Tag: The Pinball Arcade Switch

Bram Stoker’s Dracula for The Pinball Arcade on Nintendo Switch (Table Review)

The Pinball Arcade was released on Nintendo Switch on April 6, 2018, then immediately delisted in under two hours and modified to remove all the Bally/Williams pins. Years after this happened, The Pinball Chick was given seven separate review codes that gave us these tables. These are among the rarest content in the entire history of Nintendo consoles, and it’s all largely undocumented. That’s why we’re providing these reviews. All media presented in these Pinball Arcade for Switch reviews we release to all content creators and websites for use in any content you make. All we ask is that you link to ThePinballChick.com.

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

Thoughts of a Designer with Dave Sanders: “I’ve never really got the love some people have for this one. Hated it on release for its putrid colours, rough scrappy sound and those damn lightning flippers. Looking at it now, it just seems… old. Not ‘gothic atmosphere’ old though there’s plenty of that, but old-fashioned for April 1993. Fewer moving parts than Barry Oursler’s Doctor Who or even Hurricane. The one moving part it does deserve big props for is the mist ball magnet, but that’s part of the other problem; the limited content outside of the three multiballs is pure fluff, and the fumbled early version of stacking hasn’t twigged yet that doing so with close to an entire game is a bad idea. Stack all three multiballs once, and you never need to touch it ever again (didn’t they learn anything from Bride Of One Shot’s Billionaire Club?). It’s probably significant that Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Twilight Zone came out in the same month; the development bloat of the latter is legendary, it definitely seems like something else had to give, and BSD drew the short straw.”

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is notorious for its lightning flippers, but honestly, the Switch version is right up there with the Arcooda build in being a kinder, gentler prince of darkness. But, there’s no need to feel any sense of FOMO, because Dracula is completely, totally, utterly broken. From teleporting balls to balls clipping through solid objects to the auto-plunge failing to get the ball on the table to live balls and the floating mist ball trading places, this thing kept finding new ways to fail to work as a simulation of a real machine. As big of fans as everyone (but Cathy) is of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, TPA never quite worked the bugs out on any platform, but this version specifically is really bad. Literally every game that didn’t have three house balls (which, hey, it’s Dracula so it happens) had some catastrophic, game-wrecking (if not outright game-ending) glitch. How bad can it get? Here’s the game saying the ball was lost when it was still live and in play.

Dracula could have scored a 3.75 and a Certificate of Excellence with Cathy being the lone GOOD vote and the rest voting GREAT. But, if you think you missed out on the only version of Dracula on Switch, well, you didn’t. We highly anticipate this will eventually find its way to Pinball FX, but we don’t expect much from it. We’re excited for a LOT of tables to debut on FX, but with Dracula, we’re honestly pretty skeptical about it. Pinball FX isn’t exactly known for having an effective nudge or backhand, tactics that are absolutely essential for playing Dracula at a high level. Playing the TPA build on Switch reminded us of that, especially with a drain that a coffin could fit between. Terminator 2 will play great on Zen’s engine. Johnny Mnemonic will. Dirty Harry will. But Dracula? We imagine it’ll be about as bad as Keanu’s acting in the film it’s based on.
DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Dot Matrix Display
Based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Williams (1993)
Designers: Barry Oursler & Mark Sprenger
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 1,158,456,100 totally legitimately earned points, honest to goodness. (Had it been anything near a top 100 score, she would have quit-out so not to wreck the leaderboard)
Declared OUT OF ORDER by The Pinball Chick Team

Black Knight for The Pinball Arcade: The Delisted Nintendo Switch Version (Table Review)

The Pinball Arcade was released on Nintendo Switch on April 6, 2018, then immediately delisted in under two hours and modified to remove all the Bally/Williams pins. Years after this happened, The Pinball Chick was given seven separate review codes that gave us these tables. These are among the rarest content in the entire history of Nintendo consoles, and it’s all largely undocumented. That’s why we’re providing these reviews. All media presented in these Pinball Arcade for Switch reviews we release to all content creators and websites for use in any content you make. All we ask is that you link to ThePinballChick.com.

BLACK KNIGHT

Like the Arcooda build of Black Knight, you cannot play the Switch version in four players because the game will end on the third ball the first time a player loses a ball to the outlane. In real life, there’s bonus time, but they used some kind of general coding and didn’t account for that. So, games of Black Knight have to be played one at a time. A crying shame, because it’s not exactly one of those tables that makes for a great spectator experience.

Black Knight and Firepower were the two tables that were in the Vice Household before Cathy was even born, so they both hold special places in our hearts. Well, Cathy and Oscar’s, at least. Angela and Sasha, soon to be ages 15 and 10 respectively, really don’t “get” Firepower, which is Oscar’s favorite table ever and one that Cathy admits her fandom of is something resembling Stockholm Syndrome. But, they “get” Black Knight. Sasha especially is a big fan who credits it with improving her multiball game. After playing it, she wished that more multiball tables downplayed jackpots in favor of a general multiplier based on how many balls are active. It really helps that Black Knight is one of the great juggling multiball tables, something that TPA’s floaty physics complement perfectly. It’s like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time and takes LOTS of practice, but there are so many options for ball management that flow seamlessly no matter what option you use. That type of flexibility is the secret sauce that’s often missing on modern multiball-centric tables.

I was certain this excellent build of Black Knight would earn a perfect score, but it didn’t thanks to the cold-hearted Angela. She’s adopted. Angela thinks getting multiball is too easy which is why she’s not sold on this being a MASTERPIECE, real or digital. She thinks that Black Knight, important as it is to pinball history, is actually not completely timeless and lacks signature shots. “It relied on the eye-catching split-level layout to lure quarters, then gave players a smooth-shooter to keep them there. That premise was never going to remain timeless. If not for excellent bottom floor target and ramp placement, I don’t think Black Knight would even be considered a good table. I think the upper floor is too easy and too forgettable.”

Dave, our resident designer and pinball expert doesn’t necessarily disagree with Angela’s point about timelessness, but he can explain why Black Knight had to be the polar opposite of Firepower to stand out in an increasingly crowded field. “The split-level is the most innovative and eye-catching ‘new’ element about Black Knight, but isn’t in fact the most ‘important’. It’s how that affects the multiball. Firepower comes out at the start of 1980 (February), Black Knight at the end of 1980 (December). Steve Ritchie designs both, and he knows damn well the moment Firepower comes out, everyone’s going to jump on the idea. Williams can patent the lane change but they can’t patent the multiball, since it was used before in EMs. So every game afterwards has to up the multiball ante by introducing another exciting new thing to keep it fresh and stay one step ahead of the competition and leave them all playing catch-up. Xenon and Flight 2000 take their inspiration from the lengthier stage-based Firepower one. Black Knight therefore HAS to make multiball more immediate, with the split-level making up the real challenge.” No matter our stance, we all salute Black Knight. It’s one of the all-time greats and possibly the greatest multiball trainer of all-time.

DELISTED
Type: Solid State – Numeric Display
Based on Black Knight by Williams (1980)
Designer: Steve Ritchie
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 2,976,330
Cathy: MASTERPIECE
Sasha The Kid: MASTERPIECE
Angela: GREAT
Oscar: MASTERPIECE
Scoring Average: 4.75 – The Pinball Chick Pantheon of Digital Pinball Inductee