Perceived size. What's that got to do with anything? Well, I'm referring to the percieved size of the ball itself. This varies from game to game, but many games have this strange ability to make the ball look either bigger or smaller. An example of a recent game I've played that does this, Monopoly, has a large perceived pinball size. The ball seems big and heavy. This is a very good thing because it makes the machine seem more like a machine and less like a toy. You feel more powerful controlling such a heavy pinball and the game in general just seems more fun, to me at least. It emphasizes the things that make pinball so great, such as the fact that it's real, if you removed the glass you could touch it, it's a large ball bearing you are manipulating in that enclosed little world and that is the essence of a pinball machine. It's difficult to explain why this is important but I feel it adds a lot to a pinball machine. Machines with a small perceived pinball size, feel toy-ish to me and lose a little part of their appeal.
Anyone else ever noticed this? Are there actually differences in pinball size, or is it one universal size, I forget? Y'know aside from the Hercules Pinball machine which uses a cue ball.
