Medieval Madness (1997)

Medieval Madness is considered one of the greatest pinball machines ever made in the pinball community. Featuring a working drawbridge, a shaking and crumbling castle, ugly trolls popping out of nowhere, a catapult throwing pinballs, a dragon that looks really mean and lots of one liners that are actually really funny, this machine truly is pinball fit for a king and it fully lives up to its nickname 'the holy grail of pinball'. Unfortunately this also goes for the steep price tag: Medieval Madness is one of the most expensive machines you can buy on the second hand market today changing ownership for prices that are nearing the $10.000 mark if in mint shape. The plot of Medieval Madness evolves around battling and defeating the malicious 'King of Payne' and all the King's evil men in a 'Battle for the Kingdom'. To reach this goal the player must save several damsels by fighting the guarding dragons - judging by the one-liners the machine throws at you the damsels are far more emancipated than this plot suggests by the way. He or she also needs to help peasants to start a revolt, to get rid of the trolls the King sends after him / her to 'eat you for lunch' and to crush the 6 castles inhabitated by the King's sidekicks and the 'King of Payne' himself. In doing so the player is assisted by the old, but wise wizard 'Merlin', by 'Sir Missalot' and 'Sir Lanceless' who teach him / her how to joust and by a gigantic catapult that throws farm animals and skulls at the castles you are sieging. If you think this sound ridiculous, you're absolutely right. If you think this sound like a lot of fun, you're even more right. Just have a look at the hilarious quotes this machine has to offer and you probably understand what I am talking about. Are there no flaws then? Well, while the machine's rulesheet is very deep, it tends to leave a gap after you've reached 'Royal Madness', giving you little to do but to go for 'Battle for the Kingdom' (see the rulesheet for more on that), which can take a long time. So in this period the game's pace staggers a bit breaking the player's flow, which is a shame. Secondly one might argue that this game looks and feels a bit like it predecessor Attack From Mars and its successor Monster Bash, both in playfield layout as, particularly, in game play build-up. At the other hand, taking the high ranking of these machines in consideration, you understand what they must have thought at Bally / Willams: why change a winning formula? And personally I think that the highly entertaining game play, the humerous nature and the well executed variations of the themes make these machines easily stand out on their own. So all things considered it's safe to state that this machine should leave even the most demanding player happy for a long time, and since the machine is very hard and expansive to come by, I would strongly recommend playing it if you get the change. After all, there is a good reason for its high ranking in the Pinside Top 100. It's just a whole lot of fun... Period.   Click here to read more...