Cine Star Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

CINE STAR RETRO

A NEW TABLE ADDED TO THE RETRO PACK IN 2025

Matt on Cine Star Retro: The closed-off layout is too easy. It doesn’t use all of the space, the drop targets inexplicably don’t stay down and are worth an increasingly inflated value, and the saucer drops the ball into the drain in simulation. But, this table is actually controllable and fun to shoot. Why not open up the top with another bumper and two more lanes? Then switch the spot targets with the drop targets.

The first of thirteen tables added to the infamous Retro pack in the year 2025 is, for all intents and purposes, shooting school. There’s no outlanes or slingshots, and besides a slightly enlarged drain, no antagonistic elements or angles. The only defensive aspect of the table is that the rails have a tendency to run fast. Hey, schools make kids run, right? But grabbing rebounds in Cine Star Retro is a cinch since you get to set the terms with minimum chaos. So what’s the point of the table? The five drop targets and eight spot targets are set along common angles that makes this an ideal table to quickly teach players both a shooter’s stroke AND conversion shots. Angela, Oscar, and Dash couldn’t get over the lack of stakes, but Cathy and Sasha enjoyed the scoring system’s progressive values of the drop targets and Jordi loved the lack of vacuum outlanes and the uncluttered, wide-open playfield. “What’s not to love?” Jordi said, though Oscar especially was annoyed by the lack of risk/reward. Our biggest knock is an undervalued kickhole that’s not worth the risk, but this wasn’t the disaster Dave predicted when he first saw it.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Table Type: Sharpshooter
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: GOOD –
Angela: BAD (2 out of 5)
Oscar: BAD
Jordi: GREAT – (4 out of 5)
Dave: GOOD
Matt: GOOD –
Dash: BAD
Scoring Average: 2.75 – GOOD
Final Average: 2.66 – OKAY
A Pinball Chick Team 🥶POLARIZING TABLE🥶
Cathy ranks #2 in 5 Ball Simulation (Former Record Holder)
Jordi ranks #3 in 3 Ball Simulation – Post Update Highest Score
Matt ranks #4 in 5 Ball Arcade – Post Update Highest Score
Sasha the Kid Ranks #5 in 5 Ball Arcade

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

Aerobatics Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

This is our first time using Matt’s +/- idea for ratings. They don’t affect scores at all but rather let readers know if it’s closer to the next rating or the rating under it. Originally I was going to post a massive Zaccaria Retro feature but instead, we’re going to release these in a trickle.

And, because the full eight-person team is here, we’re using Olympic style scoring. The highest rating and lowest rating are not factored into the Final Rating.

AEROBATICS RETRO

Dave the Designer on Aerobatics Retro: Shame about the saucers. Aside from those targets and the top pops being a little far down, everything about Aerobatics Retro is in an appropriate place for the time period. It’s a proper ‘retro’ that’s done its homework and deserves props for it. If they adjusted the eject angles, this might be a winner.

We’ve already reviewed the AtGames Legend build of Aerobatics Retro. The updated Steam build benefits from having a variety of physics options (not to mention tables like this were meant to be played with five balls, not three. Someone please get that memo to MagicPixel and AtGames). Also, we all seem to agree that the saucers don’t seem to dump the ball between the flippers as often. Actually, the right saucer never did it once. Oh, the left saucer still did it enough to Angela that she’s still dumping it in THE PITS. (Dave to Angela: “wait a second, aren’t you the one who defends Jack*Bot?”) Actually, it was pretty funny. In four separate first-to-three duels, Angela only won a single game the entire time, but that one game she won, she set the world record for Aerobatics Retro on 5 Ball Arcade. She basically did it the same way Matt got #2 in 3 Ball Arcade, IE the ball fell into the saucers. So they fell ass-backwards into records. The lack of shooting angles and nearly impossible to defend-against slingshots still shoot down this plane, though Oscar and Jordi felt that there’s SOME satisfaction to be had in the chaotic rebounding. “I think three jet shapes and a slightly wider lane on each side to get back to the top would have been a better layout” said Matt. Hard to disagree.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Table Type: Woodrail
Cathy: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: THE PITS
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: BAD+ (2 out of 5)
Jordi: BAD
Dave: BAD
Matt: BAD+
Dash: BAD +
Scoring Average: 1.65 – BAD
Final Average: 1.6 – BAD
🏆Angela ranks #1 in 5 Ball Arcade
🏆Matt ranks #2 in 3 Ball Arcade – Post Update Highest Score