Sad to see all of the lukewarm reviews. A lot of people are saying what I have been suspecting, the games are probably about the same as they were on The Williams Collection. Not that it's a bad thing, necessarily. But, FX2 has made their game "feel" better - whether they have better physics or not, I'm not really sure, but it feels like the ball has some weight in that game.

I haven't played it yet, so I'll withhold judgement until I get home and download it. I can't say I'm all that excited that there are only 4 release titles, 2 of which I don't even like...

Deaconblooze said:

I can't say I'm all that excited that there are only 4 release titles, 2 of which I don't even like...

Zen, fx2, and marvel tables all released with 4 tables....not that far of a stretch. Than you buy DLable tables....that's just the way they have doing it with video pinball these days.

Pinballerchef said:

Zen, fx2, and marvel tables all released with 4 tables....not that far of a stretch. Than you buy DLable tables....that's just the way they have doing it with video pinball these days.

Yeah, I know. Some of the excitement is lost since I've been playing the same 4 tables on the iPhone for the past couple of months. Not a big deal, just wish they had a couple of others available.

Deaconblooze said:

Pinballerchef said:Zen, fx2, and marvel tables all released with 4 tables....not that far of a stretch. Than you buy DLable tables....that's just the way they have doing it with video pinball these days.
Yeah, I know. Some of the excitement is lost since I've been playing the same 4 tables on the iPhone for the past couple of months. Not a big deal, just wish they had a couple of others available.

I get that...I have been doing the same thing on my iPad. We can only hope they have new tables coming out sooner than later.....patience and pinball...friends forever.

The 360 version definitely has better controls than the iOS release. I like The Pinball Arcade. It least it has real tables unlike its competitors.

I've been trying to D/L since I got home from work, seems like XBL marketplace is down? How annoying...

Thank you blakesell for your honest input on the 3DS version.
Saved me some money.

I downloaded the trial on 360 tonight and gave it a whirl. Seems to play well enough to me. I'm going to hold out until I have a chance to play it on PS3 before making a purchase though. The shoulder buttons on the PS3 controller lend themselves to pinball better than the 360's IMO.

I like it so far. The graphics are definitely cleaner than on the PHOF collection. The shape of the ramp return to the right flipper on TOTAN is actually discernible for instance. The physics feel less floaty as well.

I like the table selection as well.

Compared to Pinball Fx, well, I wish Pinball FX had "real" tables, as opposed to stuff that would never be possible in a real machine.

The multiple layers of goals are back as well. The score achievement is too easy, but the other goals will be more of a challenge.

I kind of wish that it was a packaged product with 1000 achievement points, but 200 points spread across four tables seems fine.

The only other negative so far that I have found is that when shooting the left orbit on TOM, the ball hardly ever ends up in the rollovers/pops.

chocky909 said:

It's still much too easy compared to real pinball and even PinMAME.

Absolutely. I can absolutely own Whirlwind on my PS3 but when I step up to that game on location, the balls don't last long. I agree, the physical machine is much more random and interesting. It provides a good challenge, one that will never be replicated by any video game. Plus, it feels so much better to play the real thing.

Crash said:

chocky909 said:It's still much too easy compared to real pinball and even PinMAME.

Absolutely. I can absolutely own Whirlwind on my PS3 but when I step up to that game on location, the balls don't last long. I agree, the physical machine is much more random and interesting. It provides a good challenge, one that will never be replicated by any video game. Plus, it feels so much better to play the real thing.

I don't think anyone is going to argue that a 10 dollar downloadable pinball game is going to be comparable to the real thing. But for what it is its good. These games might also inspire kids to want to seek out the real thing.

TheStranger said:

I don't think anyone is going to argue that a 10 dollar downloadable pinball game is going to be comparable to the real thing. But for what it is its good. These games might also inspire kids to want to seek out the real thing.

RBION seems to have gone up in price a bit over the past few months. Wonder if there is any sort of correlation with it's release on Pinball Arcade? Perhaps the increased exposure has made the game more desirable to a greater audience.

Black Hole kicked my butt!

jarjarisgod said:

I downloaded the trial on 360 tonight and gave it a whirl. Seems to play well enough to me. I'm going to hold out until I have a chance to play it on PS3 before making a purchase though. The shoulder buttons on the PS3 controller lend themselves to pinball better than the 360's IMO.

+1

jarjarisgod said:

RBION seems to have gone up in price a bit over the past few months. Wonder if there is any sort of correlation with it's release on Pinball Arcade? Perhaps the increased exposure has made the game more desirable to a greater audience.

Definitely. RBION and TOTAN were on my short list a few months ago....not anymore. The prices seem to have gone way out of my league.

I was pretty stoked for this, but it's a bit of a letdown so far. It almost seems cheaply made, the games do play fairly well though. You'd think it would be a step up or at least as good as the Williams collection as a whole package...

I like it. The physics are the best representation of real pinball on the 360 or PS3. A nice improvement over PHOF and much more realistic than Zen. Definitely worth $10. Looking forward to the new tables every month.

I forgot how good Theatre of Magic was. I also forgot how much I hate the opening skill shot in TOTAN.

Having spent more time with it today, I have to say that it isn't a bad deal. At ten bucks that is only 2.50 a table. Pretty much on par with Pinball FX2 prices. I'm guessing future dlc tables will either be 200 or 240 MS points ($2.50 or $3.00). My only new complaint is that I wish there was a restart option in the pause menu.

captainadam_21 said:

Black Hole kicked my butt!

Seriously! I played for like half an hour and could not even lock that first ball for multiball!

jarjarisgod said:

I downloaded the trial on 360 tonight and gave it a whirl. Seems to play well enough to me. I'm going to hold out until I have a chance to play it on PS3 before making a purchase though. The shoulder buttons on the PS3 controller lend themselves to pinball better than the 360's IMO.

Have you tried switching the flipper buttons from the triggers to the shoulder buttons? It's in the settings. You can't change it in the controls menu so I was lucky to find the option. The triggers have indeed a far too long throw for this.

I love it!
Placed 8th on the TOM leaderboard yesterday evening (CET) with a score of 4,5 billion
Gamertag Barry en Corine.

I played it last night. Enjoyed it on the big screen (92 inch... ). But to be honest, I had better games on my iPad. I know the IPad had some refresh issues, but I had better game play. Anyone else see the same thing, or have i just lost my marbles?

Played it on Xbox last night. The graphics were much improved from the tablet. However, it did feel lacking in camera angles, high score features, and some other items. The default camera view isn't my preferred one and you can't make out the top rollover lanes on games like RBION. Heck, you can't see the skill shot hole when you have to plunge because it changes to the plunger.

I think the physics are good but somewhat lacking. For example, a ball shot towards the outlane and hit the metal post and just dead stopped, sat on top of the post, and then fell to the side. No bounce off the metal post/guide.

I think with a bit more tweaking it will be a perfect platform for playing the games we love from the past.

are there no achievements or online play?

I'm kind of curious about these details.

Blakesell said:

are there no achievements or online play?

On Xbox I didn't see any online play. There are achievements but they're pretty simple. For each table, get a local high score for one and accomplish the first set of goals for the other.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/the-pinball-arcade/achievements/

I read they're going to add online tournaments for xbox at some point. I think right now you just get a leaderboard. Hopefully you can at least compare scores with friends easily.

it took a long time to beat jarjar on zen marvel pinball on ps3, I hope it outlines it so I can work to beat him on pinball arcade as well.

Blakesell said:

it took a long time to beat jarjar on zen marvel pinball on ps3, I hope it outlines it so I can work to beat him on pinball arcade as well.

Hmmm... Sounds like I need to get back to work!

just wait for new games to be announced. There's plenty of marvel characters they could spring more titles on.

or this pinball arcade, I know we'll be buying it anyway, regardless of its shortcomings.

Well, just tried it (TOTAN table).

Looks great, it really does - the active camera and viewpoint are better than Pinball FX. Unfortunately the triggers are the default controls (this can be changed) which is basically the worst idea ever. There's way too much deadzone in the controls so you'll miss flips all the time, switching to LB/RB fixes this.

The ball moves too fast, and is too heavy - like the incline is at 9 degrees or something. I owned a TOTAN for a while, one in absolute tip top shape. I *never* had SDTM from the left orbit shot even once, but it's happened twice in Pinball Arcade in 2 games. Shot the ball through the left side of the ramp twice too. Oh dear.

Apekop said:

Have you tried switching the flipper buttons from the triggers to the shoulder buttons? It's in the settings. You can't change it in the controls menu so I was lucky to find the option. The triggers have indeed a far too long throw for this.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give this a shot tonight.

system11 said:

Unfortunately the triggers are the default controls (this can be changed) which is basically the worst idea ever.

I bet they made them default because the casual player doesn't even know the shoulder buttons exist.

I played extensively Big Race U.S.A. and it seems to me that the physics is far way better...someone could make an useful comparison between the two titles?

The PS3 version will be released on April 10th.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/122/1222463p1.html

The PS3 version will be released on April 10th.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/122/1222463p1.html

Goooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!

I haven't played williams collection or the farsight game, but I got one from PSN called Pinballistic, which has 3 tables. They play decently, but it seems like the incline is extreme as well. Pinballistic has a "battle mode" which has you play one separate tables, h2h, local or online with an area where the tables connect. So you can drain on their side to make them lose points. Not bad for the $7 or w/e I paid.

I'll still get farsight once it hits PSN, since I'm a junkie and just need more.

=-j

"Definitely. RBION and TOTAN were on my short list a few months ago....not anymore. The prices seem to have gone way out of my league."

Me too. I have decided for these prices new and even LE editions are my route and playing the classics on a huge LCD with surround sound is the way to enjoy these tables. I hated the MAC release but on my XBOX these are really good.

Downloaded it and definitely falls a little flat, but alot of it comes from having bought the Iphone and Ipad version already, so I am wanting to play some newer tables;). Ball physics on the flipper seem really strange, like the ball all of a sudden gets REALLY heavy and rolls down the flipper too fast. I think the ball physics are better on the "Williams" Collection, but this one will do, especially if we get some new tables. Although knowing my luck it will be MM, as it is already on the Willams Collection. As an aside, while I like Pinball FX2 I think the ball physics are a little "floaty", but some of the features of the tables are pretty cool..

MM & BOP should be the next tables out...

The existing trophies from williams should port to pinball arcade as well.. It took me a LONG time to get that Harem multiball goal on TOTAN.

I'll work to get it all over again, but now it's just going to look like I have duplicate trophies.

I'm finding myself liking TOTAN less and less. It seems a lot more frustrating to play on the compilation here, than the Williams Arcade one. Never once got to harem multiball in either, convincing myself it doesn't exist.

Android update just went up that added MM and BOP as DLC tables.

Am I the only one POed that you still have to pass around "controller one" in a multiplayer game on the 360?

Dude, I keep kicking ass on the 360. I must be a kick ass machine.

Firebaall said:

Am I the only one POed that you still have to pass around "controller one" in a multiplayer game on the 360?

I'd really like to see split screen multiplayer sometime down the road....

I do agree that tables seem quite fast and feel like they are on a 8 degree slope.

Also, did you see the high score for RBION? It is over a Billion points.. that is crazy.

captainadam_21 said:

Also, did you see the high score for RBION? It is over a Billion points.. that is crazy.

That has to be KME, aka Keith Elwin's score.

RBION on the iphone leaderboards is over 20billion. I got over 2billion once myself, or maybe it was 4 billion...I forget now..the leaderboard feature is fooked on the iphone, doesn't work unless you delete facebook off your phone, even then it's still glitchy..wish they would fix it

There are also reports of updates erasing your high scores and achievements. No good at all. I'm sure they'll sort it all in time but they might lose a few fans on the way I reckon. Whatever happened to making a game THEN releasing it?