The game looks amazing, has lots of toys, I love the shots (although some are pretty difficult), the callouts, the music, the light show etc etc, so why does it suck?
Well…basically software. And a lot of people might not agree, and I am talking only about the Premium/LE version, because the Pro version plays a lot different in many ways.
First of all I’m not a big fan of linear modes, it gets pretty annoying sometimes to do the same mode over and over just to get progress, and I know I probably should get better, but since my accuracy of shots isn’t the greatest, I have (plenty of) games where I did not even finish 1 mode, yeah I know, I’m probably terrible at pinball….
The skill shot in my opinion is way too important, if you don’t make it, you have to make a lot of shots just to be able to start any mode at all, and since the ball a lot of times just doesn’t make it around (it either hits puff, slams into the backboard, or rattles around and ends up in the pop bumpers, so the best opportunity is too make a soft plunge and hope that the ball does not just goes STDM.
But what annoys me most is all the modes that run together, and again, on the Pro this is somewhat less annoying or sometimes even good, but eg when you start SFMB, almost always ‘loopin supers’ start, and thus this mode is pretty much lost, because shooting the ramp is almost impossible during SFMB, either scolari or slimmer is blocking the ramp (or both) and on top of that, every time the ball enters the inlane, the flashers in front of the slings start to blind you.
The other way around it is pretty much the same, you start loopin supers and most of the time SFMB is lit, so you can just make one shot and that’s it. It’s better just to drain all but 1 ball and forget about SFMB so you can get on with loopin supers….
Of course you can hit the captive ball a couple of times to make sure you start SFMB before you reach 60 ghosts, but with the dangerous outlanes or for that matter inlanes hopping over to the outlanes, and the dangerous magnet slings sometimes activating, sometimes not, or just throwing the ball STDM or in the outlanes, I prefer to make safer shots….are there any?? Missing the ramp or orbits most of the time results in hitting a target and thus STDM or outlane or just flying somewhere else and drain, the right ramp even with a perfect shot 90% of the times the ball just makes it to the top (where the rivets are) and then just rolls back and of course STDM and so on.
When you do reach any of the ladders and you get to WCWS, most of the times also MHMB starts and thus just fucks up your WCWS. I really like the idea of having the flippers reversed, but why not just keep it like that during the whole mode?? It’s really funny when you play with your friends and you have to flip your hands during this multiball, but when it’s just changing all the time, everyone is just flipping both hands all the time like a small child and waiting for the mode to be over. It could have been an exciting mode….
So basically if I could make one request, DO NOT STACK THESE MODES!! Just block MHMB and WCWS from running together and also SFMB and LS. And to not step on anyone’s toes, make it an option in the settings so one can choose. (of course a regular mode is always nice to have running when in a MB)
Now it’s just a frustrating game, and even though I like tough games a lot, eg Iron Man or Bram Stokers Dracula also punish you when you miss a shot, but strange enough these games are so addictive that you just keep on trying, the Ghostbusters I just switch off after a couple of games and don’t play it any more for days.
If I invite friends who don’t play pinball at all, first thing they do is walk directly up to the Ghostbusters to start playing, but after a couple of games they already abandon it for getting no progress at all and such short ball time, and in the end they playing all pins except the ghostbusters, which is actually pretty sad for such a beautiful and potential pinball machine….
Just my opinion….