. Dinosaurs have to kill 100 humans, while humans have to inflict 10,00 hit points on dinosaurs. In reality, both have the same targets and the same requirements.

Both outlanes can be defended via old school Zaccaria outlane flippers. On a more thrilling table, these would be welcome. Here, it’s just another feature for a table that feels like it didn’t come from a place of genuine inspiration. Here’s hoping the other two Primal Carnage pins do better.

The math for each option appears different, but each requires the same amount of shots on the same targets. The object is just to repetitively grind shots until a counter reaches zero, then do it again with the opposite characters. Completing a cycle earns you an extra ball, and if you can do it twice (and we were never able to) it scores 50,000 points. This type of pick ‘n flick gameplay can work, but not with shots this boring or haphazardly laid out. The locker is particularly annoying, as it’s too easy to drain a ball in the locker’s sinkhole without actually lighting it, which requires all three drop targets to fall. The table’s signature, three different swinging targets, are too risky without proper value to be worthwhile. Primal Carnage SS’ gameplay is fossilized.
Stand Alone Table ($6 for HD, $7 for 4K)
Type: Zaccaria Solid State Model
Vice Family High: Angela “ADV” 71,130 (Top 20)
Sasha the Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Cathy: BAD
Angela: BAD
Oscar: BAD
Scoring Average: 2.0 – BAD

Centaur for The Pinball Arcade on Nintendo Switch (Table Review

CENTAUR

It’s one of the most visually-striking tables EVER. The “sequel” is just the same table with the same playfield art. Only the backglass has been changed. It would be like if people paid to see Empire Strikes Back, and they just replayed A New Hope, but hey, the poster was different so it counts, right? One of the strangest cases of giving any gaming property sequel numbering in history.

Centaur is a favorite of Cathy’s and she genuinely does not get why everyone else isn’t on-board with her MASTERPIECE rating. The O-R-B-S targets, which awards a two-ball multiball for shooting in sequence, are some of the absolute best drop targets ever. She gets no arguments from the rest of us there. But, there just isn’t much else. The capture ball and happy trail aren’t that excitingly placed or implemented. None of us are arguing this is bad or even boring. We all enjoy Centaur. We’re giving it an award. But this isn’t even a particularly well-crafted virtual port. Angela crashed a four player game (it IS always Angela) that had a family high pace, but other four player games suffered failures as well.

The open outlanes are sloppily coded at best, often needing a virtual assist that makes it look like the ball Shadowcats through the structure. It breaks the illusion of reality, something the open outlanes featured in Magic Pixel’s Zaccaria tables never needed to do to work. However, it’s mostly because, as well shooting as it is, there’s just not enough great shots to elevate this to the Pantheon. It’s not that we can’t enjoy simplicity. Angela and Sasha both give Gorgar MASTERPIECE status and Oscar wants to be buried with his Firepower table. This ain’t no Gorgar or Firepower, though. Cathy is just plain wrong.
DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Numeric Display
Based on Centaur by Bally (1981)
Designer: Jim Patla
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 3,343,120*
Cathy: MASTERPIECE
Sasha The Kid: GREAT
Angela: GOOD
Oscar: GREAT
Scoring Average: 4.0 – Awarded a CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE
*Angela was shooting at a much higher pace when the game died.

Attack From Mars on Nintendo Switch Review: Pinball FX AND The Ultra-Rare Pinball Arcade Version

More Pinball FX versus The Pinball Arcade on Nintendo Switch. Remember, the TPA version was listed for only a matter of minutes on April 6, 2018 before being immediately delisted. Did you miss out? In the case of Attack From Mars, no, you did not. Even a very imperfect version of AFM by Zen Studios is preferable to it. This is a special feature, but consider it our definitive Attack From Mars FX on Switch review and remember this does not apply to Pinball FX on other platforms. Read that review.

ATTACK FROM MARS
PINBALL FX FOR NINTENDO SWITCH

Thoughts of a Designer with Dave Sanders: “Experience Attack From Mars for just five minutes and you’ll understand why Brian Eddy keeps coming back to the same ‘two-flipper fan with one big center feature’ style more often than not with relatively minor differences each time. Because it WORKS. This intuitive, easy-to-learn, hard-to-master formula was lightning in a bottle and Eddy is loathe to let that go (and if he doesn’t use it, George Gomez will). Collectors – the primary cash-cow for pinball manufacturers these days – scoff at this as they’re always chasing the next new thing that, as far as they’re concerned, needs to be ‘bigger’ than the last. But instead of blaming Stern for being ‘lazy’, maybe blame Attack From Mars instead for just having been that good in the first place.”

Attack From Mars isn’t exactly a favorite for dueling in our family. We can’t beat Angela unless she has an unfathomable off-day, and frankly, even those tend to end with her getting pissed and leaving us in a smoking crater (what she did to us on the Pinball Arcade version will go down in family lore). But, Angela has questions about this version. “Are you sure the sample table they used to simulate Attack From Mars actually used a pinball made of stainless steel and not a round, unusually reflective rock?” Angela calls it “Boulder Balling” while Cathy says it’s more like the ball behaves like a beach ball partially filled with water. It has a lopsided bounce to it around the flipper zone. In fairness, that weird bouncing usually helps players to avoid the outlanes and makes rebounding a cinch. And that makes us wonder if that’s why it’s there. What if their engine turned the outlanes into Galactus and they had to add the wobble to correct it? Oh, and why does the right flipper just randomly release when you’re holding the button down? It’s not a constant thing, but it does happen. Angela, already furious that Zen Studios removed the replay extra ball (yea, WTF is up with that?!), argued for Attack From Mars to be declared OUT OF ORDER, but the vote must be unanimous and it wasn’t, so she gave it a rating of GOOD. Bit of a mixed message, but Sasha and Cathy dropped their ratings in solidarity. Attack From Mars FX on Switch needs a ton of work that we imagine won’t arrive until the Switch 2 hits. No rush. It’s only one of the most popular tables and a main reason people download FX.
Set: Williams Pinball Volume 2 ($9.99)
Type: Solid State – Dot-Matrix Display
Based on Attack From Mars by Bally (1995)
Designer: Brian Eddy
Conversion: Thomas Crofts
Duel Winner: Angela
Cathy: GREAT
Sasha the Kid: GREAT
Angela: GOOD
Oscar: MASTERPIECE
Dave: MASTERPIECE
Elias: PENDING
Scoring Average: 4.2 – Awarded a Certificate of Excellence
FX Difference: 0.8 Lower
TPA Difference: 1.2 Higher

THE PINBALL ARCADE ON NINTENDO SWITCH ATTACK FROM MARS COMPARISON

Pinball FX

The Pinball Arcade

We were dueling, which was foolhardy to begin with because Angela hasn’t lost a match of Attack From Mars in years. But, something weird was happening: Cathy was winning the game going into the third ball. Angela barely had a billion points at the start of her final ball and would have lost when it drained, but she had already earned the pity ball. And then Sasha just had to open her big yap. This really happened.

Sasha: Wow, Angela got the pity ball. Maybe we should only duel at this version. We might have a chance at beating her.
(Angela turns around looking livid, then turns back around and begins shooting conservatively.)
Oscar: You just had to open your mouth.
Cathy: Yea, what the hell, Sasha? Look at her face now!
Sasha: Whoops.
(After close to thirty minutes of watching in horror as Angela plays like an old lady counting change at the checkout stand, Angela rules the universe, then she plunges the next ball, turns around, drops the controller and lays the remaining game down with a score of 28,795,002,880 as she stares us down with madness in her eyes, then flips us the bird and walks out of the room like a boss.)
Oscar: Way to go, Sasha.
Cathy: Yeah, thanks a ton, Sasha. I was winning that game.
Sasha: My bad………… that was fire, though.
Oscar & Cathy: Indeed.

Angela ruled the universe despite this being a miserable table that, frankly, was nearly broken. Before Angela did, well, Angela things, none of us could get anything going on Attack From Mars TPA Switch. We were getting rejected on every angle, assuming the ball even made it that far up at all. Usually, it just sort of lobbed into the middle of the midfield. The flippers have NO punching power and the ball is even floatier than most tables. We strongly suspect many of the 60+ delisted pins we’ll be covering in these features are actually unfinished prototypes that never got fine-tuning and were submitted for content approval and not for actual listing. It would explain why the gravity was so wrong, even for TPA. However, before going to press, Cathy discovered that the table plays much better in the standard view. If she could have gotten a super combo, she might have even beaten Angela’s high score. Of course, the only reason to want the Switch version is for the ease of setting up the table view, so this defeats the point.

We can honestly say this is the worst version of Attack From Mars we’ve played, ever. Hands down. Angela came to believe that seal clapping increased the strength of both flippers, but shots off the flippers often gained no speed. She only put up the score she did by playing catch-set-shoot, and then she had to change the camera at the last second to finish the wizard mode. “Bad as it is, the angles are right.” So, it has that going for it. The funny thing is, the worst version of Attack From Mars still further cements how amazing this table is. A version with the wrong gravity and crippled flippers still is fun enough and well designed enough to score straight GOOD ratings from us. Sure, that’s an astonishing drop of two full points, but it’s also the final proof needed that Attack From Mars must be the perfect pinball table if such a terrible port can still be fun.
DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Dot-Matrix Display
Based on Attack From Mars by Bally (1995)
Designer: Brian Eddy
Vice Family High: Angela “ADV” 28,795,002,880
Cathy: GOOD
Sasha The Kid: GOOD
Angela: GOOD
Oscar: GOOD
Scoring Average: 3.0 – Awarded a CLEAN SCORECARD

THE VOTES
attack from mars

Cathy: Pinball FX
Sasha the Kid: Pinball FX
Angela: Pinball FX
Oscar: Pinball FX
Unanimous Decision: Pinball FX wins 4 – 0

Bram Stoker’s Dracula for The Pinball Arcade on Nintendo Switch (Table Review)

The Pinball Arcade was released on Nintendo Switch on April 6, 2018, then immediately delisted in under two hours and modified to remove all the Bally/Williams pins. Years after this happened, The Pinball Chick was given seven separate review codes that gave us these tables. These are among the rarest content in the entire history of Nintendo consoles, and it’s all largely undocumented. That’s why we’re providing these reviews. All media presented in these Pinball Arcade for Switch reviews we release to all content creators and websites for use in any content you make. All we ask is that you link to ThePinballChick.com.

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

Thoughts of a Designer with Dave Sanders: “I’ve never really got the love some people have for this one. Hated it on release for its putrid colours, rough scrappy sound and those damn lightning flippers. Looking at it now, it just seems… old. Not ‘gothic atmosphere’ old though there’s plenty of that, but old-fashioned for April 1993. Fewer moving parts than Barry Oursler’s Doctor Who or even Hurricane. The one moving part it does deserve big props for is the mist ball magnet, but that’s part of the other problem; the limited content outside of the three multiballs is pure fluff, and the fumbled early version of stacking hasn’t twigged yet that doing so with close to an entire game is a bad idea. Stack all three multiballs once, and you never need to touch it ever again (didn’t they learn anything from Bride Of One Shot’s Billionaire Club?). It’s probably significant that Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Twilight Zone came out in the same month; the development bloat of the latter is legendary, it definitely seems like something else had to give, and BSD drew the short straw.”

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is notorious for its lightning flippers, but honestly, the Switch version is right up there with the Arcooda build in being a kinder, gentler prince of darkness. But, there’s no need to feel any sense of FOMO, because Dracula is completely, totally, utterly broken. From teleporting balls to balls clipping through solid objects to the auto-plunge failing to get the ball on the table to live balls and the floating mist ball trading places, this thing kept finding new ways to fail to work as a simulation of a real machine. As big of fans as everyone (but Cathy) is of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, TPA never quite worked the bugs out on any platform, but this version specifically is really bad. Literally every game that didn’t have three house balls (which, hey, it’s Dracula so it happens) had some catastrophic, game-wrecking (if not outright game-ending) glitch. How bad can it get? Here’s the game saying the ball was lost when it was still live and in play.

Dracula could have scored a 3.75 and a Certificate of Excellence with Cathy being the lone GOOD vote and the rest voting GREAT. But, if you think you missed out on the only version of Dracula on Switch, well, you didn’t. We highly anticipate this will eventually find its way to Pinball FX, but we don’t expect much from it. We’re excited for a LOT of tables to debut on FX, but with Dracula, we’re honestly pretty skeptical about it. Pinball FX isn’t exactly known for having an effective nudge or backhand, tactics that are absolutely essential for playing Dracula at a high level. Playing the TPA build on Switch reminded us of that, especially with a drain that a coffin could fit between. Terminator 2 will play great on Zen’s engine. Johnny Mnemonic will. Dirty Harry will. But Dracula? We imagine it’ll be about as bad as Keanu’s acting in the film it’s based on.
DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Dot Matrix Display
Based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Williams (1993)
Designers: Barry Oursler & Mark Sprenger
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 1,158,456,100 totally legitimately earned points, honest to goodness. (Had it been anything near a top 100 score, she would have quit-out so not to wreck the leaderboard)
Declared OUT OF ORDER by The Pinball Chick Team

Black Knight for The Pinball Arcade: The Delisted Nintendo Switch Version (Table Review)

BLACK KNIGHT

Like the Arcooda build of Black Knight, you cannot play the Switch version in four players because the game will end on the third ball the first time a player loses a ball to the outlane. In real life, there’s bonus time, but they used some kind of general coding and didn’t account for that. So, games of Black Knight have to be played one at a time. A crying shame, because it’s not exactly one of those tables that makes for a great spectator experience.

Black Knight and Firepower were the two tables that were in the Vice Household before Cathy was even born, so they both hold special places in our hearts. Well, Cathy and Oscar’s, at least. Angela and Sasha, soon to be ages 15 and 10 respectively, really don’t “get” Firepower, which is Oscar’s favorite table ever and one that Cathy admits her fandom of is something resembling Stockholm Syndrome. But, they “get” Black Knight. Sasha especially is a big fan who credits it with improving her multiball game. After playing it, she wished that more multiball tables downplayed jackpots in favor of a general multiplier based on how many balls are active. It really helps that Black Knight is one of the great juggling multiball tables, something that TPA’s floaty physics complement perfectly. It’s like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time and takes LOTS of practice, but there are so many options for ball management that flow seamlessly no matter what option you use. That type of flexibility is the secret sauce that’s often missing on modern multiball-centric tables.

I was certain this excellent build of Black Knight would earn a perfect score, but it didn’t thanks to the cold-hearted Angela. She’s adopted. Angela thinks getting multiball is too easy which is why she’s not sold on this being a MASTERPIECE, real or digital. She thinks that Black Knight, important as it is to pinball history, is actually not completely timeless and lacks signature shots. “It relied on the eye-catching split-level layout to lure quarters, then gave players a smooth-shooter to keep them there. That premise was never going to remain timeless. If not for excellent bottom floor target and ramp placement, I don’t think Black Knight would even be considered a good table. I think the upper floor is too easy and too forgettable.”

Dave, our resident designer and pinball expert doesn’t necessarily disagree with Angela’s point about timelessness, but he can explain why Black Knight had to be the polar opposite of Firepower to stand out in an increasingly crowded field. “The split-level is the most innovative and eye-catching ‘new’ element about Black Knight, but isn’t in fact the most ‘important’. It’s how that affects the multiball. Firepower comes out at the start of 1980 (February), Black Knight at the end of 1980 (December). Steve Ritchie designs both, and he knows damn well the moment Firepower comes out, everyone’s going to jump on the idea. Williams can patent the lane change but they can’t patent the multiball, since it was used before in EMs. So every game afterwards has to up the multiball ante by introducing another exciting new thing to keep it fresh and stay one step ahead of the competition and leave them all playing catch-up. Xenon and Flight 2000 take their inspiration from the lengthier stage-based Firepower one. Black Knight therefore HAS to make multiball more immediate, with the split-level making up the real challenge.” No matter our stance, we all salute Black Knight. It’s one of the all-time greats and possibly the greatest multiball trainer of all-time.

DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Numeric Display
Based on Black Knight by Williams (1980)
Designer: Steve Ritchie
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 2,976,330
Cathy: MASTERPIECE
Sasha The Kid: MASTERPIECE
Angela: GREAT
Oscar: MASTERPIECE
Scoring Average: 4.75 – The Pinball Chick Pantheon of Digital Pinball Inductee

The Addams Family on Nintendo Switch Review: Pinball FX AND The Ultra-Rare Pinball Arcade Version

We’re among the very few people that own the Nintendo Switch versions of the Pinball Arcade’s Bally/Williams tables that were listed for a matter of minutes on April 6, 2018 before being delisted. We can’t get confirmation if these even appeared on the New Release list on the Switch’s eShop. We’re pretty sure they didn’t. We’ve also never been able to confirm that anyone bought these. Hey, we didn’t either! Like most digital pinball fans, by the time we found out they’d been listed, they were already long gone. It wasn’t even two hours before they were taken down. So, how’d we get them? After our work on The Pinball Arcade Buyer’s Guide, someone who appreciated our effort sent us copies. From what we hear, more people signed the Declaration of Independence than own these. Weirdly, we don’t have a complete set of TPA tables on Switch. We’re missing Star Trek and AC/DC, both of which are also delisted (and Whoa Nellie & Big Buck Hunter never were released at all). Still, these Bally/Williams pins, released in the normal Pinball Arcade “season” sets, are among the rarest content ever officially released in the history of any Nintendo platform.

These tables are gone, and they are NEVER coming back. There is no way to acquire them. Please do not pester Farsight for them. I’ve independently verified that the review codes no longer exist. We are SO grateful to own these, and yes, we’ve backed them up on memory cards. These will NOT become lost media, I swear it to you. Now, in some cases, we think these might actually be unfinished prototypes which meshes with the whole “we never meant to release these” vibe of TPA on Switch. Cirqus Voltaire and Scared Stiff especially play poorly. BUT, most of the pins play fine, and yes, you can play them in table mode. So, what to do with them? Well, we’re going to pit Pinball FX and The Pinball Arcade head-to-head. Did fans miss out? Apples & Oranges? Only one way to know! We dueled on each table. Now, only the Vices can vote for who won because Elias and Dave can’t play the Pinball Arcade builds, and other versions of these TPA tables aren’t 100% identical to TPA on Switch so Dave’s previous TPA ratings can’t carry over. Since The Pinball Arcade builds are delisted, we’re only comparing to the FX builds, which might highlight where Zen went right, and where they still have room to improve. These are “special features” at the Pinball Chick, but they should also be considered the definitive reviews of each Pinball FX Williams table on Switch.

Thank you Sasha the Kid for your hard work on these. Watch out, people. She has a black belt in Taekwondo now.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY
PINBALL FX FOR NINTENDO SWITCH

Thoughts of a Designer with Dave Sanders: “Learning to ride a bicycle: practice, balance, and more than a little intimidation to begin with. Mishaps and accidents are all but guaranteed. But, once it’s drilled into you, you never really forget. That’s Addams. Actually that defines much of Pat Lawlor’s career. His classics have always taken time to gel with me, and Addams took especially longer than was typical to learn to love (my sense of balance is lousy and Addams has no training wheels). But respect the effort, one eventually does. Zen has captured that pinball journey, that essence of “oh, riiiiiight” absolutely spot-on here with only the FIXABLE electric chair exploit (see below) letting it down. But no, you are still not going to get me to gush later over Lawlor’s ‘masterwork’ which followed up this one, the widebody I certainly admire but can admit to not personally liking that much. That one lies perpetually just beyond the border of the Comfort Zone, and even Rod Serling can only work so many miracles.”

You didn’t really believe us when we said we’d never write another Addams review, did you? As of this writing, Zen still hasn’t fixed the problem with the Electric Chair on Nintendo Switch. It allows players to cheese the doors by taking a dead flip from the chair and allowing the ball to hop from the left flipper to the right, at which point, 19 out of 20 times it’ll roll-up the switch and light the electric chair. It’s an easy conversion shot to take, too. Maybe the only easy shot on the whole table. Now, if you use this trick and don’t move off it, you’re not going to score a ton of points and, eventually, Seance will wreck your rhythm anyway. But, this trick can get you to the wizard in record time (Angela has done it in under two minutes). While this dead flip roll can happen on a real life Addams pin, it’s very rare, which is the only reason why Addams’ average rating fell over half-a-point on Switch. Patch this out and Addams has at least four MASTERPIECE votes coming and a shot at the Pantheon otherwise. Addams on Switch is still a Certified Excellent table that shoots fantastically on Nintendo’s platform, but it needs that last bit of fine tuning. Oh, and when they do it, they need to reset the leaderboards, even if this will cost Oscar his Arcade Mode world record. Which would be especially hilarious because he didn’t use the exploit. Put a smile on our faces, Zen. Well, five out of the six of us.😈
Stand Alone Release ($9.99)
Type: Solid State – Dot-Matrix Display
Based on The Addams Family by Bally (1992)
Designer: Pat Lawlor
Conversion: Zoltan “Pazo” Pataki
Duel Winner: Angela
Cathy: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: GREAT
Angela: GREAT
Oscar: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Dave: GREAT
Elias: GOOD
Scoring Average 3.66 – Awarded a CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE
FX Difference: 0.54 Less
TPA Difference: 0.25 Less

THE PINBALL ARCADE ON NINTENDO SWITCH
THE ADDAMS FAMILY COMPARISON

Pinball FX

The Pinball Arcade

The Pinball Arcade version of Addams Family on Switch does indeed include the option for the Gold version (Special Collector’s Edition) of the table and its extra modes. We opted to play the gold version on TPA. Playing on two different engines back-to-back is a trip, and in the case of Addams, I wish everyone could feel the difference. Sometimes it’s like playing pinball on the moon, but Angela insists the actual shooting angles off the flippers are accurate enough that her muscle memory from real tables mostly works. Then she proved it by lighting us up. Her first ball on Addams TPA for Switch was better than any of our best Addams games on Switch, in any mode, even if you subtract the points from the extra modes. “The swamp cross-shot (Thing Flips without the automation) is clockable on TPA, as it is in real life. Sometimes it feels like Zen believes if players get good at making shots, there must be something wrong with their build, so they ‘fix it’ by adding artificial unpredictability to every shot to correct a problem that doesn’t exist. People get good at pinball. That’s how it’s supposed to work. TPA has just as many house balls as Zen, or a real Addams table. That’s Addams Family! But on TPA, if my read of the approaching ball is right and my timing is right, I’m certain the ball will go into the swamp locker. I can’t say that about the Pinball FX version. I can hit the ball approaching at the same speed off the same spot on the flipper, and sometimes it goes in and sometimes doesn’t. That’s just not as fun.”

She’s not wrong. We think it’s more the spin and inertia of the ball, which has never been even slightly life-like since Pinball FX 4 launched, that makes it harder to clock. Zen is great at making tables that look real life, but the ball is not a normal pinball. Wonky as the gravity in TPA is, the ball behaves predictably, and that matters on a rebounding-centric table like Addams. However, let it be said that Zen’s version of the magnets absolutely ANNIHILATES the awful TPA version, which is why FX won Sasha’s vote.
DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Dot-Matrix Display
Based on The Addams Family Special Collector’s Edition by Bally (1994)
Designer: Pat Lawlor
Vice Family High: Angela “ADV” 978,008,970
Cathy: GREAT
Sasha The Kid: GREAT
Angela: MASTERPIECE (5 out of 5)
Oscar: GOOD
Scoring Average: 4.0 – Awarded a CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

THE VOTES

Cathy: The Pinball Arcade*
Sasha the Kid: Pinball FX
Angela: The Pinball Arcade
Oscar: The Pinball Arcade*
Split Decision: The Pinball Arcade wins 3 – 1
*Oscar and Cathy are both switching votes if the chair exploit is fixed.

Beast Master (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

BEAST MASTER

Beast Master is one of the “bonus” tables of Zaccaria Pinball. For AtGames Legends Pinball, they tossed those pins into the Zaccaria packs as +1 throw-in bonuses for the actual tables people would want (though let it be said that Speed Kings in Zaccaria Pack 8 is likely to enter the Pinball Chick Pantheon of Digital Pinball). Overall, Zaccaria Pack 1 is as good a collection of tables as it gets. Aerobatics is Certified Excellent. Black Belt, Black Belt Remake, and Circus likely will also be issued certificates. That’s a $60 value by our standards. Needless to say, we consider this to be a must-own pack for Legends owners and recommend that you buy it. And if you hear a strange banging noise when you do, pay no heed to it. It’s just Ed Krynski spinning in his grave because the pack comes with Beast Master. In our house, we revere Big Pin Kryn, and this bastardization of his famous 1979 widebody Genie feels like a crime against pinball. Now, it is an interesting thought experiment come to life. “What if you shrank a widebody? What do you get?” And Genie is just about as famous as that subgenre gets. Seems like a good place to start. But, there’s two HUGE problems with this smaller take on Kryn’s Djinn. First: they shrank the flippers, too. So this doesn’t feel like solid state. It feels like a boardwalk style clanker. See, shrinking a flipper doesn’t equally shrink your ability to aim, because aiming isn’t simply a function of where the ball is when you flip. Oh, that matters too, but you also have to consider that smaller flippers mean less surface to run off speed and fewer angles for rebounding. Rebounding is function of shooting. So, shrink a normal flipper by half and you’re reducing the potential to aim by significantly more than half. Like, as much as an eighty percent reduction. Needless to say, you can’t shrink flippers just because you also shrank a widebody into a standard. Thus a layout that should be a sharp shooter is eroded into, at its best, a slap shooter where you’re focused on keeping the ball in play. And that’s being very generous, because I don’t even think fans of slap shooters (as many of Krynski’s pins are) will like this. That’s why the leaderboard scores are so low. Even pros can’t work with these nubby little things. Not that it matters, because the dynamic scoring of Genie is gone completely, replaced by fewer targets that have lock-down scoring and no end-of-ball bonuses. You either hit an entire section of targets, every last one, or you can only get one score from each target. Either of these two factors would be a deal breaker by itself. Together, they make Beast Master one of Magic Pixel’s lowest points. They’re capable of amazing things, but when they phone it in? Oof.
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1
Type: Zaccaria Solid State – Rebuild
Design DNA: Genie by Gottlieb (1979)
Vice Family High: Sasha the Kid “KID” 44,900 (Top 20 All Time)
Cathy: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: THE PITS
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: THE PITS
Jordi: THE PITS*
Dave: THE PITS*
Scoring Average: 1.0 – CERTIFIED TURD
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC

Battle (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

BATTLE
aka COMBAT

Presumably this table was renamed “Battle” because many Atari 2600 games, including Combat, are on some AtGames platforms. No matter what you call it, the template for Battle makes for a fun game that runs out of scoring options quickly. You can essentially get unlimited extra balls, but they don’t stack. This works towards creating tension until you’ve got the extra ball, but once that happens (and you light the 10x bonus multiplier) it feels like you’re treading water until the next ball. With more dynamic scoring, this could have been an undisputed all-timer. With its open lanes that sometimes even include an extra ball, Battle makes for an excellent defense trainer for newcomers playing their Legends unit that has just enough offensive punch to not bore. It’s also worth noting that this table holds a special place in Angela’s heart. Years ago, a then 10 year old Angela set the world record for “3 Ball Simulation” which is basically the mode you need to win to prove you’re the best in the world at the table. It was the Steam version too, the most competitive of Zaccaria’s releases. She was only recently dethroned (and remains #2 as of this writing), but she spent a few years as the champion of champions for this table. Right before we published this review, she put up a new high score on the Legends Pinball leaderboards, and her score on the Legends table is higher than her previous world record, too. Now, on Legends Pinball, there’s only one mode per table that’s always three balls. That’s lame, and I’m not sure why they don’t offer more options, but she’s top five either way. If you don’t think having a platform dedicated entirely to pinball makes that much of a difference, well, Angela is our best player by a mile and that’s all the proof you need. She fully admits that she originally overrated Battle/Combat as a MASTERPIECE partially because it’s the Zaccaria table she played the most. But, she also insists everyone else except Dave underrated it. The rest of us don’t agree. Games of Battle/Combat go slllllowly and all the fun targets in the world aren’t helped by a table with a tempo that’s generously described as “snail-like.”
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 6
Type: Electro-Mechanical – Real Table
Based on “Combat“ by Zaccaria (1977)
Part of Zaccaria Pinball (Consoles/PC)
Vice Family High: Angela “ADV” 5,433,980 (#4 All Time)
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha: GOOD
Angela: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Oscar: GOOD
Jordi: GOOD*
Dave: GREAT*
Scoring Average: 3.33 – Awarded a CLEAN SCORECARD
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC