I love pinball games, whether they are the real mechanical tables, or the digital types. When I saw this in the Steam store I immediatly thought,
''another series of pinball tables, yeahhhh!''
Sadly my euphoria was short lived because this set and the other two sets of tables i.e.[i]Hot Pinball and Soccer Pinball Thrills[/i], were one of the biggest let downs I've ever had with pinball games since I made my first pinball game using a freeware program.
The only positve apart from the price was the ball physics, but even that was marred at times with a sluggish feel to the ball movement. There was little to keep me interested in continuing with the game, but I was determined to try out each table from all three games so as to be as unbiased as possible, once I'd accomplished that I had to shut the game down as it was excruciatingly mind numbingly boring.
Basically all six tables are similar to each other, with little to keep even the most ardent of pinball fams interested. Right from the outset I knew I was going to be disappointed; the graphics were lack-lustre, the inability to control the initial ball strength, with its ''all or all'' response from the ball plunger immediately put me off the game. I love to try skill shots, which are available with all good digital pinball games such as the Pinball FX games. There's no way you could get a skill shot with these tables; that's if they were available, which they are not.
So, no tweaking of the ball plunger to accomplish that hard to get shot that you've been trying for for ages, or attempting to get all of the gates lit at the top of the table. Basically, It's all down to luck, with no skill required. There appears to be no additional features or hidden puzzles; at least I didn't unlock, or find any over the couple of hours I spent playing all 12 tables from the three sets. Everything looks so dull, even though the tables themselves are quite colorful. The ramps and rails are similar in all tables, it looks like the dev's have used the same sets of rails and other items such as bumbers multiple times on virtually every table; plus, few of the tables have enough targets to hit and most targets appear static with no lighting effects. There are very few animations, and what animations are used seem to be repeated on most tables e.g. the ball wells. The graphics are so so and lack the vibrancy that we have become accustomed to with the recent additions to the Steam library of Pinball FX, Pinball Arcade, Pinball Parlour and Zaccaria Pinball, all of of which are fantastic sets of pinball games and exciting to play, plus most of them have loads of hidden extras, brilliant animations plus and loads of other features, The best of those mentioned even give you the first table for free and those free tables are far superior to any of the ones included in this set and more importantly are worth every penny, in fact I'd go as far as to say the first two are worth a lot more that the price we pay. This series of tables are sub standard so I doubt I'll be playing them again.
The only thing going for it are the number of tables you get for the price. It is cheap, working out at £0.67p/$0.83cents per table, buying the triple pack doesn't save you money in terms of tables gained as the two other sets i.e. Hot Pinball and Soccer Pinball Thrills only have three tables each. The price for the triple pack is basically double the price of the Fantastic Pinball Thrills, though the other two packs on their own cost more per table, even though they are the same style of table. If you are determined to buy these games, i'd seriously wait till they are on at least a 50% to 75% off deal, which I'm sure they will be once the negative reviews stack up, and sales dry up. I honestly cannot recommend this game, even to the most dedicated pinball player.
Edit:
After some though, I reckon these tables are ideal for those new to pinball and maybe even to the younger aged 5 to 9 year old player.
I may write separate reviews for the other two sets (Hot Pinball and Soccer Pinball Thrills), but if I do I doubt they won't be that different from this one because they use the same basic targets, the same ramps, the same bumpers etc. The main difference is the art work and slight changes to the look of the tables.
