Iron Draggon
09-15-2004, 09:14 AM
I recently got two different import pinballs for this system, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them with the rest of you who may be interested.
Pinball Graffiti:
Apparently the Tokyo Pinball Organization had a great deal to do with this one, because it screams something to that effect on the back of the case. They had something to do with a book by the same name prior to this, so it seems that this is somewhat of a companion volume to their earlier work.
The game offers 3 different tables, which I will describe in a moment. It also offers a quest mode where you attempt to progress through all 3 tables in order. You can choose from several different playing views, from traditional ones like the standard scrolling top-down view found in most older video pinball games and the standard static 3-D perspective view found in most newer pinball games, to innovative ones like a ball's-eye view which has you practically riding right on top of the ball as it bumps and rolls along the table!
However, some of these views are playable only on one of the tables, which is very unfortunate. I guess there just wasn't enough room to include all the views on all the tables on one CD, but if they were gonna go to all the extra trouble for just one table, then they should've gone all-out and included an extra CD or two with all the extra views for the other two tables on it also. It's very disappointing to be teased with so many different views to choose from, only to find out that only half of those views can be selected for all of the tables. I'd much rather be able to play all those views on all the tables.
Fortunately though, you still get all the standard traditional views for all the tables, so you're only missing out on the more unique views for the other two tables. I'd love to be able to play the other two tables with those views too, but at least you do get to play one of the tables with them, so it's still pretty nice to be able to choose from some unique views for one of them. Now let's move on to the tables themselves, and a brief description of them:
Basketball Legend
This is the main table with all the extra views, and it's also the one with the best music, so it makes sense why this one is getting to enjoy the spotlight. It seems to be the most well-balanced of the three tables, and because of the music it seems to be the most exciting too, but gameplay wise I don't think it's really the most fun table. The theme is pretty lame unless you're a basketball fan, and I've never been very big on any kind of sports, so I guess all the extra views on this one are trying to distract you from the fact that you're playing a pretty lame table with a pretty lame theme while listening to some pretty lame music. I know I said that this one has the best music, but I didn't say that meant that the music on it was really great, now did I? It's not that bad, but it's not that good either. It's just typical videogame music.
Card Master
This is the most fun table, but unfortunately it's extremely unbalanced. It's way too easy to go into multiball, and it's way too easy to get an extra ball when you do so also. So you can literally play this one until you just get tired of it, like I did. Every time I finally got rid of all but the last ball in play, I went right back into multiball again and got another extra ball. So I racked up a huge surplus of extra balls that I didn't really even need, because I pretty much stayed in multiball the whole time anyway. In fact, the whole point of the table seemed to be playing in multiball mode, so I guess it was designed that way for those who just can't get enough of multiball. But after several hours of this, my thumbs were tired of flipping all the time, so I finally just stopped flipping at all and racked up a ton of points just launching through all the extra balls that I had collected while I was constantly flipping in multiball. But the casino theme was pretty fun, so I suppose if you imagined that all those points you were racking up could be exchanged for money, you might be inspired to keep flipping whether your thumbs were getting tired or not! The music was pretty fun also, but it was basically just standard saloon music.
Circus Fantasia
This is the most boring table, which is really sad for me, because I've always loved circus & carnival themes. I thought that I'd enjoy it the most because of this, but it was barely enjoyable at all for me, despite the fun theme. The problem with this one is it's too symmetrical. It just comes off as being kinda uninspired, so the gameplay ends up being kinda uninspiring as a result. It has it's moments, but the only thing that was really fun about it for me was the atmosphere created by the music. If you're familiar with classical music, then you'll instantly recognize Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Yep, the one with all the cannons firing off. There was just something about launching balls and flipping like mad with this music playing in the background. I guess I actually enjoyed it alot more than I'm letting on here, but it was still kinda boring, because the layout of the table just seemed so bland with all the stuff on one side mirrored on the other side. It looked pretty cool, but it just wasn't that much fun to play it, except for the fun theme and fun music.
Final opinion? Only worth it if you're a true pinhead, like me. I could tell that it wasn't gonna blow me away, just by looking at some screenshots of it on the internet, but it was alot more impressive than I was expecting it to be. The camera zooms in on the ball and changes perspectives when it rolls up and down the ramps in some of the views, which was a pretty neat effect. And pinball games always have a ton of replay value, so I'm sure that I'll be playing this one again and again for many years to come, especially in the quest mode. I suspect there may be some hidden movies or something to unlock if you complete this mode, or at least some to watch as you progress. Not that I'll ever get good enough at it to see any of them of course, but I can always try. And if it gets too frustrating for me, I can always just play all the tables by themselves, and see which views result in the highest scores. So I think I got more than my money's worth, because it was very cheap. Yeah, it kinda looks it too, but it's still not too bad for a budget import title.
Necronomicon Digital Pinball:
As you might guess from the title, this game is evil! No, not evil as in overly difficult, evil as in overly demonic! I'm assuming that the extremely macabre theme of this game is the main reason why it was never released here in the states. Because if that isn't it, then I have no idea why such a great game would never make it over here. This game is all sweetness and light when it comes to the quality of the graphics and the gameplay, but when it comes to the theme and the sound effects, the tone is very dark and very scary. It doesn't really look that evil with typical fantasy elements like gargoyles and dragons, but once your ears get a load of the soundtrack, you'll be afraid that it might not be a very good idea to play this game with the sound on!
What do I mean? It's just like summoning the dead! The constant chanting of dark passages from Lovecraft's most famous work under a pseudonym goes on the whole time you play, while the ritualistic sounds of bells tolling and drums beating leads you to believe that playing this game just might make something really bad happen that's beyond your capacity to control. Yes, it really does sound that evil, but it's cool as hell to hear it! I wouldn't recommend playing this game after midnight though, unless you're sitting in the middle of a pentagram with candles at each of the points, and you have a virgin handy to sacrifice to whatever you might bring forth from the abyss.
Who would've thought that a pinball game could be this scary? Forget all about Alien Crush and Devil's Crush, or their derivatives Dragon's Fury and Dragon's Revenge, this game goes far beyond all that in terms of ear candy, and the eye candy is pretty damned spooky too. If you've ever played the prequel to this game, Last Gladiators Digital Pinball, then you already know what you're in for visually. But nothing can prepare you for all the sounds that you'll be hearing as you play, and if you thought the quotes from the first game were questionable, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Yep, this game was almost certainly censored for potentially offensive anti-religious content.
No, it's not really that bad. It's no worse than the typical B-horror movie. But with a blatant occult theme as unapologetic for it as this game is boasting, one can easily imagine what kind of public outcry over it would've ensued if it had been released here in the states. Especially at a time when the ESRB was still relatively new, and some senators were still threatening to simply ban all videogames outright, and just be done with the threat to society that they allegedly posed. But thankfully, this game is only as far away as your nearest importer now, so as long as your chosen faith doesn't prevent you from checking it out, you can still obtain it relatively easily, for a price...
Your mortal soul! Of course I'm just kidding, but it's not very cheap. It's not very expensive either, but it's becoming more and more sought after as the word gets around on it, so be prepared to spend a little more than usual. No, you won't have to sell your soul just to get it, like the vast majority of Saturn shmups these days, but it costs about as much as a new game for one of the modern consoles, and I assure you that it's worth every penny. Now let's move on to the tables, before that black thing in the corner over there breaks the chains that bind it to it's holding chamber and it escapes!
Arkham Asylum
Yep, you can see the Lovecraftian influence here already, and it will continue throughout the rest of the game, so either get used to it, or else this game simply isn't for you. You'll be busting in and out of the asylum quite a bit, and you'll likely be hearing the bloodcurdling screams of all the inmates too, so your sonic adventure has just begun it's brutal assault on your senses. And God help you when you go into multiball on this table, because it often involves no less than 7 balls at a time! This is probably the most manic of the 3 tables in the game, so when you hear that siren going off to warn you of the security breach, you'd better be prepared to flip all those damn crazys right back into their padded cells where they can't harm you or themselves!
Cult of the Bloody Tongue
The craziness continues on this table, but this time you have an extra flipper on one side to fight back all the madness. Learn how to time this ramp shot just right, and you'll rack up more and more points the more that you use it to complete the circle. So if you enjoy going for ramp combos, you'll have alot of fun with this table. The voices beckoning you from the other side get more and more excited as you repeat this chant, so God knows what might happen if you repeat it enough times. I got too scared as they were starting to break through the barrier into our world, so I dunno what happens if you ever set them free yet, and I'm not too sure that I really wanna know either!
Dreamlands
So, you really wanna know what happens if you break through the barrier into their world, huh? Well, you're probably about to find out on this table. You have an extra flipper on one side on this one too, but this time it's on the other side of the table. And some very unusual things are going on here. All the ramps will lead the ball past the extra flipper, so if you go up a ramp, get ready to flip that flipper! If you time it just right, the ball will take one of two paths around the ramps that will lead it back to that very same flipper. So again, the more you stay on these paths, the more points you'll rack up. And God only knows what kind of evil demonic forces repeating this chant enough times will unleash, but one thing's for sure, it's not gonna be good!
Final opinion? You have to play this game! Mere words alone could never do it justice, and without hearing all the chants and all the sound effects that take place as you play it, you can only imagine how unbelievably cool it is. I had heard that it rocked, but it does alot more than that, it rolls like legions of the undead coming back from the grave to drag you away to your doom! I can't stress it enough, you have to play this game at least once, even if you don't like pinball games. It has made converts out of the most adamant pinball haters, and until you play it, you're never gonna know what it's like. Oh yeah, there's also a quest mode in this one too, for those who are brave enough to accept the challenge of battling the damned on their own turf. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another appointment with the devil himself!
Pinball Graffiti:
Apparently the Tokyo Pinball Organization had a great deal to do with this one, because it screams something to that effect on the back of the case. They had something to do with a book by the same name prior to this, so it seems that this is somewhat of a companion volume to their earlier work.
The game offers 3 different tables, which I will describe in a moment. It also offers a quest mode where you attempt to progress through all 3 tables in order. You can choose from several different playing views, from traditional ones like the standard scrolling top-down view found in most older video pinball games and the standard static 3-D perspective view found in most newer pinball games, to innovative ones like a ball's-eye view which has you practically riding right on top of the ball as it bumps and rolls along the table!
However, some of these views are playable only on one of the tables, which is very unfortunate. I guess there just wasn't enough room to include all the views on all the tables on one CD, but if they were gonna go to all the extra trouble for just one table, then they should've gone all-out and included an extra CD or two with all the extra views for the other two tables on it also. It's very disappointing to be teased with so many different views to choose from, only to find out that only half of those views can be selected for all of the tables. I'd much rather be able to play all those views on all the tables.
Fortunately though, you still get all the standard traditional views for all the tables, so you're only missing out on the more unique views for the other two tables. I'd love to be able to play the other two tables with those views too, but at least you do get to play one of the tables with them, so it's still pretty nice to be able to choose from some unique views for one of them. Now let's move on to the tables themselves, and a brief description of them:
Basketball Legend
This is the main table with all the extra views, and it's also the one with the best music, so it makes sense why this one is getting to enjoy the spotlight. It seems to be the most well-balanced of the three tables, and because of the music it seems to be the most exciting too, but gameplay wise I don't think it's really the most fun table. The theme is pretty lame unless you're a basketball fan, and I've never been very big on any kind of sports, so I guess all the extra views on this one are trying to distract you from the fact that you're playing a pretty lame table with a pretty lame theme while listening to some pretty lame music. I know I said that this one has the best music, but I didn't say that meant that the music on it was really great, now did I? It's not that bad, but it's not that good either. It's just typical videogame music.
Card Master
This is the most fun table, but unfortunately it's extremely unbalanced. It's way too easy to go into multiball, and it's way too easy to get an extra ball when you do so also. So you can literally play this one until you just get tired of it, like I did. Every time I finally got rid of all but the last ball in play, I went right back into multiball again and got another extra ball. So I racked up a huge surplus of extra balls that I didn't really even need, because I pretty much stayed in multiball the whole time anyway. In fact, the whole point of the table seemed to be playing in multiball mode, so I guess it was designed that way for those who just can't get enough of multiball. But after several hours of this, my thumbs were tired of flipping all the time, so I finally just stopped flipping at all and racked up a ton of points just launching through all the extra balls that I had collected while I was constantly flipping in multiball. But the casino theme was pretty fun, so I suppose if you imagined that all those points you were racking up could be exchanged for money, you might be inspired to keep flipping whether your thumbs were getting tired or not! The music was pretty fun also, but it was basically just standard saloon music.
Circus Fantasia
This is the most boring table, which is really sad for me, because I've always loved circus & carnival themes. I thought that I'd enjoy it the most because of this, but it was barely enjoyable at all for me, despite the fun theme. The problem with this one is it's too symmetrical. It just comes off as being kinda uninspired, so the gameplay ends up being kinda uninspiring as a result. It has it's moments, but the only thing that was really fun about it for me was the atmosphere created by the music. If you're familiar with classical music, then you'll instantly recognize Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Yep, the one with all the cannons firing off. There was just something about launching balls and flipping like mad with this music playing in the background. I guess I actually enjoyed it alot more than I'm letting on here, but it was still kinda boring, because the layout of the table just seemed so bland with all the stuff on one side mirrored on the other side. It looked pretty cool, but it just wasn't that much fun to play it, except for the fun theme and fun music.
Final opinion? Only worth it if you're a true pinhead, like me. I could tell that it wasn't gonna blow me away, just by looking at some screenshots of it on the internet, but it was alot more impressive than I was expecting it to be. The camera zooms in on the ball and changes perspectives when it rolls up and down the ramps in some of the views, which was a pretty neat effect. And pinball games always have a ton of replay value, so I'm sure that I'll be playing this one again and again for many years to come, especially in the quest mode. I suspect there may be some hidden movies or something to unlock if you complete this mode, or at least some to watch as you progress. Not that I'll ever get good enough at it to see any of them of course, but I can always try. And if it gets too frustrating for me, I can always just play all the tables by themselves, and see which views result in the highest scores. So I think I got more than my money's worth, because it was very cheap. Yeah, it kinda looks it too, but it's still not too bad for a budget import title.
Necronomicon Digital Pinball:
As you might guess from the title, this game is evil! No, not evil as in overly difficult, evil as in overly demonic! I'm assuming that the extremely macabre theme of this game is the main reason why it was never released here in the states. Because if that isn't it, then I have no idea why such a great game would never make it over here. This game is all sweetness and light when it comes to the quality of the graphics and the gameplay, but when it comes to the theme and the sound effects, the tone is very dark and very scary. It doesn't really look that evil with typical fantasy elements like gargoyles and dragons, but once your ears get a load of the soundtrack, you'll be afraid that it might not be a very good idea to play this game with the sound on!
What do I mean? It's just like summoning the dead! The constant chanting of dark passages from Lovecraft's most famous work under a pseudonym goes on the whole time you play, while the ritualistic sounds of bells tolling and drums beating leads you to believe that playing this game just might make something really bad happen that's beyond your capacity to control. Yes, it really does sound that evil, but it's cool as hell to hear it! I wouldn't recommend playing this game after midnight though, unless you're sitting in the middle of a pentagram with candles at each of the points, and you have a virgin handy to sacrifice to whatever you might bring forth from the abyss.
Who would've thought that a pinball game could be this scary? Forget all about Alien Crush and Devil's Crush, or their derivatives Dragon's Fury and Dragon's Revenge, this game goes far beyond all that in terms of ear candy, and the eye candy is pretty damned spooky too. If you've ever played the prequel to this game, Last Gladiators Digital Pinball, then you already know what you're in for visually. But nothing can prepare you for all the sounds that you'll be hearing as you play, and if you thought the quotes from the first game were questionable, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Yep, this game was almost certainly censored for potentially offensive anti-religious content.
No, it's not really that bad. It's no worse than the typical B-horror movie. But with a blatant occult theme as unapologetic for it as this game is boasting, one can easily imagine what kind of public outcry over it would've ensued if it had been released here in the states. Especially at a time when the ESRB was still relatively new, and some senators were still threatening to simply ban all videogames outright, and just be done with the threat to society that they allegedly posed. But thankfully, this game is only as far away as your nearest importer now, so as long as your chosen faith doesn't prevent you from checking it out, you can still obtain it relatively easily, for a price...
Your mortal soul! Of course I'm just kidding, but it's not very cheap. It's not very expensive either, but it's becoming more and more sought after as the word gets around on it, so be prepared to spend a little more than usual. No, you won't have to sell your soul just to get it, like the vast majority of Saturn shmups these days, but it costs about as much as a new game for one of the modern consoles, and I assure you that it's worth every penny. Now let's move on to the tables, before that black thing in the corner over there breaks the chains that bind it to it's holding chamber and it escapes!
Arkham Asylum
Yep, you can see the Lovecraftian influence here already, and it will continue throughout the rest of the game, so either get used to it, or else this game simply isn't for you. You'll be busting in and out of the asylum quite a bit, and you'll likely be hearing the bloodcurdling screams of all the inmates too, so your sonic adventure has just begun it's brutal assault on your senses. And God help you when you go into multiball on this table, because it often involves no less than 7 balls at a time! This is probably the most manic of the 3 tables in the game, so when you hear that siren going off to warn you of the security breach, you'd better be prepared to flip all those damn crazys right back into their padded cells where they can't harm you or themselves!
Cult of the Bloody Tongue
The craziness continues on this table, but this time you have an extra flipper on one side to fight back all the madness. Learn how to time this ramp shot just right, and you'll rack up more and more points the more that you use it to complete the circle. So if you enjoy going for ramp combos, you'll have alot of fun with this table. The voices beckoning you from the other side get more and more excited as you repeat this chant, so God knows what might happen if you repeat it enough times. I got too scared as they were starting to break through the barrier into our world, so I dunno what happens if you ever set them free yet, and I'm not too sure that I really wanna know either!
Dreamlands
So, you really wanna know what happens if you break through the barrier into their world, huh? Well, you're probably about to find out on this table. You have an extra flipper on one side on this one too, but this time it's on the other side of the table. And some very unusual things are going on here. All the ramps will lead the ball past the extra flipper, so if you go up a ramp, get ready to flip that flipper! If you time it just right, the ball will take one of two paths around the ramps that will lead it back to that very same flipper. So again, the more you stay on these paths, the more points you'll rack up. And God only knows what kind of evil demonic forces repeating this chant enough times will unleash, but one thing's for sure, it's not gonna be good!
Final opinion? You have to play this game! Mere words alone could never do it justice, and without hearing all the chants and all the sound effects that take place as you play it, you can only imagine how unbelievably cool it is. I had heard that it rocked, but it does alot more than that, it rolls like legions of the undead coming back from the grave to drag you away to your doom! I can't stress it enough, you have to play this game at least once, even if you don't like pinball games. It has made converts out of the most adamant pinball haters, and until you play it, you're never gonna know what it's like. Oh yeah, there's also a quest mode in this one too, for those who are brave enough to accept the challenge of battling the damned on their own turf. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another appointment with the devil himself!