Hey everyone! Yes, another TWD topic, just before the weekend starts

Last wednesday, Martijn and I had the opportunity to visit Gary and Dave at the Stern booth at EAS in Amsterdam. The game was a Pro, running very early (0.4, I believe) software, but playing it gave us a good idea of what to expect.

IMG_4236.JPG

I (Robin) consider myself a fan of the AMC show and was really looking forward to getting my hands on a demo game. Martijn hasn't seen a single episode and knew little more than that the show was about zombies. So it's interesting to look at how we both experienced the game. Did we like it? Did it disappoint? Read on!

So, for everyone who doesn't know what The Walking Dead is about: it's a tv show and it's nasty. It's gory, it's got zombies, blood and dead and guts and a world gone to sh.. And everyone seems to love the show!

IMG_4235.JPG

Back to the pin. It looks absolutely gorgeous, well, as far as zombies can appeal to you that way, but you know what I mean. The whole game seems to have been hand drawn in a way that reminds me of older games. Great stuff. The translite artwork is a terrifying 10/10, it's exciting and really captures the feel of the theme well. The speaker panel is covered in blood trails and looks neat. The playfield artwork is full of little details, like the well walker having a rope drawn around him with one end seemingly breaking. There's the railroad to Terminus, which leads straight through the pops and towards the main loop shot. And then there's blood. And lots of it.

What I also liked was the way the playfield inserts were done, most of them are clear white and plenty of times the game turns all illumination on and off, making for a horror'esque experience when you’re playing.

IMG_4233.JPG

Robin: After viewing some footage by Jonathan from a few days earlier, I was half expecting a slow player that actually looked a bit boring to play. I quickly find out that assumption was wrong! I played about 10 games (one with a high score entry so that went pretty well) and was really blown away by the challenge factor of the game. My first ball was lost in 7 seconds. The tight shots combined with the gruesome outlanes made for real short ball times, something I personally really like. The first few games were awkward. As Gary was explaining rules to me I was trying to make shots but got little more out of it than an embarrassing clunkfest... But I pressed on and once I got the hang of the shots, after a game or 4-5 things started to go better. Shots started to flow, and I was really starting to enjoy the game more and more. I had this very same thing with Metallica (as some of you know my #1 game at the moment), so for me this is a good sign. The right ramp is awesome as it's close to the flippers but all the way to the side, an interesting design, and the left ramp is a killer if you shoot it only halfway up. The ramp resembles the left ramp of MM and a little "bottom" ball guiding plastic would have been a great addition to avoid SDTM balls coming back form it (aftermarket idea!). I also loved the mechanical aspect of the well walker bash toy. It's so gratifying seeing him lurch back from a well placed shot. He was a bit large though and honestly I don't think the well walker is a highlight of the first 4 seasons (on the contrary, I didn't like that episode at all) but it's still better than bashing a stationary toy like the Balrog in LOTR.

IMG_4237.JPG

Martijn: A game count of about 6 or 7 games is not much to base a balanced opinion on, but my first impressions were positive; I liked the layout of the game and the shots. The right ramp and the between-the-bumpers shots are challenging but very well shootable with some practice and the extra ball-shot all the way to the right is your regular tip-of-the-left flipper kind of shot; it actually seems harder than it is. It's a shame that the software and animations are nowhere near finished (the multiball modes which were available didn't even register jackpots if I remember correctly) and some of the modes had just the score showing, nothing else. But according to Gary he was updating the software on the machine at the show on a daily basis so the software and animations should hopefully come together soon. And most importantly you can see the potential. The game definitely has flow (which is off course the most important thing in this early stadium) and the ball practically begged to be played fast and furious around those lanes. Granted, you get some stoppage time when the ball spends time in the bumpers and although this happens from time to time it didn't really bother me. But I can see that to some people's taste this might be an undesirable interruption of the otherwise fast gameplay. Another complaint I read about on the forums is that the "Well Walker" bash toy seems too big. Now don't get me wrong, it is BIG! But to my surprise I didn't end up hitting it a lot by accident. It's designed in a way that its footprint is surprisingly small making the toy a fun addition to the game instead of a pain which sometimes can be the case with ill-placed bash toys. Another example of good design is the fact that I didn't experience a lot of SDTM's due to balls not making the ramp, only the left ramp returns the occasional ball in need of a slap safe, the right ramp returns the ball to the left slingshot which can off course lead to other dangerous situations, but it's better then having to deal with a SDTM. I did experience a SDTM with a ball released from the 'house' magnet, but according to Gary this would still be tweaked.

IMG_4238.JPG

Anyways, the game itself is still in very early software, which was a shame but it *did* show the potential. For example, the dots that were in there were fantastic. I know a lot of Pinsiders were hoping for an LCD on this title, and maybe I was too, but the matrix guys have really nailed the style of animations on this one. How do you depict a zombie munching on some guts on a 128x32 screen of dots? Well, you make the 3 dots in their mouths stand out at their brightest color and let these "teeth" dots gnaw away. It's simple but works really well.

And then there's the match sequence....

It's all just so bad ass, they didn't go "safe" on this title at all, which I think is fantastic. Again, it's a bit like Metallica in that respect. As far as owning a TWD goes, I'd say this is a real mancave title (My wife wouldn't let me put one in the house, but fortunately I have a cave!)

Would we want to own one?

IMG_4239.JPG

Robin: Definitely would like to get my hands on one, from what I have seen today. Still waiting to see where the software is going and I didn't get a good idea of the sounds in the noisy EAS hall. Music was the show's theme, which I think is a great choice.

Martijn: A promising first experience! Definitely not there yet, but could be a winner if the software and animations turn out great. The machine might up on my wishlist someday, but I am also very curious to see how the LE pans out.

Absolutely. Like I said, I wasn't super excited from watching the early videos of Gary playing the game. But playing it yourself makes a huge difference. And this was even physically the same game! It was really fast and fun to play, which is completely opposite from that initial video.

I wouldn't say a perfect 10, it's too early for that. It *felt* as though it could become a great game, it has an original layout - especially with the way the right ramp is layed out and the fun shot through the bumpers. A blast to play, even this early on. Could be right up there with MET, but software will ultimately be the deciding factor. Well, and I haven't heard much of the sounds yet but some growling zombies. The quote announcing the well walker was a bit annoying even ("well well... looks like we got us a well walker" or something like that) so there were certainly some downsides. But all in all it's made it on this pinhead's wishlist.

I feel it is too early to tell really. One of the things that makes MET great for me is its software design and with TWD running 0.4 when we were playing I just can't say anything sensible about software just yet.

But I really liked the feel of the game. Compared to my Metallica LE, they both have very nice flow and tightness of shots. Both challenging gameplay! Bashing the prison is like bashing sparky and hitting the well walker was like hitting coffin captive ball (my MET has the block replaced for a captive ball assy). But the placement of the ramps, shot through the flippers etc is all very different.

The magnet in front of the prison was holding the ball a bit too long, causing SDTM's sometimes. This was being worked on, mentioned Gary.

This game's code was very early, that's for sure. But the stuff that was already in there did look great. I liked the direction they were going with the animations.

There is great potential for the rules, from what I've seen so far. Time will tell.

He gave us flyers for the PRO and LE so we could compare features:

The Walking Dead - Pro Flyer Front
The Walking Dead - Pro Flyer Back

The Walking Dead - LE Flyer Front
The Walking Dead - LE Flyer Back

For me, the killer LE feature would be lighting effect like we've seen on Metallica. That's just what makes me love Metallica, the subtle blue and red tones constantly changing the tone of the game.