Pinball HD Collection

Basically, if you're a digital pinball collector and/or looking for some variety, you might want to get this. I'm actually finding it fairly enjoyable. There are 15 tables with a variety of themes for $20. That's a reasonable price per table. Yes, this is a mobile port, and it shows. The physics are very basic (think Space Cadet, but a bit better), and the designs vary in complexity from very simple to moderately complex. You'll absolutely need to apply anti-lag tweaks, and you'll probably also want to force AA/AF externally. The 3D graphics are reasonable, but mostly nothing special. The art is quite good, including some decent animations in places. Textures are somewhat low low res and models are low poly, though. No fancy lighting here, but there are some reflections. The graphics/art of the game look much better when you're using the dynamic camera. There is no controller support or key rebinding. The game doesn't even tell you what the controls are! But I just use JoyToKey, that's not a deal breaker in this case. Controls are left/right arrow for flippers, down arrow for launcher, space for nudge (just upward), C for camera change. R switches to portrait orientation. There are 3 camera views - top down, angled, and dynamic. Nudging, as mentioned, exists, but you can only nudge upward. This is basically enough for a nudge pass. There's a tilt system with warnings on a timer (I think), but it takes more than one nudge to trigger a warning. Dead bounces somewhat work, but are not terribly reliable. Hold passes work on some tables. Bang backs also work quite reliably on most tables. The flipper gap is quite small, making slap saves rather effective. There is multiball (possibly on all tables). I've seen up to 5 balls. There are kickbacks that are on by default, can be depleted and re-raised, at least on the tables I've played. Tables typically will have a mix of passive progressive elements and (simple) goal oriented modes. There are some video modes too. There's a decent variety of playfield elements, including extra flippers and playfields. Extra balls are awarded at certain score thresholds. Some tables have fairly involved progressions that are quite difficult (even for me) to progress through. Music and sound effects are ok - nothing special. The developers are not native English Speakers (company is based on Russia). This shows in some awkward grammar in places and accented speech clips. There are working steam leaderboards as well as local high scores (yes, I set #1 scores on the 3 tables I've played through so far ;). Each table saves progress automatically, even if you kill the game or if it crashes. There are various bugs I've encountered, some game breaking, but they're not too common. Some elements of some tables don't seem to work correctly. There's a glitch that causes serious game-breaking graphics issues occasionally if you open the help while in game and then immediately resume.

The first time I've requested a Steam refund. I was REALLY looking forward to this. The table camera views are terrible and only have very limited options to change them. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH !! More damningly, the ball ballistics seem to 'float' and don't feel right either. There are things to like with the themes and table design but without the above being right then despite the love thats been put into designing the tables it's moot. Look, as a pinball fan I want to play more virtual tables but with the already existing suberb iterations available via Steam from the likes of FX2 and especially the wonderful if overpriced Pinball Arcade, then there is simply no reason for this to exist in it's current state. I could be wrong but this feels like a port of a mobile phone game that simply hasn't been given the required love when moving to a much more demanding PC audience. Especially at the entry price. I love pins so I will re-buy if this SIGNIFICANTLY improves... but not until then. I'm SORRY as I really wanted this to be the next big thing in virtual pins but I now know that despite the now seemingly ridiculously overhyped advertising verbage it certainly isn't..... YET. I WANT this to be a winner - sort it @@@@ing out !!! It could be great.... just not yet.

(EDIT: 8/28/16 Warning: ZERO SUPPORT !!!) (EDIT: 8/18/16. All evidence, both in discussions and Gameprom's website, indicate DEVs have been 100% AWOL for the entire TWO WEEKS since release, despite significant bugs, issues and questions. PLEASE CONSIDER STRONGLY BEFORE PURCHASE.) First and foremost, I LIKE “Pinball HD Collection”. I’ve played fifty years of pinball, literally thousands of hours of computer pinball from numerous companies, and no doubt several tens of thousands of games. Naturally, I’ve enjoyed some more, and others less. Computer pinball developers have in general, chosen for themselves a frustratingly Sisyphean task; to compete against those who “port from reality” tables loved (and played to financial success) for decades. But also to create, out of the blue, new tables that will be compared to every table ever made, computer or real, in both design and function. I believe that OOO Gameprom has generally succeeded. (Certainly to this player’s satisfaction.) The Pinball HD Collection (PHDC) Store Page doesn’t seem to mention that this game offers FIFTEEN tables, and that might go far toward explaining what otherwise may seem to be a high price. What a player gets for $20US are some of the most interesting, creative and non-derivative tables I’ve yet seen. Admittedly, at this point I’ve only play a single game on most tables, but the need to produce this review weighed heavily on me. Design wise, these are generally very beautiful tables, most having at least one additional playfield (and some have more than I’ve ever imagined) but used wisely and productively. Pinball is in actuality far more than simply flippers and balls…it’s intelligent, wise, fun design. And as far as I can tell PHDC offers those aspects adequately (or beyond) in most cases. One concern seems to be is that this is a ported phone app. Not having ever played a game on a phone, I can only make the comment…..”Who cares?!” I care about design. fun and playability, and I’m mostly satisfied. Where I’m not, I’ll go to the next table and perhaps lose a very small portion of my “investment”. It’s said by some that PHDC has poor physics. But it has also been said that computer pinball may never match the physics of actual tables, and no doubt that’s true (at least for now.) While I’m generally loath to mention competing products in reviews, I think this example can be excused, and perhaps this alleged completion is itself a myth for these two games. Most of the community agree that Pro Pinball Ultra’s Timeshock! table has the best physics currently available on any platform. I tend to agree. I’ve played in the neighborhood of 2,500 games of Timeshock!, and when going directly from that table to PHDC, I don’t even remotely experience a “physics funk”. True, they aren’t directly comparable, but TS costs approximately ten times as much per table, and has been in development since 1997! In PHDC the ball acts as I anticipate it should, and when I hit it, it goes where I expect it to, utilizing the “middle flipper sweet spot” extensively. For a game geared less for the elite player, and more for the beginning or average player (99% of the pinball market), it obeys the same laws of physics I do. I think that for the most part, complaints about physics are really more a request for a more realistic (or perhaps faster) speed. Personally, I’d be much happier with PHDC if there were at least two game speed choices available. While it might be nice to make it clearer somehow that in PHDC, the ball is launched by holding the down arrow button, and flippers are operated with the left and right arrow keys, the game rules and instructions are expressed very nicely with a single (though sometimes complicated) graphic of the table currently chosen. (And it’s available during gameplay.) Also, the instructions unfortunately downplay the versatility of choosing from a variety of camera angles during play simply by pressing the “C” key. A very nice feature that may need to be used regularly as the ball enters various playfields. At this point it’s not clear exactly how to play the two tables that utilize vertical areas of the gamefield – Pinball Fantasy and Pirates. Hopefully I can obtain clarification so I can edit this review. And I’m currently not in a position to comment on the 3-D glasses aspect of this game, strictly from lack of knowledge. The leaderboards are adequate, but after placing 12th on six tables in a row I realized I needed to reset them manually by toggling between “Local” and “Steam” to get accurate data. (But if you want to get in early with some high ranking scores, now’s the time. After a single game on each I managed at least one #1 score, so it’s likely YOU will too.) Who might enjoy Pinball HD Collection? Anyone will enjoy the creative layouts and original design. For elite players, on some tables some shots can be just too easy to make, and on some of the tables the games may just last too long. (Heck of a complaint, huh?) It’s not for players that value franchise content over the very basic Zen-ness of pinball. It’s also not for those that place achievements first over content. (At least for now. But as I’ve said before, I played pinball for over fifty years before I even heard of achievements.) For beginners, I’d don’t see how a pinball game could be much more satisfying. I still play, and very much enjoy, Balls of Steel (no longer available on Steam) based on it’s amusing and clever layout and design, and I feel fairly certain that if you too still enjoy earlier computer pinball, you will likely enjoy PHDC even more. I’m an average pinball player, but I WILL be keeping this game, and playing it at least occasionally (possibly much more) for a break from the often “too serious” world of competitive pinball. I think PHDC is the perfect game for those who just wish to enjoy pinball at both its most basic……AND more complex. Thank you.

[h1]I received a key from the developer for the purpose of reviewing the game. Receiving the game for free has had no impact on my opinion of the game or its mechanics as I already have played this on mobile prior to this version.[/h1] [h1]Introduction[/h1] I have always loved the tables that the Russian developer OOO Gameprom has made. Unfortunately, for a very long time, the only way to enjoy these tables was through playing on the tiny screen of a smartphone or on a tablet like an iPad. Thankfully, their best tables have been gathered together and this collection has landed on Steam allowing more people to play them. So the big questions that need answers are how did the move to Steam work out for the game and is it worth the price point that the developers have set? Did the transfer to Steam go well for this game? Yes. The Steam version's menus and interface first of all are just as easy to use as the mobile menus and interface are but the two versions have differences. All of the tables also have quick guide pages that will give you the basics of what to do on each table which is great. [h1]Game Mechanics[/h1] These tables feature something fun that most pinball tables do not have: the mission system. The table will give you a mission which is a shot that needs to be made or a place the ball has to go and if completed, gives you bonus points. These allow the player to always have something to aim for and try to achieve. There are also side pockets that will catch the ball if going down the left or right outlanes. After use, they must be reactivated by hitting drop targets to prevent future ball drains. The physics that this title are known for are intact and great. While they might not be as robust as something like Pinball Arcade or Zen Pinball (Pinball FX2 on Steam), they are still silky smooth and very good. They are closer to how Zen Pinball handles physics with less realistic bounces on the flippers. Trying to use bounce-passes and similar techniques won't really work here because the physics system was developed prior to pinball games like Pinball Arcade, and since this title is aimed at a generally more casual audience, they have not changed the physics yet. It is worth mentioning that using the nudge feature does allow the player to perform bang backs to save the ball and it almost always works. [h1]Visuals[/h1] The visuals are in general amazing. Tables like Da Vinci are stunning in their appearance and design. These tables are in general king in one area: creativity in design. Tables like the Arcade table with minigames to play while playing pinball are so original that it changes the whole game of what you're doing. The tables are visually striking and fun to watch with generally bright color schemes. There are a few different view options available with the flyover mode the best in my opinion. [h1]Sound/Voice[/h1] The sounds and voice acting are great. Most of them exceeded my expectations with only a couple being slightly less than expected. One of my favorite tables that I have played is surprisingly the Halloween table which has great voice and effects that are themed very well with the visuals. [h1]Best Tables[/h1] The top tables that I have played that I think are stand out examples of their brilliant design are: 1. Da Vinci 2. Arcade 3. Red Planet 4. Halloween 5. Pirates [h1]Is It Worth It?[/h1] The fact that most people do not know about this title is that it is not a small collection. It has a whopping 15 tables with a very large variety of themes and designs. Obiviously some tables are lesser quality than the rest like Fantasy for example, but the others that are great make up for the shortcomings of the lesser few. The fact of the matter is that in my opinion, 15 tables all gathered together which are overall great with some tables even reaching awesome status, makes for a package that is well worth the price if you like/love Pinball like me and you want more pinball on Steam. These tables are great additions to the pantheon of tables that are currently available on Steam for players. [h1]Drawbacks?[/h1] The game is not perfect and does have some minor problems. First of all, the game does not have built-in controller support. This can be subverted using a program that converts keyboard keys to gamepad. I recommend the Steam application called Controller Companion. Using something like this makes for a much better experience. It is very much playable on keyboard but the catch is that your controls are left and right arrows for the flippers, holding down the down arrow launches the ball and the up arrow nudges up. These controls are not remappable at the time of this review. It is unknown whether this will be added in the future. If you have a controller and a program that can convert to gamepad like the one mentioned prior, you will have a good time here. There are also some bugs and issues reported but I personally have not encountered any of these reported bugs. It is possible that these reported bugs/issues will not be patched because the developer has not made an appearance on the game's forums here on Steam. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] This collection is a great gathering of many original designs that were priviously not available to Steam users. They include many fun to play tables with varying degrees of difficulty and design, with great sounds, voices and visuals. The downsides are that with no built-in controller support, the user must use a third-party application to make up for the shortcomings of the control options on offer here. Still playable on keyboard but not as good as playing with controller. [h1]Final Verdict: 8/10[/h1]

Controller works Right click your game in your library, Go to manage, Click controller, Browse configs and pick the xbox one config someone has made. I took the chance and bought this game as it's currently on sale for cheap. All the negative views I see mention controllers not working. Also posts on these forums stating so. This is how you get it working. I got it for 2.99. Worth that. 100%. Just wrote this review to tell people that controller actually works now if you do what I've stated.

You can't reset the controls, there's no nudging, no controller support and the frame rate drops even on relatively high end graphic cards (GTX1070). At least there's like 16 tables but I still don't think it's worth it. The ambiance of the tables is great though, but the gameplay really isn't.

Whilst so obviously a mobile port over to the Pc, there are a few good points to this Pinball collection that still make it a worthwhile addition to the genre. Haven't enjoyed a pinball game so much since Pinball Fantasies back in Amiga times. Although still not perfect. Giving it a better control system (or make the keys definable) and this could be a great fun game. But at £1 per table still going to give it a cautious positive, as hopefully further updates will follow.... Update November 2019. Sadly the controls have as yet not been refined, which is a great shame.

I was excited to add this to my cab, but unfortunately if you are offline you cannot launch the game, My pc is disconnected from the internet 99% of the time so this game is a no go. I have requested a refund, and figured I would give others a heads up before they find out like I did!

Such great, cool looking tables without controller support?? No. Very sorry.

ESP: Como dicen muchas de las reviews, es un port de móvil con algunas falencias, como no poder cambiar los controles (se juega si o si con las flechitas) algunas mesas son meh y otras están bien, pero eso si, hay muchas, como 15. Lo compre al 80% de descuento, creo que la pena para enfermitos del pinball como yo. ENG: As many of the reviews say, it is a mobile port with some shortcomings, such as not being able to remap the controls (you play with the arrows) some tables are better than others, but there are many, like 15. I got it at 80% discount, and I think it is worth for pinball enthusiasts.