Pinball Hall of Fame
Are any of you old enough to remember when pinball was, you know, big-time fun?
Tags: Pinball Hall of Fame Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 8th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinball Hall of Fame (title page) | 1 - 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Arcade | No | ||
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I’ve always liked pinball games. I grew up playing them, and they were there before even PONG showed up on the scene, let alone the Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, DS or PSP. They pre-date Pac-Man by decades. But even for me, pinball machines were more a fascination of my dad’s generation, rather than mine. I had my first PONG machine by the time I was maybe eight or nine, so videogames soon took over from such classic pursuits as pinball machines. With one exception: Black Hole, a pinball game by Gottlieb, was one of the last great pinball machines before they really became passé, a feature more of bowling halls and bars than a staple of videogame arcades.
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Black Hole was unique. Not only did it have two levels of flippers, it had a reverse lower chamber your balls could drop into, a “black hole” as it were, and if you really were good at it, you could store two balls in a holding cell down there and, if you got a third pinball to go down and in place, all three would be going at once; you’d rack up points like crazy and it was fast, frenetic fun – for as long as it lasted. The one I played was located in a Pizza Hut, and I’d play it whenever we were waiting for pizza as a family. Nowadays, I’d probably just pop out my GBA, DS or (once I get one), my PSP. But back then, pinball machines were still a little bit cool, even if their popularity was fading next to the likes of Star Wars Arcade, Ms. Pac-Man, Missile Command and Galaga.
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I’m not a college-age kid anymore; not even close. And Black Hole appeared back in the 1980s, so I often played it to the sound of “Panama” and “Jump” by Van Halen on the jukebox. (Jukebox? Oh, kids, that’s kinda like an MP3 player that everyone in a restaurant can enjoy only… bigger. Way bigger.) Well, in the Crave-developed bargain title Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection, The Black Hole is one of seven classic tables to make an appearance, and I must say it is refreshing to play the game once again. Along with Black Hole, the other classic Gottlieb boards that appear in the game are Big Shot, Ace High, Genie, Central Park, Teed Off and Victory.
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It’s a nice little collection if you don’t mind that there are only seven boards to play; a bit skimpy, even for a bargain title. But focusing on the machines that are included, each is well-replicated in virtual mode, with the physics of the board feeling just right as you play. The controls are pretty basic; the right analog stick pulls the launcher back and releasing it launches the ball. Smartly, the L1 and R1 buttons serve as the flipper buttons. While modern gamers may feel the flippers don’t respond as crisp or with as much force as one might like, let me assure you, that’s how the real pinball machines played, too.
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As is to be expected from a title of this nature, the graphics are nothing that’s making SquareEnix or Polyphony Digital lose sleep, but they get the job done just fine. A word should be mentioned here, though, about the game camera. The default camera puts you moderately close to the ball, allowing you to see about half the table at any given time; the camera moves with the ball fine, but in moments when it’s whipping around the table like the dickens, it can be a bit disorienting and cause you to lose track of things, resulting in a missed flip and a dead ball. Fortunately, there are a total of seven or so cameras in the game, and while most of them are relatively close and look more dramatic, the key to playing pinball successfully is viewing the whole board at once. There’s only one or two cameras that offer that: use them. You’ll be happier and play better.
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I should also point out that at least one of the pinball games in Pinball Hall of Fame has problems, at least in my copy; when playing Teed Off!, a golf-themed pinball machine, the game kept freezing up my PS2, causing me to reboot. For a second I could have sworn I was on a Windows 95-powered PC, not a PS2 game console. If this flaw is present in every copy – which I can’t say for sure, but I do know it’s not my PS2 since it plays every other game I own flawlessly – it’s a huge oversight and makes the title a bit iffy; with only seven boards to begin with, if one of them is buggy, that means you’re only getting six that are safe to play. Not good.
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In all, Pinball Hall of Fame is a minor nostalgia title for the 35 and older crowd. Younger gamers might find it to be a passing curiosity. And yes, I know there are still a few pinball machines around, modern and impressive and such – but the point here is that although they are not extinct, they no longer hold the public’s imagination as they once did. So the end result is a bargain title that may have one of the boards acting buggy (at least, it did for me) focusing on a type of game few kids under 15 find all that fascinating. So I’m gonna say that even though Pinball Hall of Fame has no objectionable content at all, this one’s a better fit to mom and dad than for the kids in the house. And if a buggy Teed Off makes you … teed off … it’s probably better to pass on this low-budget title.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ The basic physics of the game feel right. + I’m a big fan of “Black Hole,” one of the best pinball games of all time. |
4.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
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— Only seven classic tables – just not enough. — Teed Off table always freezes up my PS2. — Not enough use of force-feedback potential. — Several of the game cameras can lead to misjudging flipper-hits; use one that lets you see the whole table, all the time, and you’ll be better off. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Even for a bargain title, this one’s a bit thin and the sometimes-buggy game play doesn’t help matters. If you loved “Black Hole,” the game might be worth it, but otherwise steer clear of Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection. | |
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Tags: Pinball Hall of Fame
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 8th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
