I wrote up a little review of the Avengers LE (blue) at the local movie theater in the WI/MN thread yesterday, but figured it wouldn't be seen by too many there. So I figured I would copy it in the main forum.

But first I would like to throw out a feeler for a trade. I am throwing around the idea of offering up either my ST:TNG or CV for one. I figure value should be pretty close for a Pro or LE respectively. Neither are collectors quality, but are very good "players quality" games. They play 100% and have only minor cosmetic flaws. Obviously more details and pics would be made available if anyone was interested and I decided to go through with this. Fair warning, I'm very wishy-washy on if I could actually go through with this as these are two of my all time favorite games, but I have owned them both a long time and am feeling slightly "done" with them. So this is truly just a feeler to see if there would even be any interest in doing this. I would probably lean slightly towards letting ST:TNG go first, but not sure yet.

OK...on to the first impressions (cutting out some stuff specific to the location):

As for the game itself, it was alot of fun. Very strange layout that seems like a total mess at first, but it somehow works and works well. Not really like anything else I have played. I didn't really figure out too much of the rules, but what I saw seemed nicely polished and made sense. It definitely seems to have a leg up on X-Men software from what I saw. There are some great callouts and a LOT of humor, especially from Hulk. He is definitely the star of the game. The shots are...strange...but very satisfying. The Hawkeye shot was probably my favorite, although I have no idea how the diverter works for the crossover ramp as every time I shot it, it went to the Loki ball lock (and of course I never shot it enough in one game to actually start that multiball..LOL). I could see where the ball needed to go for the crossover, but I didn't see a diverter there, so no clue how that works. Magnet maybe? Or something I just didn't see with the lighting there. The Hulk saucer was infuriating...I could not figure out the right way to hit that. I did have it fall in from the Black Widow ramp a couple times...maybe that is the proper way of hitting it since direct shots didn't seem to work without anything solid behind it. More than once I lost a game with extra ball light at that damn saucer! The pop bumpers made a cool metallic sound. Not sure if that was the sound effect or the ball noise itself, but it was a very satisfying sound.

The playfield art looks way better in person than in pictures. Backglass (Avengers blue LE) was a bit disappointing. It was OK, but honestly if it wasn't for the mirrored border I would have mistaken it for a translight. Not at all on the level of Wolverine or Magneto, that's for sure. I'm guessing Hulk looks way better. The few animations I saw while playing were great. Music was nice. Light show was fantastic.

Hulk multiball was an absolute blast! It was like the playfield completely transformed by the drops being all down, the ramp being lifted, and the whole Hulk area wide open (which it usually isn't). This is the "transforming playfield" that Transformers should have had in my mind. Very cool and an absolute riot with all the balls flying around, Hulk going apeshit, and an amazing light show. If I liked the game before hitting Hulk multi, I fell in love with it completely once I hit it. I wish I was a good enough player to hit the other multis and get further into the rules, but what I saw left me hungry for more!

I had to come home and go play X-Men right away to compare. The good news for me is that I still like X-Men better overall. If they nail the software, I still think it could be one of the best games ever made. Avengers isn't quite at that level, but honestly isn't far off either. Avengers wins in the humor department by far. It managed to capture that perfect combination of intense action and light-hearted humor seen in the movie. X-Men is more serious in tone (overall) and intense, but maybe not as much pure "fun". While I prefer X-Men at this point, I would LOVE to drop an Avengers right next to it. It would be a great 1-2 punch. Hopefully in a couple years I can make that happen.

(It is now a couple days later, and I can't stop thinking about this damn machine. Hence the trade feeler part of this post! )