Tag: nintendo

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.

Black Rose (Pinball FX Table Review)

Black Rose
First Released July, 1992
Zen Build Released December 4, 2018
Main Platform: Pinball FX
Switch Platform: Pinball FX 3
Designed by John Trudeau and Brian Eddy
Conversion by Peter Horvath
Set: Williams Pinball Collection 1 ($23.99)
Links: Internet Pinball Database Listing – Strategy Guide – Pinball FX Wiki
Black Rose is the owner of what is, for my money, the second strangest layout among Williams pins in Pinball FX’s lineup. Space Station’s lack of an Italian Bottom sets it apart as #1, but the race for weirdness is a lot closer than you’d think. At least the rest of Space Station feels like traditional 80s style shot selection, ramps, and objectives. Black Rose is just flat-out bonkers with its sharp-angled ramps and tight squeezes, all packed into a very claustrophobic playfield. If I had never played Black Rose before Pinball FX, I’d have sworn this was a Zen original. It feels more like their modern design than any of the 90s pins in their library.

It was the Pinball Chick staff that was given the task of introducing Black Rose to the lineup to the new Pinball FX. We had a pretty decent pool to choose from, but Black Rose stood out. We enjoyed the task of hyping a table we weren’t necessarily in love with, but found admiration in nonetheless. Hell, Angela had it ranked BAD for Pinball FX3 and Pinball Arcade. At the time, she was still essentially a rookie to pinball. She fully admits now that, with a few years of pinball experience, she’d be more inclined to enjoy Black Rose, but she thinks the outlanes are too punishing for their own good. However, the new Pinball FX build is a little more manageable in that regard, leading to her revising her score. “It’s alright” was her new, unenthused opinion that she insisted not a single word be added to. That’s fair. Let’s face it, Black Rose is a very problematic pin. Horrible scoring balance (the Double Broadside mode is absurd). Little incentive to tour the table. Brutal multiballs that can end in the blink of an eye thanks to the lack of ball save. This isn’t a table for the faint of heart.

Signature Element – The Cannon: Do you know what I love most about the cannon? It’s the rare gimmicky element of the 1990s that doesn’t cause any interference during normal gameplay. You don’t have to shoot around it. You don’t have to factor it in at all when trying to make your shots. It’s wonderful.

On the other hand, I’m finally prepared to raise the GOOD score I awarded it to GREAT, because Black Rose looks and plays great on Pinball FX. The cannon is one of the great key shots of the early 90s, while the whirlpool ramp has grown on me over the years. I didn’t love it before. Now, I’ve come to appreciate how satisfying it is to fully charge its value. Also, in this new build, multiballs don’t feel like they clear each-other out to such an absurd degree as they did in Pinball FX3. Having now put more time into real life Black Rose tables, yea, that doesn’t really happen on a corporeal version. Multiball is much cleaner in real life, and while it’s not 100% there on Pinball FX, this build is more true to how a physical Black Rose shoots. Even with the improvements, Black Rose is still a bizarre and punishing table with unconventional angles and hungry outlanes. Oh and that Walk the Plank video mode can choke on a sea biscuit and die. As much fun as Black Rose is, it will always feel like a prototype for the type of Brian Eddy layout that would dominate the end of the arcade era of pinball. As far as proof of concepts go, it’s a good one, but it’s mostly just a taste of better pins that would happen thanks to it.
Cathy: GREAT (GOOD on Pinball FX3)
Angela: GOOD (BAD on Pinball FX3)
Oscar: GOOD
Jordi: GREAT
Dash: GREAT
Sasha: GREAT
Elias: GREAT (Pinball FX3)
Dave: GREAT (Pinball FX3)
Overall Scoring Average: 3.75 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜
Primary Scoring Average: 3.66 📜CERTIFIED EXCELLENT📜
Pinball FX3 Scoring Average: 3.16 – GOOD
Some review copies were provided in this review, others were paid for.