Creature From the Black Lagoon
aka Creech
First Released December, 1992
Zen Build Released October 29, 2019
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Pinball FX 3
Designed by a different sort of creature.
Conversion by Zoltan Vari
Set: Universal Monster Pack ($6.99)
Link to Strategy Guide
When I think of Creature From the Black Lagoon, I think of two things. I think of the 50s drive-in theme, one of THE great themes of the DMD era. I also think “the table where the ball flies around like a hockey puck.” It’s one of the era’s most popular tables, though our ratings don’t reflect that at all. With the exception of my father, who really likes Creech, we all agree that it’s a middle-of-the-pack table. So why is this such a famous pin? It can’t just be a cheap hologram sticker, can it? Nah. I think the theme plays the largest role in the table’s legacy. It’s so unexpected, too. You hear the name “Creature from The Black Lagoon” and you perhaps imagine a macabre Addams-like “chaotic wickedness” affair. Instead, the theme is date night in 1959, watching the Universal classic Creature from the Black Lagoon at a drive-in. Presumably this table would have happened even if they hadn’t gotten the license from Universal under a generic name like “Drive-In” or “Silver Screen” or something along those lines. The movie is completely arbitrary. It could have been any film, because the film isn’t the point. It’s everything around the viewing of that film, and it’s a wonderful premise. I just wish the gameplay was better.
Creature’s shot selection, at least individually, is well done. There’s really only five main shots, but each is satisfying enough. The most notable, and perhaps the most famous cherry bomb shot of the era, is the straight-up-the-middle lane known as the MOVE YOUR CAR shot. Cleanly accessible with either flipper and essential to both the 80M-max MOVE YOUR CAR hurry-up and for charging-up the high-paying super jackpot, it’s one of the better switch-hitters in pinball. It even has the table’s extra ball light mapped to it. Both ramps are well-placed, but it’s the left ramp especially that’s deceptively challenging. It was the perfect shot to attach the oh so tempting multiball scoring multiplier to. Trust me, it needed it, because the good stuff is already over.
Creech’s most important shot, the aforementioned MOVE YOUR CAR shot, will reliably feed the right flipper every single time. When the ball finally clears the bumpers, it has plenty of run-off to lose whatever momentum it has before falling gently to the right flipper. That flipper just so happens to have clean access to both the Snack Bar and to MOVE YOUR CAR. The second is the most important, because it creates the safest, lowest-risk complete circuit in DMD pinball. If one were to play at VERY conservative pace and had the luck of the Creature hiding in the Snack Bar shot during the two-ball multiball, you can grind-out a respectable score without ever slapping a single high risk shot. I put a 5.7 billion point game in the One Ball challenge. 5.6 billion of that was shooting just those two shots, all while trapping the second ball with the left flipper.
That two-shot circuit is sort of indicative of a much broader problem: all the shots are good by themselves, but they just never flow harmoniously together. There’s absolutely no rhythm to Creech, and if you feel that’s important to pinball, chances are you’ll quickly lose interest in it. That happened with Sasha. My niece thought the table was okay at first, but the more she played it, the more she grew bored with its repetitive modes and a pace that can be described as leisurely. Our resident expert, professional designer Dave Sanders, calls Creature from the Black Lagoon “boring.” Even though I’m voting GOOD, I can also see how someone might not like it. Creech is a table that’s less than the sum of its parts, even if a couple of those shots are very well done. I normally don’t like toe shots, and Creech has two of them. I should hate that, but the attached stakes and relatively sparse required usage make them worth shooting. And yet, all shots exist as an island unto themselves, with little to no flow to any other shot. That’s probably why the ramp modes are based on repeating one shot, not consecutive shots. The table was built to accommodate a set-shot style, and not quick combo shooting.
And yet, it’s popular. Really popular. I think it’s the simplicity of the game design combined with an all-time great theme. People LIKE Creech. People you wouldn’t expect. It’s especially weird that Oscar gave Black Lagoon the highest score of all of us. He claims to cherish scoring balance and famously hates Theatre of Magic on the grounds of its scoresheet. Oh, delicious irony, because Theatre’s scoresheet was drafted by none other than Jeff Johnson, whose first table was.. Creature from the Black Lagoon. ♫ IT’S THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!! ♫ Dad justifies his rating of GREAT for Creech because of the shot selection. “How are we rating a table we all agree is made mostly of enjoyable shots so low?” Well, because we actually don’t agree on it. Jordi and I are sort of on the same page as Dad in terms of enjoying the shots themselves, and I personally like the strange glide the ball has.
Meanwhile, Angela is in total disagreement on the shots being good at all, even on their own. Dave agrees with her, and neither are entirely sure what we, or anyone, sees in Black Lagoon. Both think it’s a fundamentally unexciting pin. And you know what? They’re not wrong even if I still find it to be okay. What EVERYONE agreed on is that the wide flipper gap is cruelty for cruelty’s sake and that the scoring balance is just awful. The jackpots and super jackpots are so overvalued that they almost negate everything else, including a fully-charged MOVE YOUR CAR. Since the sequence that gets you the jackpots has a random one in three chance of being made entirely out of low-risk shots, that’s not cool. And, we all agree that Creech has no cadence to it. We’ve forgotten who coined the phrase “Anti-Flow” to describe Creature, but it still fits. The highlight of this review was the debate we had amongst ourselves over its value and quality. Say what you will about Creature from the Black Lagoon, but few tables invoke a more lively discussion among pinball fans quite like it does. Perhaps that’s why it’s become the legend that it is!
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Angela: BAD (2 out of 5)
Oscar: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Dash: BAD (2 out of 5)
Elias: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Dave: BAD (2 out of 5)
SASHA: BAD (2 out of 5)
Scoring Average: 2.65 – OKAY AT BEST
❄️POLARIZING TABLE❄️
N00b Factor: Creech has easy to learn shots with modes that typically require only one shot be repeated until time runs out. The most difficult aspect comes from its wide flipper gap, but because the shots are simple and easy to master, this might be more ideal for learning how to work with a bigger flipper gap than, say, Fish Tales. Creech’s multiball requires a relatively complex sequence of shots to build towards the super jackpot.
Verdict: A solid next-step-up for n00bs ready to learn set-shooting and working with a larger drain.
VICE VERSUS
Like our main review, Creech’s dueling status is polarizing. One aspect we disagreed on was how fun it is to watch others when it’s not your turn, which might be the most important element of a good competitive table. Angela and Sasha both agreed the low-risk shots make this a snooze to watch. Well, unless their sister/aunt can’t hit a single shot to save her life, since they were cackling their malicious little heads off while I missed every toe shot for an extended run of three long balls. On the other hand, I enjoy watching Creech because this is a table that really puts modern pinball fundamentals to the test, and the rejection-heavy left ramp generates plenty of OOOHs and AHHHs from on-lookers. It’s certainly not the best game for exciting close matches. Creech is a streaky table where you tend to be either on or off, and so most games end in blowouts. We had plenty of those during this duel, including two world records that my father wasn’t here to see.
GAME ONE – CLASSIC
Cathy: 547,147,700
Angela: 1,681,814,880
Sasha: 395,425,380
WINNER: Angela (1)
GAME TWO – PRO
Angela: 134,290,960
Sasha: 87,350,780
Cathy: 78,466,790
WINNER: Angela (2)
GAME THREE – ARCADE
Sasha: 442,814,210
Cathy: 3,926,036,350 (#7 All-Time)
Angela: 702,142,860
WINNER: Cathy (1)
GAME FOUR – 200 FLIPS CHALLENGE
Cathy: 328,707,690
Angela: 455,397,650
Sasha: 1,882,396,590 (New Xbox World Record)
WINNER – NEW XBOX WORLD CHAMPION: Sasha (1)
GAME FIVE – ONE BALL – BEST OF THREE BALLS
Angela: 137,592,770, 108,977,340, 173,283,090
Sasha: 276,353,560, 27,465,320, 150,357,610
Cathy: 166,985,020, 150,850,460, 5,758,931,220 (New Xbox World Record)
WINNER – NEW XBOX WORLD CHAMPION: Cathy (2)
GAME SIX – FIVE MINUTE CHALLENGE
Sasha: 183,527,470
Cathy: 261,724,380
Angela: 351,738,530 (#25 All-Time)
WINNER: Angela (3)
GAME SEVEN – DISTANCE CHALLENGE
Cathy: 301,176,090
Angela: 500,864,000 (#8 All-Time)
Sasha: 387,835,280
SERIES WINNER: Angela 4 – 2 – 1
The Pinball Chick 
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