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Marvel Pinball/Pinball FX2/Pinball Arcade/Zen Pinball 2 Thread of Steel Balls
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The first and easiest one is the multiplier orbit. Light it up to 10x, then (supposedly) hit it again (sometimes a little more than that) and it'll ready the extra ball.
The other (as best I can verify it) is through the standard ramp combo. Ms. Splosion Man is a little weird in how LONG you have to continue the combo to get the bonuses out of it, BUT, they pay off HUGE. Shoot maybe 10 or 15 ramps in a row to light the extra ball. Again, sometimes this doesn't seem to work right away for me, so maybe there's a hidden condition, but going for it eventually does seem to activate it anyway (and not through Surprise!).
As an added bonus, the ramp combos will eventually give you a 10M bonus, and every subsequent hit is another 1M, so it's a pretty good way to rack up some points.
The kicker combos also have some easy large numbers, giving you 2, 4, and 10M.
Aim high, Cello! I wanna see you SOAR! ^_^
I posted a strategy guide for the table on the fx 2 forum - http://forum.zenstudios.com/showthread.php?t=3430
In this thread all the extra balls, combos, kicker combos etc. are also discussed. Getting 5 of the extra balls are relatively easy to get, but the last one is a bugger.
In next week a table guide should come out on the www.pinballfx.com web-site. Edit: Here is the link to the guide - http://bit.ly/oic5mN
Anyway, Zen had announced 2 weeks ago that Sorcerer's Lair should be out tomorrow, so, just go for it then. I'm not super-excited for it, but I'm sure I will get it.
[Edit]
Not that anyone is reading this, but it's actually NEXT week it comes out, so yeah, 7 days and a new table for all. Had to correct that.
Sorcerer's Lair is out today on the 360. Downloading now.
Anyway, Sorcerer's Lair... yeah. This is the first table in a long time that I haven't downloaded after the in-trial prompt. Played the trial twice, and it's... OK? Really starting to see a lot of recycled elements (because yep, it's pinball), but between the (apparently) low-scoring nature of the table and the "blink-to-another-existence" mini-table challenge I stumbled onto it's rubbing me the wrong way.
Unless I hear a lot of critical love for it here, I think I'm passing on it.
The table itself is fine. You're right that it's nothing special, but it has a very nice flow to it (one of the main methods of traversing and scoring on the table is by continuing an assorted series of ramp shots through the constantly rotating turrets). The general cut-away nature of the table isn't exactly good, but the whole feel of the table is still hugely better than, say, Fantastic Four. The voice queues of the children are also very good, and somehow that draws me in. Guess I'm a sucker.
On the downside, there are a huge number of missions, and at least one piece of obsidian (the things you need to get the end mode, I'm guessing) is provided at random, so it's kind of a bitch there. I also find the ramps are terrible about rejecting the ball for no reason, the spinner is bad about killing ball momentum, and it feels like it has very Mars-like physics in that sometimes the ball just has a dull thud against a wall and suddenly stops there, then falls instead of bouncing around (subsequently, this phenomenon is one of the ones I hate most in PBFX2 because it just genuinely feels like you're getting cheated when it screws something up).
But to end on a better note, I still think it's a considerable table (and it's not like they're expensive enough they're hard to justify ...). The bumpers do something (this is always a plus for me as bumpers that just eat time at 1k points a pop are annoying as fuck), the slingshots have an interesting mechanic to them along with awesome animation, and it tends to be these little touches that separate the tables for me.
I'll get to play it some more tonight and tomorrow and report if I have any major mood swings one way or the other.
In other pinball news, according to the Zen Studios forums, there will be a free Halloween surprise soon, emphasis on the word "free." Some people are speculating that it's going to be a completely new free table, others are speculating that it's going to be Paranormal.
If it is Paranormal, that means there is still an unspecified new table coming out before the end of the year, not to mention the new Marvel Vengeance & Virtue 4-pack.
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3DS Pinball FX has me really excited. Two tables I haven't played before, possible DLC, and portable?! I hope it gets here soon. I'm renting the Williams Collection for 3DS, and the 3D is fantastic for pinball. That one suffers from framerate issues when in 3D, but I'm hoping Zen doesn't have the same problem.
(For MK7, RE:Mercs, Zen Pinball, Tetris:Axis, Swapnote, SSF4, and DoA!)
http://www.marvelpinball.com/
I'll admit to being happy about this, as I had desired an X-Men table, but also expected it never to come about after Wolverine having his own. Glad that Zen can still surprise and enthrall me. ^_^
Good that you're still on the lurk Boognish. I raised you one on Sorcerer's Lair. =P
Also, can I just say that when you're sitting in the 1.7 billion area, it's genuinely depressing to be behind the next guy on the leaderboard by less than 4 million. <_<
http://majornelson.com/2011/10/18/coming-soon-to-the-xbox-live-marketplace-12/
SWTOR: Allanna (Shadowlands) / TSW: Sara-Luna
Nice. Do we know if you have to own the core pack or anything? Or is this just a free table for anyone that wants it?
Expect a good deal of trial and error, friends.
Also, I had to download this directly through the marketplace, not from in-game. If you don't see it on the menu check game add-ons for the full version.
Will play later.
Also, booted up FX2 for the first time in a while the other day and that Avatar thing finally unlocked!
So well done to whoever has played so well while I've been away!
What the heck is a "reverse scoop" and where will I find it on the Paranormal table? The Jersey Devil event is killing me.
So yeah I downloaded and tried out Paranormal, it's pretty damn fun.
I did notice the ball physics seems a bit wonky and more than once the ball activated a feature it was not suppose too while I kept playing.
Anyways, is there any overall judgement on what's the best one or two tables to get?
Coming out "early 2012."
In case you didn't realize it, these are the Williams Pinball Classics guys.
The Marvel 4-pack is still the best route IMO. All of the tables feel different, play different, and are fantastic. The regular PBFX2 core set is alright, but it's sort of a taste thing. I only really like Rome and Biolab, and despise Pasha despite it being the most popular table of the set.
For solo tables, Ms. Splosion Man is probably the best 1-off right now.
Captain America is harder than it should be sometimes and there are buggy parts of the table that make it frustrating (it's a great table, but I think you should play others first).
DocArch likes Mars a lot, I detest it. You might want to try it, but I think it's slow, repetitive, and not a very interesting table.
Summoner's Lair isn't bad. It has a lot of similar aspects to some other tables, but if you haven't played them then it's a good, polished, accessible table.
Here's a slightly updated list of my ranking the older tables:
I seem to be acquiring free balls like candy. I must have lost 8 so far in my current game, and I'm *still* on ball 1 with at least 1 extra behind it ...
Can I ... just lose already?
Added WTFness:
I've activated wizard mode twice so far (It is worth very little, sadly, unless you play your shit VERY well), and I still haven't gotten the 5G achievement. Heh.
Going to play some NM for Hallowe'en!
I managed to hit 400 million, then lost all sense of concentration and drained 5 balls in 5 minutes. Maybe I'll go back to it. Maybe not.
@ArcticLancer Kudos on the Paranormal score. When you set it last week, I saw you were third on the leaderboards. Now it's 15th, but still.
@Cade I'll echo the sentiments on the Zen Pinball 2 4 pack and the Marvel 4 pack. If you're really only in the market for solo tables, you can't go wrong with Ms. Splosion Man, Excalibur, or Earth Defense.
Thanks, Cello. The funny thing is, I know I only ever hit 3rd because everyone who is going to put up a monsterous score was (and some probably are) still playing. It's just too easy to keep balls in play on that table, and I agree, the scoring mechanisms are just grinds. It's really too bad because a lot of the layout of the table otherwise is actually quite fascinating and unique compared to most of the others these days.
And if it makes you feel any better, I also lost 4 of my extra ball 3 balls in about 10 minutes at one point, after having not lost one for 3 hours. Man that sucked.
I watched Event Horizon. It goes from Sci Fi to "oh pissing blimey there's JAM coming out of the walls!"
If you don't feel like just grinding one of the multiballs you can also vary between the four mutliballs but still focus on building up those jackpots as often as you can. I'm not 100% sure, but during the Wizard cube I think you get a combination jackpot for all multiball jackpots each time you get a jackpot. So, if you just keep on building your jackpots... you can end up getting a nice score without purely just grinding one multiball.
If you want to grind a multiball I would now suggest do the Dobbleganger multiball rather than levitation... you can much more controlled up the jackpot value and you can very quickly score jackpots and Super jackpots.
Quite the unexpected entry, that one. May I say though, the aesthetic of that table is excellent. I could see myself sinking a lot of time into this one.
Got to ask is the Street Fighter 2 table based on the old real pinball machine or a new one entirely.
It's not the original. Zen bootstraps their own, unique tables.
And I have no idea who Moon Knight is.
Basically ... He's a former mercenary, got beat up by his boss because he disagreed with something, then was saved by some Egyptian moon god on the premise he would become his avatar on Earth. And so Moon Knight was born, and must beat up bad guys to appease his savior.
... Yep.
I tried out the Street Fighter board via trial, bah what a disappointment. Even the artwork is horrid.
Oddly enough I might have convinced a family member to get a 360 just for the pinball games based on them seeing me play. Go figure.
I repurchased all my Zen tables and traded in my 360 for one with HDMI just so I could play them on 360 with FX2's features.
That's how much nicer FX2 is than Zen.
For anyone who has been interested and never gotten in, grab the Marvel pack now. It's easily worth that small fee.
Fuck yeah, I've been waiting for this.