While I love their games, I feel Zen needs to manage their development time/press releases better. Here we are in July, and they announced last year that Pinball FX 2 was getting Paranormal. They also did the same thing with both Zen Pinball THD (their pinball game for Android phones) and said it would be out in late May, early June, only to have it pushed back to September, and with the original release of Pinball FX 2.
I also just checked the OP and realized that I will have to re-do it to work with the new forum code as the youtube videos no longer show up. As I haven't figured out yet how to do it on my own, I'll have to look into this later today.
While I love their games, I feel Zen needs to manage their development time/press releases better. Here we are in July, and they announced last year that Pinball FX 2 was getting Paranormal. They also did the same thing with both Zen Pinball THD (their pinball game for Android phones) and said it would be out in late May, early June, only to have it pushed back to September, and with the original release of Pinball FX 2.
It's certainly annoying.
I will buy 'droid tables too.
All of them.
Over and over.
Yeah, Facebook is the only way I hear anything from Zen.
Alright ArcticLancer: You going to repeat that BILLION-PLUS score you're sitting on? :P
I forget when I set my 1.899 billion, but I can tell you I was severely depressed I didn't break 2B. It was any number of easy shots away, and I just choked it.
Should have done a lot better today as well. Was acing missions, but I kept getting the most retarded ball returns whenever I activated the final mission. Closed out with just over 1B. To anyone curious, the table is really all about the clone ball final mode. It's based on your combined success on all the 4 normal missions, but on the low scale you'll still get 4M per ramp/orbit/target. I had it up to 10M today and did absolutely nothing with it. Probably one of the hardest multiballs to keep them in play as well, so there's an annoying trade there ...
Good luck to everyone. I won't be in the top 3, but maybe I'll random. =P
(For comparison, the top scores on the PSN tourney were all over 300B, the winner having 668B or so)
Arctic, how long does a session take for you to reach that score?
Switch Friend Code: SW-6732-9515-9697
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Depends on the table. That run on Spider-Man was maybe an hour and a half? My high score on Blade and Captain America both took a bit over 2 hours. My best score on Wolverine was probably 20 minutes. =P
But yeah ... It sort of depends on how easy it is to do what I *want* to do. There's a few things on each table that can slow me up, like the Jameson mission on Spider-Man (hard to hit that ramp consistently), the specific ramp missions in Blade (again, hard to hit consistently), the left drop-hole on Captain America ... In contrast, I can do most of Biolab pretty easy up until the final mode, and that's generally only weird because of the magnet screwing with everything.
At some indeterminate point in the last month or so, a new table came out (the slowly flashing "Downloadable Content" light is the most pleasantly subtle DLC upsell in any game, by the way) and it's called Sorcerer's Lair. It's got kind of a kids-lost-in-the-haunted-woods theme to it and some nice mechanical touches like a whirlwind spinner that pops up into a combination spiral ramp and sink hole.
What I'm not so sure I like about it is the completely incongruous mini-playfield. The aforementioned sink hole will (with the right prerequisites) take the ball, the screen will fade to black, and fade in a playfield with no context, as if the table had suddenly blindfolded the player and whisked them off to a secret room containing this spider-themed mini-table. I know this is the brave new world of video pinball and all, but it just feels a bit too far removed from what these games are ostensibly simulating.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Hurray, I beat Mars last night. Now I never need to play that table again!
As a mention, I think it's the scoring on that table that makes me hate it. Very, very little on the table gives you points worth a damn. Bumpers do nothing, no ramp combos, targets aren't interesting. The L1 missions all dole out an average of 5M, which is something I guess ... The L2 missions average 20M, which dwarfs it. The final mission doles out 100M for completion, which is pretty much doubling what you'll have earned on the way. BUT ... some of those missions can just get you hung up SO LONG because of the slow nature of the table. Aaaaaaaaaagonizing. =_=
Hurray, I beat Mars last night. Now I never need to play that table again!
As a mention, I think it's the scoring on that table that makes me hate it. Very, very little on the table gives you points worth a damn. Bumpers do nothing, no ramp combos, targets aren't interesting. The L1 missions all dole out an average of 5M, which is something I guess ... The L2 missions average 20M, which dwarfs it. The final mission doles out 100M for completion, which is pretty much doubling what you'll have earned on the way. BUT ... some of those missions can just get you hung up SO LONG because of the slow nature of the table. Aaaaaaaaaagonizing. =_=
You beat tables? Of course you do.
I wish I could beat tables. There's always some mission that requires a shot I can't do. I wish practice mode had an angle line, as well as slo mo, because not even slo mo can help me do some of these shots. Mars will always be my favorite table though.
Is this thread also about Zen Pinball on PS3?
At some indeterminate point in the last month or so, a new table came out (the slowly flashing "Downloadable Content" light is the most pleasantly subtle DLC upsell in any game, by the way) and it's called Sorcerer's Lair. It's got kind of a kids-lost-in-the-haunted-woods theme to it and some nice mechanical touches like a whirlwind spinner that pops up into a combination spiral ramp and sink hole.
What I'm not so sure I like about it is the completely incongruous mini-playfield. The aforementioned sink hole will (with the right prerequisites) take the ball, the screen will fade to black, and fade in a playfield with no context, as if the table had suddenly blindfolded the player and whisked them off to a secret room containing this spider-themed mini-table. I know this is the brave new world of video pinball and all, but it just feels a bit too far removed from what these games are ostensibly simulating.
For the longest time, I was confused about buying Pinball FX2, because Zen and FX appeared to be one in the same. But I decided I loved FX2's implementation of Xbox Live to the point that I repurchased my Zen tables on it. They are the same game with a handful of differences:
1. Pinball FX2's menu's are better. They are simpler for faster loading, and they frequently cycle through score data, showing you where you're at compared to your Friends list.
2. Zen Pinball has Nudge Down, FX2 does not. I once asked Zen about this, and they felt that this made the game more realistic. Well on my end, not having Nudge Down has made it fucking impossible for me to do a Death Save. I was doing them on Zen like nobody's business, and I can't do them on FX2. FX2 is the harder game. If anyone has advice on Death Saves and properly tilting, I still need it to this day.
3. Exclusive tables to each system. I miss playing Zen's Tesla table dearly. But both consoles have their good and bad tables.
Oh, and regarding mini-tables. Mini tables suck in real life, so I hate them being implemented in tables like Fantastic Four. I can't really help you there. I despise mini tables.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Meant to post this earlier ...
Zen says Ms. 'Splosion Man will be up next week. There's a new trailer for it as well, which, I have to say, looks pretty decent. The table looks to have a good spread, and I am not ashamed to admit that I'm really digging all the touches of pink. The whole thing seems tasteful overall.
I expect this to be the only news we get from Zen until the launch of Marvel Pinball 2 nears, when we might get another character spoiled.
Supposedly, although this is from Zen, so take it with a grain of salt (and for the life of me I can't find where I read this bit, I swear it was officially from Zen Studios) but before the release of the Marvel Pinball Vengeance & Virtue Pack, we will see Ms. Splosion Man (August 31st), Paranormal, Sorcerer's Lair, and an original table.
And I finally "got" MARS last night. Everything just clicked on the second ball, and suddenly I'm rocketing past my paltry 4 million score, unlocking the pyramid, etc. I had to study, so I saved my game while still on my second ball (after almost twenty minutes) and I hope I'll be able to continue later.
I just registered on Penny Arcade to invite you all to join the very active and very helpful official fx 2 forum - http://forum.zenstudios.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28 . I don't work for Zen - I just absolutely love pinball fx 2!!! On the forum there is guides for many of the tables, game play videos of all the missions for many of the tables, overhead images for all the tables, a very good FAQ by the top fx 2 player (a patch of blue) and many of the top players also frequent the forum and are always there to offer advice if you have any questions. With Ms. Splosion man being released officially next week you will also start to get early feedback on the forum from the players that have pre-release codes.
A bit of extra info:
- You can also find official guides for all the Marvel pinball tables on the Marvel pinball site - http://marvelpinball.com/.
- A very good site by a top player named Wims, with guides for most of the tables is http://www.lupsclub.com/. The site is in French but with the google translate button built into the site you can quite clearly understand everything that is being discussed or explained.
- Link to the Ms. Splosion man overhead image if you have an image shack account - http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8702/mssplosionman.jpg
There we go... my unofficial PR job is done... hope to see you guys and galls soon on the forum. The more Zen is being supported, the longer they will keep on making newer tables and improving the platform.
Cheers
cloda on
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
I've seen your posts over there cloda, but I never felt inclined to join them for some reason. I guess I had nothing to add to most of the discussions already at play, and I read a few of the 'table guides' to try and clear up the occasional thing I hadn't figured out myself, but found none of them at all useful. I could have just read a few poorly written ones, but each of them seemed written for a complete noobie and had no deep advice at all.
I'm glad Zen has their own forums, and I encourage people to take a look at least, but there was nothing there for me.
I've seen your posts over there cloda, but I never felt inclined to join them for some reason. I guess I had nothing to add to most of the discussions already at play, and I read a few of the 'table guides' to try and clear up the occasional thing I hadn't figured out myself, but found none of them at all useful. I could have just read a few poorly written ones, but each of them seemed written for a complete noobie and had no deep advice at all.
I'm glad Zen has their own forums, and I encourage people to take a look at least, but there was nothing there for me.
Some of the guides are more on noobie side but a few of the guides especially Biolab, Mars and Blade are very insightful. As you expressed... once you reach a certain level you don't really need a guide any more, so guides are mostly for noobs e.g. the official guides on the Marvel/FX 2 web-sites are definitely focussed on the noobs and thus not all that detailed.
I beg to differ (obviously!!!) that there is nothing useful to be found on the forums... if you require any info on any aspect of the game/tables, an answer is always just a post away.... but all to their own they say...
Thanks for popping over here cloda, stay a while and hang out. BTW nice Secrets of the Deep guide.
I usually check the official forums about once a week to see when Zen is going to frickin' release Paranormal.
Yeah... I have also been waiting forever for Paranormal... at least we know that it will be released before the end of the year (along with Sorcerers Lair, a brand new IP table and the four Marvel V&V tables.
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Psychotic OneThe Lord of No PantsParts UnknownRegistered Userregular
After a long hiatus I'm back baby!
Mars is a pretty nice table. Once I understand it a bit better I could see myself posting a big score on it.
Also Zen Studios. I would give you so many Microsoft Fun Bucks for a Dethklok themed Pinball Table. The most metal and brutal pinball table of all time must be constructed!
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
I feel like there's no wayI can say any of this without sounding like a pretentious dick-wad, so I'm going to just accept that and proceed anyway:
Ms. 'Splosion Man
In the 40ish minutes I've had with the table so far, I like it, although I feel it might be ... 'short'. My first launch suffered an immediate ball drain, which I thought was interesting and had me worried it would be like Fantastic Four. Let me affirm right now that it is not. Within 5 minutes, I had lost all 3 of my balls and generally had no idea what was happening on the table. I looked at the rule sheet, felt more confused than when I started, although understood how to activate the kickbacks, and just decided to jump in to round two.
I immediately proceeded to stampede the missions and complete the table. This took probably 20 minutes, although the rewards felt very minor, so I think overall the table is designed to be ... probably on a similar scale to the FX2 Core tables. ~50M on the low end, a few hunderd million on the good scale, a couple billion if you have no life.
I continued playing and picked up both other achievements (Although no lie - I still have very little to no idea how to do a kicker combo), and had to suspend my game at the start of ball 2 and come back to work.
I think it's a good table, probably beginner friendly because I feel it's very forgiving. The kickbacks aren't retarded to activate, the barrel-saver isn't hard to get up and going, and very few shots seem to put your ball in any real danger. The bounce is higher than normal, but not Fantastic Four "Ha ha, this is mine, you go play something else for 10 minutes" silly. The kickers feel like an excellent way to gain and keep momentum on this table, and in general I hope that I like playing it enough to keep playing it despite the perceived low difficulty.
My biggest complaint? Stupid as it is, I wish she had more lines from the game. I didn't buy Ms. 'Splosion Man, but playing the trial certainly made me fall for the continuous random nonsense she spouts. I'd love to have had the same here.
Not writing a screed like Arctic up there, but I will echo this: It's fun. It's a lot of fun. But I don't know if I got really lucky or if it's a fairly easy table or what, but I played it once.
Finished all the missions twice, got all the achievements, and ended up with 438 million.
I'll go back to it for sure, but man - that's obscene for a first attempt.
Also: does she really say "cotton candy panda", or are my ears deceiving me?
Really like the table... it is on the short and easy side compared to a table like Blade, but Zen really sorted the scoring balance out so that the higher you score, the harder it is to keep the ball alive - thus making it nice and attractive for the beginners and quite a challenge for the wizard's. I have achieved a nice high score on the table and it took me about two hours... so you can score high and still have a life 8-) . I fully agree that Zen could have added more lines from the game in the table... the few that there are you only hear occasionally... must be some limitation in the way that Zen do their scripting for their tables. Just in case you haven't noticed - view 7, the new view, is brilliant and the choice between views for extra ball is also brilliant - I use 1w (for multi-ball and 7 for normal... hope they put it in all the tables.
cloda on
0
G RolDorsia? Nobody goes there anymore...Nell'sRegistered Userregular
[lame two cents]I hope Zen keep pumping out non-Marvel tables. I dig them and all, but it just seems weird to have so many of the available tables be Marvel themed. Gimme Ghost Rider, then focus on original themes.[lame two cents]
I had the pinball crown for one glorious day back when FX2 first came out...sad to know that I will never have it again (unless I delete all you duders with unreachable scores).
You people and your table beating! I don't think I'll ever beat a table!
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
I was unaware there was a new view ... Have to check that out. I use 5, myself.
It was slightly depressing last night to finish the table at whatever I did and then find out I was a lowly 3M from being 20th on the leaderboard. =P And I did see your score there too, cloda. I agree that the scoring on this one seems 'right'.
Not writing a screed like Arctic up there, but I will echo this: It's fun. It's a lot of fun. But I don't know if I got really lucky or if it's a fairly easy table or what, but I played it once.
Finished all the missions twice, got all the achievements, and ended up with 438 million.
I'll go back to it for sure, but man - that's obscene for a first attempt.
Also: does she really say "cotton candy panda", or are my ears deceiving me?
Let's be honest though Cell, you are a member of our local pantheon of pinball gods. I used to always weep at Boognish's scores, now I weep at Cloda's.
And I swear, on everything that is holy, one day I will hold the local record for Xtreme, and no one will want to take it from me because that is the most God awful table ever created. It's like searing pain every time I play it, but for some reason I keep going back.
Let's be honest though Cell, you are a member of our local pantheon of pinball gods. I used to always weep at Boognish's scores, now I weep at Cloda's.
Thanks. I'll just keep crying my godly tears at Arctic's scores. I'm still several thousand behind him on Superscore (finally passing Boognish, at least until he gets Ms. Splosion Man), and someday - someday - I'm getting a top score on a table back from him.
Haven't added Cloda, and I'm scared. It's like climbing Mt. Everest, only to find that a mountain 4 times the size of it has magically appeared behind it. Also, it's populated by savage yeti-specters. Oh, and the mountain is made of fire.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
He's more than 4 times taller than me. Just putting that into perspective.
I think I beat him on one table? Maybe? Possibly Earth Defence or something ... It's arbitrary anyway.
He's more than 4 times taller than me. Just putting that into perspective.
I think I beat him on one table? Maybe? Possibly Earth Defence or something ... It's arbitrary anyway.
And when you get to my scores... there is yet another 4 times higher mountain to climb. I'm not number one on any of the tables... yet!!!
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G RolDorsia? Nobody goes there anymore...Nell'sRegistered Userregular
edited September 2011
I had my best session, on any table ever, on Ms. Splosion Man last night. ~238 million I think on my third time playing the table (I know that's small potatoes to you superstars, but it was great for me). I wasn't even attempting to actively complete challenges aside from the glass breaking, just trying to keep the ball live.
I didn't realize high scoring sessions like that took so long...all of Faith No More's Angel Dust album, however long that is. Maybe Mike Patton's growlings/croonings put me in the zone? I just know that I felt like I was playing "lights out".
Then I proceeded to get like 200,000 on Iron Man...aww, normalcy.
EDIT: ..and watching my superscore zoom up the chart all at once was positively exhilarating...
So it turns out that I really, really, REALLY like the Ms. Splosion Man table. Sure, it's pretty easy, but the momentum from hitting orbits and ramps is phenomenal - better than Spider-Man, I dare say.
Put about half a dozen plays in, really have a lot of the table figured out (EXCEPTION: is there any way to light the extra ball other than surprise awards from the cannon/spiral?). Closing in on a billion.
The only complaint comes from my better half, who gets tired of the music very quickly. I try to shrug it off - tell her that if I had Ms. Splosion Man The Actual Game And Not Just The Pinball that she'd hear that music AND a lot of angry yelling. Here it's just the music.
Posts
It's certainly annoying.
I will buy 'droid tables too.
All of them.
Over and over.
Yeah, Facebook is the only way I hear anything from Zen.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/30/pinball-fx-2-wants-your-high-scores-in-xbla-spider-man-tournamen/#continued
Alright ArcticLancer: You going to repeat that BILLION-PLUS score you're sitting on? :P
I forget when I set my 1.899 billion, but I can tell you I was severely depressed I didn't break 2B. It was any number of easy shots away, and I just choked it.
Should have done a lot better today as well. Was acing missions, but I kept getting the most retarded ball returns whenever I activated the final mission. Closed out with just over 1B. To anyone curious, the table is really all about the clone ball final mode. It's based on your combined success on all the 4 normal missions, but on the low scale you'll still get 4M per ramp/orbit/target. I had it up to 10M today and did absolutely nothing with it. Probably one of the hardest multiballs to keep them in play as well, so there's an annoying trade there ...
Good luck to everyone. I won't be in the top 3, but maybe I'll random. =P
(For comparison, the top scores on the PSN tourney were all over 300B, the winner having 668B or so)
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
But yeah ... It sort of depends on how easy it is to do what I *want* to do. There's a few things on each table that can slow me up, like the Jameson mission on Spider-Man (hard to hit that ramp consistently), the specific ramp missions in Blade (again, hard to hit consistently), the left drop-hole on Captain America ... In contrast, I can do most of Biolab pretty easy up until the final mode, and that's generally only weird because of the magnet screwing with everything.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
At some indeterminate point in the last month or so, a new table came out (the slowly flashing "Downloadable Content" light is the most pleasantly subtle DLC upsell in any game, by the way) and it's called Sorcerer's Lair. It's got kind of a kids-lost-in-the-haunted-woods theme to it and some nice mechanical touches like a whirlwind spinner that pops up into a combination spiral ramp and sink hole.
What I'm not so sure I like about it is the completely incongruous mini-playfield. The aforementioned sink hole will (with the right prerequisites) take the ball, the screen will fade to black, and fade in a playfield with no context, as if the table had suddenly blindfolded the player and whisked them off to a secret room containing this spider-themed mini-table. I know this is the brave new world of video pinball and all, but it just feels a bit too far removed from what these games are ostensibly simulating.
PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/Steam
As a mention, I think it's the scoring on that table that makes me hate it. Very, very little on the table gives you points worth a damn. Bumpers do nothing, no ramp combos, targets aren't interesting. The L1 missions all dole out an average of 5M, which is something I guess ... The L2 missions average 20M, which dwarfs it. The final mission doles out 100M for completion, which is pretty much doubling what you'll have earned on the way. BUT ... some of those missions can just get you hung up SO LONG because of the slow nature of the table. Aaaaaaaaaagonizing. =_=
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
You beat tables? Of course you do.
I wish I could beat tables. There's always some mission that requires a shot I can't do. I wish practice mode had an angle line, as well as slo mo, because not even slo mo can help me do some of these shots. Mars will always be my favorite table though.
For the longest time, I was confused about buying Pinball FX2, because Zen and FX appeared to be one in the same. But I decided I loved FX2's implementation of Xbox Live to the point that I repurchased my Zen tables on it. They are the same game with a handful of differences:
1. Pinball FX2's menu's are better. They are simpler for faster loading, and they frequently cycle through score data, showing you where you're at compared to your Friends list.
2. Zen Pinball has Nudge Down, FX2 does not. I once asked Zen about this, and they felt that this made the game more realistic. Well on my end, not having Nudge Down has made it fucking impossible for me to do a Death Save. I was doing them on Zen like nobody's business, and I can't do them on FX2. FX2 is the harder game. If anyone has advice on Death Saves and properly tilting, I still need it to this day.
3. Exclusive tables to each system. I miss playing Zen's Tesla table dearly. But both consoles have their good and bad tables.
Oh, and regarding mini-tables. Mini tables suck in real life, so I hate them being implemented in tables like Fantastic Four. I can't really help you there. I despise mini tables.
Zen says Ms. 'Splosion Man will be up next week. There's a new trailer for it as well, which, I have to say, looks pretty decent. The table looks to have a good spread, and I am not ashamed to admit that I'm really digging all the touches of pink. The whole thing seems tasteful overall.
I expect this to be the only news we get from Zen until the launch of Marvel Pinball 2 nears, when we might get another character spoiled.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
And I finally "got" MARS last night. Everything just clicked on the second ball, and suddenly I'm rocketing past my paltry 4 million score, unlocking the pyramid, etc. I had to study, so I saved my game while still on my second ball (after almost twenty minutes) and I hope I'll be able to continue later.
I just registered on Penny Arcade to invite you all to join the very active and very helpful official fx 2 forum - http://forum.zenstudios.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28 . I don't work for Zen - I just absolutely love pinball fx 2!!! On the forum there is guides for many of the tables, game play videos of all the missions for many of the tables, overhead images for all the tables, a very good FAQ by the top fx 2 player (a patch of blue) and many of the top players also frequent the forum and are always there to offer advice if you have any questions. With Ms. Splosion man being released officially next week you will also start to get early feedback on the forum from the players that have pre-release codes.
A bit of extra info:
- You can also find official guides for all the Marvel pinball tables on the Marvel pinball site - http://marvelpinball.com/.
- A very good site by a top player named Wims, with guides for most of the tables is http://www.lupsclub.com/. The site is in French but with the google translate button built into the site you can quite clearly understand everything that is being discussed or explained.
- Link to the Ms. Splosion man overhead image if you have an image shack account - http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8702/mssplosionman.jpg
There we go... my unofficial PR job is done... hope to see you guys and galls soon on the forum. The more Zen is being supported, the longer they will keep on making newer tables and improving the platform.
Cheers
I'm glad Zen has their own forums, and I encourage people to take a look at least, but there was nothing there for me.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I usually check the official forums about once a week to see when Zen is going to frickin' release Paranormal.
Some of the guides are more on noobie side but a few of the guides especially Biolab, Mars and Blade are very insightful. As you expressed... once you reach a certain level you don't really need a guide any more, so guides are mostly for noobs e.g. the official guides on the Marvel/FX 2 web-sites are definitely focussed on the noobs and thus not all that detailed.
I beg to differ (obviously!!!) that there is nothing useful to be found on the forums... if you require any info on any aspect of the game/tables, an answer is always just a post away.... but all to their own they say...
Yeah... I have also been waiting forever for Paranormal... at least we know that it will be released before the end of the year (along with Sorcerers Lair, a brand new IP table and the four Marvel V&V tables.
Mars is a pretty nice table. Once I understand it a bit better I could see myself posting a big score on it.
Also Zen Studios. I would give you so many Microsoft Fun Bucks for a Dethklok themed Pinball Table. The most metal and brutal pinball table of all time must be constructed!
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
The Dethtable
Ms. 'Splosion Man
In the 40ish minutes I've had with the table so far, I like it, although I feel it might be ... 'short'. My first launch suffered an immediate ball drain, which I thought was interesting and had me worried it would be like Fantastic Four. Let me affirm right now that it is not. Within 5 minutes, I had lost all 3 of my balls and generally had no idea what was happening on the table. I looked at the rule sheet, felt more confused than when I started, although understood how to activate the kickbacks, and just decided to jump in to round two.
I immediately proceeded to stampede the missions and complete the table. This took probably 20 minutes, although the rewards felt very minor, so I think overall the table is designed to be ... probably on a similar scale to the FX2 Core tables. ~50M on the low end, a few hunderd million on the good scale, a couple billion if you have no life.
I continued playing and picked up both other achievements (Although no lie - I still have very little to no idea how to do a kicker combo), and had to suspend my game at the start of ball 2 and come back to work.
I think it's a good table, probably beginner friendly because I feel it's very forgiving. The kickbacks aren't retarded to activate, the barrel-saver isn't hard to get up and going, and very few shots seem to put your ball in any real danger. The bounce is higher than normal, but not Fantastic Four "Ha ha, this is mine, you go play something else for 10 minutes" silly. The kickers feel like an excellent way to gain and keep momentum on this table, and in general I hope that I like playing it enough to keep playing it despite the perceived low difficulty.
My biggest complaint? Stupid as it is, I wish she had more lines from the game. I didn't buy Ms. 'Splosion Man, but playing the trial certainly made me fall for the continuous random nonsense she spouts. I'd love to have had the same here.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Now, show DoctorArch where the bad pinball table touched you.
Not writing a screed like Arctic up there, but I will echo this: It's fun. It's a lot of fun. But I don't know if I got really lucky or if it's a fairly easy table or what, but I played it once.
Finished all the missions twice, got all the achievements, and ended up with 438 million.
I'll go back to it for sure, but man - that's obscene for a first attempt.
Also: does she really say "cotton candy panda", or are my ears deceiving me?
I had the pinball crown for one glorious day back when FX2 first came out...sad to know that I will never have it again (unless I delete all you duders with unreachable scores).
It was slightly depressing last night to finish the table at whatever I did and then find out I was a lowly 3M from being 20th on the leaderboard. =P And I did see your score there too, cloda. I agree that the scoring on this one seems 'right'.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Let's be honest though Cell, you are a member of our local pantheon of pinball gods. I used to always weep at Boognish's scores, now I weep at Cloda's.
This is the best idea in the universe.
I'd pay a billion columbian coffee dollars for it.
New DLC looks good, I'm so behind on this game.
COTTON CANDY PANDA!!!
Thanks. I'll just keep crying my godly tears at Arctic's scores. I'm still several thousand behind him on Superscore (finally passing Boognish, at least until he gets Ms. Splosion Man), and someday - someday - I'm getting a top score on a table back from him.
Haven't added Cloda, and I'm scared. It's like climbing Mt. Everest, only to find that a mountain 4 times the size of it has magically appeared behind it. Also, it's populated by savage yeti-specters. Oh, and the mountain is made of fire.
I think I beat him on one table? Maybe? Possibly Earth Defence or something ... It's arbitrary anyway.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Height wont save you from the Pinball Wizard!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XqeXGBNgSg
I didn't realize high scoring sessions like that took so long...all of Faith No More's Angel Dust album, however long that is. Maybe Mike Patton's growlings/croonings put me in the zone? I just know that I felt like I was playing "lights out".
Then I proceeded to get like 200,000 on Iron Man...aww, normalcy.
EDIT: ..and watching my superscore zoom up the chart all at once was positively exhilarating...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44WfGT0ElVk
Put about half a dozen plays in, really have a lot of the table figured out (EXCEPTION: is there any way to light the extra ball other than surprise awards from the cannon/spiral?). Closing in on a billion.
The only complaint comes from my better half, who gets tired of the music very quickly. I try to shrug it off - tell her that if I had Ms. Splosion Man The Actual Game And Not Just The Pinball that she'd hear that music AND a lot of angry yelling. Here it's just the music.