(Topic ID: 324084)

Stern Jurassic Park - Are rules intuitive for casuals?

By Doc_VanNostrand

1 year ago


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  • Latest reply 11 months ago by NPO
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    #42 1 year ago

    Another set of opinions if you want:

    How casual are we talking? Do you think you can teach your casual players the basics, to try to catch the ball or hold the flipper to roll it up the inlane and aim for a shot? Or are these the completely hopeless type that can only ever button-mash in panic every time the ball comes near?

    The button-masher type gets nowhere with anything other than AFM or MM with a big bash thing up the middle. They won't get anything from Jurassic; the only things they'll hit by flailing are the truck and spinner, and neither does much. They'll blunder into making Feed the T-rex maybe one game in five. Forget aiming for any rescue shots, it won't happen. Honestly, pinball really just isn't the thing for button-mashers; they belong on an arcade beat-em-up like TMNT or Simpsons or some such.

    If you can get casuals interested in learning the basics of competent play, then Jurassic Park is okay-ish. They might be able to start a paddock and make a couple rescues. But they're not going to get to any of the depth like navigating the truck or the control room or any of the real multiballs. They might capture one dino if you show them how, but the game doesn't really call that out as much of a big victory and doesn't really drive much desire to do it more or again. Up to you if you think that might be enough to commit to the game.

    I know you said you didn't like Marvel, but a good Stern game for mildly-familiar casuals is Avengers Infinity Quest. It has a great concrete goal of winning gems from Thanos; everybody gets that instantly, particularly when they see the portal open (on the premium) and then the flashing shots are easy to follow. Casuals can try out different gem quests across different games, and will luck into a portal lock or Thor multiball every now and then, and might even come close to winning one gem, and if they do the game calls it out well and they immediately want to do more. I'd nominate AIQ as the single-game collection that would hold both casual and experienced interest the longest.

    Covering a bunch of other ones mentioned:

    I wouldn't throw Rush at casuals; the time machine isn't at all like the AFM/MM bash toys, it's a much narrower shot and it's a brickfest if you can't aim correctly. And playing the songs is kinda abstract and not intuitive like AIQ's gems. (This goes for all the dad-rock band pins - playing songs isn't interesting at all if you don't know/care about the music.)

    TMNT has a brutal reputation, but casuals can play it kinda okay, they can often flail at the van enough to start an episode or multiball, and the different turtles let you start close to different features.

    Ghostbusters is terrible - it has an extra-wide flipper gap that infuriates everybody.

    GOTG is pretty decent for casuals - Groot is a great bash toy for starting multiball, and also modes continue if you drain, which is nicely forgiving. But of course you'd only want it if you like Marvel.

    Stranger Things is okay at first but gets old quick, casuals will bash the demogorgon but that's all they'll do, they won't have the control to start missions or get anywhere in them.

    Monster Bash isn't all that great for casuals, they'll start one monster at most, and won't hit Frank enough or the ramp to start multiball. Killer sound package though.

    Cactus Canyon is fairly solid; if casuals can learn at least the basics of aiming, shooting down the bad guys is easy and fun, and they might hit the gold mine enough for multiball.

    WCS94 is pretty good, everybody gets aiming at the goal.

    Fish Tales is okay-ish but doesn't stand out.

    I don't know Indy 500.

    CFTBL is terrible for casuals; multiball is way too intricate to start and then it lasts three seconds with no ball saver.

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