Tag: Centaur pinball

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.