Kickback- Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection Review

Shipwreck’s Take: By now, it’s no secret that I loved Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. The Wii version was my Most Surprising Game of 2008 and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions received an Outstanding (the highest review score on Cheap Ass Gamer). So I was of course delighted when I found out that Farsight Studios and Crave had decided to bring their previously released Gottlieb Collection to the Wii. Is this another must have game to add to the [insert your name here] Collection or are your quarters best spent elsewhere?

Growing up in arcades in the eighties, I was quite familiar with many of the Williams machines, namely classics like Funhouse, Taxi, and Black Knight. For me, the same kind of nostalgia doesn’t come pre-packaged with The Gottlieb Collection; many of the included tables pre-date me by several years. Despite the lack of nostalgia, Farsight’s solid physics engine leads to a mean game of pinball, or at least a slightly ill-tempered game of pinball. The game feels nice to play and controls well, but the ball seems to float off bumpers and ramps from time to time. It’s not a major detraction, but one I felt was worth mentioning. More distracting than the occasional physics quirk are the extremely pixelated graphics that accompany the detailed artwork found on the El Dorado table.

The main reason The Gottlieb Collection doesn’t match the greatness of The Williams Collection is because the overall table selection isn’t as ridiculously good. While tables such as Black Hole, Genie, Goin’ Nuts, and Victory fit the bill for more modern-style play, the majority are not elaborate machines full of winding ramps, trapdoors, and interactive LED displays. Rather, these are simpler playing fields consisting of a few bumpers, targets, and saucer holes. It serves as a nice history lesson on what pinball tables evolved from, but many of these machines feel more like novelties than something I’m likely to spend time mastering. For example, there’s an almost Pachinko type feel to Ace High and Play Boy (both released prior to 1960) and, oddly enough, the most recent table (1995’s Strikes N’ Spares) is a straight-forward game of virtual bowling.

Although each table has an excellent walkthrough, perhaps I would be more inclined to learn the intricacies of these older tables if I was given more incentive. Unlike the ten Achievement-like goals that tables in the Williams Collection had, each Gottlieb machine has only been assigned a single (often lofty) goal. This definitely lowers the sense of progression and accomplishment, but there is a Gottlieb Challenge mode that tasks you with obtaining high scores on each table in succession. There are some nice random extras thrown-in such as the old-timey photographs of the Gottlieb manufacturing plant and a couple of kitschy arcade mainstays like a Love Meter and the fortune-telling Xolten.

At the end of the day, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection is most likely not going to win over as many people as The Williams Collection. The table selection just isn’t nearly as memorable, and the limited number of goals hampers the sense of satisfaction. At the same time, if you already own The Williams Collection (which you should), this makes a nice expansion of sorts and comes in at a budget price of $19.99.

DesertEagle’s Take: Few gaming diversions have a history as ironic as pinball. Once ubiquitous throughout America’s bowling alleys, pool halls, and arcades, these analog amusements were gradually overwhelmed by the barrage of video games during the 1980’s. As pin producers such as Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb became tempted by the popularity of CRT-based entertainment, the manufacturers slowly abandoned their efforts to produce ball and flipper machines, leading to the inevitable demise of pinball from the recreational landscape. Currently, pinball subsists through the medium which made it obsolete, as meticulous digital recreations offer a way for contemporary console gamers to experience this misplaced pastime.

One of the most fastidious simulations of classic pinball was Farsight Studio’s Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. The collection used the capability of today’s gaming systems to faithfully reproduce a handful of landmark tables. Each contact with a flipper, bumper, or slingshot sent the virtual ball careening in a marvelously realistic fashion, accurately modeling the physicality of an actual machine. Although the recent released Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection doesn’t reach the loftiness exhibited by the previous compilation, it is still a commendable disk worthy of a place in any pin aficionado’s library.

Some enthusiasts may notice that the Gottlieb Collection isn’t a new title; it’s assortment of eleven tables was already offered to Gamecube, PS2, PSP, and Xbox owners in 2005. However, this new iteration seems to have been given a retrofitting with elements of the Williams engine. Although the disk’s physics model is generally solid, I spied a few instances where balls responded unrealistically. Ramps can induce sporadic instances of floatiness, while saucer holes jettisoned the steel sphere out awkwardly.

The Gottlieb Collection’s selection of tables can be perplexing. Some machines offer delightful variations of typical pinball play, such as Goin’ Nuts continuous multiball pandemonium or the wide-body table found in Genie. Others like El Dorado are overly simplistic and only faintly gratifying, with a playfield filled with green nondescript textures. While the anthology is a solid retrospective of Gottlieb’s existence, many gamers may be disappointed by the game’s tendency toward antiquated pre-1970’s tables.

One element that elevates the disk above similar disks is the collection’s inclusion of historical photos. Players can sift through 26 black and white images that affectionately illustrate the assembly process for some of the game’s tables. It’s unfortunate that a similar amount of attention wasn’t given to the game’s inclusion of the Los Vegas-based Pinball Hall of Fame organization; a single screen of text seems woefully inadequate.