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Marvel Pinball/Pinball FX2/Pinball Arcade/Zen Pinball 2 Thread of Steel Balls
Posts
My life is effectively over.
A Steam release with the FX2 hub would cause me to buy all my tables a third time. But it neeeeds the packaging of FX2 as opposed to Zen Pinball. The whole Zen Pinball/Marvel Pinball packaging on Ps3 is inferior. Plus I want to be able to gift people specific tables at random and get them hooked for life
A quick search and scrolling down says that it's a few months away
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/4671/article/zen-studios-confirms-pc-release-for-pinball-fx-2/
Also, is it just me is or is landing a skillshot in Epic Quest really damn sensitive? I can't seem to get it right 100% of the time (on 360 with RT for a plunger.)
Sorry if this is old, but we have a new page and all...
Can you fill me in on what the major differences are?
While they truly are the same game, FX2 puts all 30plus tables in a hub so you can get to them all quickly, and as you play, it let's you know when your topping your own score or that of your friend in a leaderboard. So if I'm nearing a friend's score, I get a non intrusive pop up message that I'm doing so. Also, your top scores in all the tables you own add up into a Wizard score.
Zen's menus are much more clunky and Zen and Marvel Pinball are separate games on PS3. So Zen's non-marvel tables are in Zen Pinball, and the Marvel tables are in Marvel Pinball.
But I'd say if you have more friends in one console online service over the other, that should take priority.
Even beyond that, the table is very repetitive. Since every 'mission' is slay a monster, you're pretty much relegated to the same 4 shots for 90% of the table's play. (made worse by the super large HP of some enemies, particularly ghosts when they have a habit of resisting damage)
I'm sure I'll 'beat' this one as I already had a game with all but 2 of the monsters slain, but overall I think this one will have less glamor for me than most. I like the satire, but collecting loot isn't my favourite thing.
I've been down to one monster already. Can't hit the dungeon with ANY consistency, though.
I've seen the kickbacks light up in a couple of ways, and it makes me pretty sure that they're random either way (my favourite ... >_>). The first was by levelling up - I got both kickbacks as a reward. The second was by shooting the orbits repeatedly and getting one of them as a travel bonus. Of course, I haven't opened the table sheet to see if there's some consitent way to do it, but given the lack of ... well, 'non-ramp things' on the table, I'm skeptical.
With regards to the skillshot, I can probably manage it about 80% of the time with the right stick. I find it's strangely more about the release than the exact pressure. It's also probably where I got my of my points on my current high score ... start making 3M a skillshot and activate the princess spinner ... Hurray easy 9M. <_<
Speaking of which, I don't like that acquiring the spells are tied into the skill shot. Maybe I'm missing something, but the only way I know to get them besides random rewards is to skip the skill shot -- not just miss it, but deliberately shoot past it. Even more annoying, when I get a random spell, I never know which hole it is unless it is the fire spell. Guess I need to work on memorizing all of them.
I like the table for the most part. My main complaint, as others have said, is that all of the missions are the exact same thing. Would've expected a lot more variety with a table that's based on a continuing progression from game to game. But it definitely recreates the grinding feel of some RPGs!
(For MK7, RE:Mercs, Zen Pinball, Tetris:Axis, Swapnote, SSF4, and DoA!)
I'm the same on the spells, although I know the order (fire, ice, thunder, force, I think? ice and thunder could be reversed), but the problem is that sometimes the kickers knock the ball into a non-adjacent hole, which makes the whole thing feel like a bit of a crapshoot to me anyway ...
Also, am I the only one who finds there's a large lack of voice support on this table? During the multiball, about 1/2 the time it won't announce I've gotten a jackpot, but it's more than happy to tell me when I haven't, which is both confusing and tiresome. "Jackpo- Almost ..." "Jack- Er, no ..."
@Boognish Yep, I totally forgot spells. Mostly because I'm never ever ever shooting at the waterwheel when I'm fighting monsters. Also, I fear that you're right on spell-acquirement. :?
@ArcticLancer I eat skeletons for breakfast.
Love this table though!
I killed everything, including the boss dragon. The dragon netted me 50 million upon slaying, and it had a ton of HP. Of course, you fight it the same way you fight everything else...
I still like it quite a bit, despite the repetitive nature of the quests. There's not a ton "video-pinbally" about this table, save some launching of balls onto the playfield. I'm still puzzling over the specifics of Princess Multiball. Hopefully a trip to the table sheet will clarify things.
Ahahahahahahahahahaha
But the Spider-man table is so pretty . . .
Get a feel for the ball first on whatever table you want, and then I'd actually choose a simpler table, Spider Man has some damn weird missions*.
*Pinball in the 90's and 21st century is no longer about hitting random things and watching a score go up like in the movie Tommy. The lights and screen dictate "missions" that are worth much more points than hitting random things. Each table can be "beaten" by clearing all the missions and usually some final crazy mission that either gives you a ton of points or activates a Wizard Mode worth a ton of points. That is usually the goal of a table.
Look up two important tricks. One is if the ball is hitting a flipper at a high enough speed, you can watch it bounce to the opposite flipper at a 90 degree angle by not flipping anything. The other is a bangback. On Zen Pinball (ps3) when the ball falls in a side gutter you can press down on the d-pad to make it bounce out of the drain and right into a flipper. In FX2, you press Up+direction ball is rolling.
Auburn, first just have fun and try not to worry about score. Second, you're doing it right. Just playing the table for a while helps to figure out what's going on and to learn the mechanics of pinball. A good rule of thumb is to look for lights, typically when a mission or other task is started, lights point to where you need to send the ball.
PSN ID is "Morningstar_PA"
Wowza, what score you on? I hit 154mil tonight but I must surely still be way behind, especially if you killed the boss for 50mil, I can't yet get to him.
Game ended at 586 million, which was good enough to place in the top 60 (at least at the time - I haven't checked in a day or two).
Bat mode tip: just keep hitting the forest/bumpers, if you can. Each bumper hit adds 1 second to the clock, and every kickout adds another 50K to your bat score. You'll hit 1 million per kickback with plenty of time left on the clock, and more time accruing every shot.
I still like it. Yes, it's grindy, and yes, it's kind of easy. But it's not grindy like Paranormal, where you have to do the same thing Every. Single. Time. to get a decent score. It's kind of like Ms. Splosion Man in the way you can build up some great momentum and combo shots (shield/sword/shield/sword/dodge/sword/etc.), and I find that extremely satisfying.
Other than Epic Quest, I've been going back to Thor, because apparently I hate my eyes.
Oddly, my biggest complaints about Thor? 1) Ymir's name is misspelled in the first Ymir mission, and 2) Thor refers to Loki as a "spineless jackal." Now, I'm not so well versed on my Norse mythology, but do they even have jackals?
That score is amazing dude, well played.
Ta for the tips too!
(that is, one of my lowest ranking scores on the leaderboard for each table)
I would say a decent score is like, 500-700 Million, maybe?
Christ.
I'm not going to tell you what my score is.
And for some odd reason Zen intentionally changed the way nudging the table works on 360. They removed Nudge Down. They told me in an email was that this was to make it more realistic. (Do real-life players yank the table toward them?) On ps3, Nudge Down is basically a free intstant bangback. 360 players must press diagonally up + direction ball is rolling. In that sense, 360 has the harder game, by a sliver.
My college campus burger joint has a nice arcade with Stern's Soprano's table. I have a grudge against Stern but I'll give it a shot because they're the only company trying in the 21st century.
Practice practice practice, and don't worry about score, at all until you get familiar with the mechanics of the table. Just have fun.
That said, what in particular is bugging you right now?
I've really just been playing the Spiderman table, but I have a hard time hitting one particular ramp. The left one, that leads up to the Doc Oc hole. I don't know why, but I hit it maybe 20% of the time I try for it. I can't find a good view I like either.
Also, I don't understand the "bump the table" mechanic at all.
As for your ramp issues, I'll echo Doctor Arch and say practice (x3). And honestly? Hitting things on demand is hard. There will be games where I'll have hit a certain ramp dozens of times and then suddenly can't hit it to save my life.
Do the Zen/Marvel tables on PS3 have Operator's Mode? That's an option on the 360 version that does things like slow down time and such. It's something else to explore.
Oh, and don't let ArcticLancer and his astronomical scores get you down. He's a freak of nature. But he's our freak. <3 <3 <3
All tables on all consoles have an Operator's Mode, but Operator's Mode and Slo Mo are two different features.
Slo mo, when turned on in options, is assigned to a button of your choice, and when you press it, slo mo turns on, and you lose leaderboard eligibility. If you're going to score, don't risk your hand slipping and turn it off.
Operator's Mode messes with the dot matrix screen, slant of the table and other weird things. Changing non-cosmetic options also make you ineligible, so I never mess with it.