Tag: Battle Retro

Combat Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

COMBAT RETRO

Matt on Combat Retro: The flipper gap is still just a bit too wide, even with a helpful center post, making play for the targets and saucer too dangerous. Escaping to the safety of the bumper area makes building a good score a bit of a luck box. It might make more sense to be sinking ships like in battleship, so what about some drop targets in the lower playfield, and the saucer can increase the value of each hit?

Well, at least Combat Retro has one thing going for it: it joins tables such as Theatre of Magic and Zen Studios’ Knight Rider table in that a friendly debate in the Vice Household on its merits and flaws turned into a shouting match. This is one of the other retro tables we already have a review up for, though it’s called “Battle Retro” on AtGames. Our thoughts haven’t really changed all that much. As noted above, this table triggered a fairly heated argument between Angela and Oscar, specifically related to the spot targets. First off, don’t listen to the table art itself. The spot targets say, quote with uppercase/lowercase, “10 points OR 100 points when all red lamp lit.” Well, it’s just a lie. They don’t all have to be lit. You get 100 points for converting any shot on a spot target when the lamp is lit, period, and the rule sheet provided in the game’s menu gets it correct. It’s actually hilarious that they updated the artwork but left the incorrect word bubble on the playfield. As for the argument, Angela says that two bumps of the top bumper gives you the same amount as a spot target, which takes two shots: one to light it, and one to hit it, which also turns off the light. There’s no bonus for lighting all four. Oscar insists he’s not overrating this and that the spot targets work because you can aim at them and don’t have to rely on chaos to score points. Sasha The Kid chimed in that it was still chaos due to the slingshots guarding the flippers, which are VERY bouncy and very dangerous due to a wide flipper gap with a fairly unreliable post. Oscar again said that you can use nudging to prevent the slings from firing. Cathy and Jordi thought there were too many satisfying angles to go BAD while Dave, Angela, Matt and Sasha think Combat Retro’s gap is too big and too bouncy for its own good. Once upon a time, this was the second best table in the Retro Pack by scoring average. Times have changed, but at least Combat Retro remains interesting enough to trigger a shouting match.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Table Type: Woodrail
Model: Zaccaria EM
Reworking of World Champ (1957 Gottlieb)
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD+
Oscar: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD+
Dave: GOOD
Matt: BAD+
Dash: BAD
Scoring Average: 2.75
Final Average: 2.66 – OKAY
A Pinball Chick Team 🥶Polarizing Table🥶
🏆Cathy ranks #3 in Time Loop Mode
🏆Jordi ranks #6 in Time Loop Mode

Battle Retro (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

BATTLE RETRO
AKA COMBAT RETRO

We’re typically in agreement that most tables that were originally from the infamous Zaccaria Retro Pack are garbage from a thankfully bygone era. With that said, the table formerly known as Combat Retro and now known as Battle Retro (because “Combat” is more famous as an Atari game) is technically the second best among those twenty-seven pins. It earned that thanks to an average rating of a whopping 2.66 out of 5, earning it an overall title of OKAY. Fun fact: with the exception of the highlight of that set, the genuinely awesome Mystic Star Retro, Battle Retro is the only table that earned even a single GREAT vote. That would be from Oscar, who thinks the AtGames version is even better than the video game one. “Having an actual table to physically nudge will help all the retro pins to some degree, but if they’re quality tables, it’ll really help them. Battle might be THE table everyone new to playing on an AtGames machine should use to practice nudging a physical table instead of wiggling an analog stick. Play this early, and get a feel for how hard you can and can’t nudge. Battle is perfect for it because it’s a key to high scores, but also because games go so quickly and the scoring is low. You won’t ruin a long game by overdoing it and TILTing. The world record probably took around five minutes. I can’t give it a MASTERPIECE because lucky bounces off the bumpers factors too much into the final score. But if you want to show off one old-timey 1950’s pin, show off Battle.” Sasha, Angela, and Dave all consider everything positive Oscar said to actually be a negative. It is a luck based table. Not entirely, but enough that you need a lot of it. If that’s not for you, stick to the EMs and Solid States in Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1, because Battle Retro is almost as good as the Retro tables get.
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1
Type: Electro-Mechanical – Rebuild
Design DNA: World Champ by Gottlieb (1957)
Part of Zaccaria Pinball (Console/PC)
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 4,380
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD*
Dave: BAD*
Scoring Average: 2.66 – OKAY – 🥶POLARIZING TABLE🥶
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC