A pinball game where the ball hates going to your flippers
User Rating: 5.5 | Gottlieb Pinball Classics WII
Gottlieb is one of the pioneering American physical pinball manufacturers and Gottlieb Pinball Classics digitalises some of their old work. Some of the tables seem rather gimmicky and others resemble modern tables. Genie (1979), El Dorado (1975), Black Hole (1981), Ace High (1957), Big Shot (1973), Central Park (1966), Play-Boy (1932), Tee'd Off (1993), Goin' Nuts (1983), Victory (1987), Strikes N' Spares (1995). There's also some non pinball machines like the Love Machine and Fortune Teller. Each table has help guide to the table, a description of the history, and promotional sales flyer. Although other reviews seem to state the physics are spot on, to me the ball often felt a bit slow and had a severe tendency to home in on the gutter, or managed to drop inconveniently between your flippers. I'm not sure if it is the physics engines fault, bad table design, or a combination of the two which cause that, but it really ruins the game because the games are over very quickly and are based on luck rather than skill. There are definitely some strange moments where the physics don't seem right where the ball travels in an unrealistic angle or speed. One time the ball somehow got stuck as it was being released so I had to tilt it out. Gottlieb Challenge mode makes you play the tables in a fixed order and you have three attempts to achieve a target score on the current table. Beating the challenge score progresses you to the next table; failure ends the challenge. It seems the game designers know how much of a hard time you will have keeping the ball on the table, so the scores are set really low but they still end up being challenging, especially on El Dorado. Tournament mode is near identical to Gottlieb Challenge, but allows you to play with 1-4 players and also moves you on to the next table no matter what score you earned. You would assume Practice Arcade would be a good place to start practising, but most tables cost credits to play and you must unlock Free Play mode by completing challenges on other tables. The system doesn't make sense since you have to pay to play Big Shot and completing the challenge will unlock Free Play in Goin' Nuts. To be honest, I didn't even complete the challenge and it unlocked anyway. The funnier thing is, out of the 3 balls, I hit the ball once with my flippers; the other balls when straight into the gutter. Gottlieb Pinball Classics is a decent Pinball simulation but could have been much better. Obviously, a pinball game where the ball hates going near your flippers is a big problem, and it becomes extremely frustrating when you lose ball after ball without even touching it. In most pinball games, after launching the ball, the 'ball save' will be active to make sure you can hit the ball once; but not in this game! Also, I've never known a ball to end up in the gutter when coming off a ramp either but it happens in this game!
