Platform: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP

Genre: Pinball

Number of Players: 1 - 4

I’ve never really been shy about my love of pinball. Sure, I’m a console gamer who owns just about every system under the face of the sun save for those that involve chanting mantras and praying to digital codes that it doesn’t light up with a code red the moment the power button is pressed, but pinball still has a place in my heart. There’s just something about a game where one quarter might be done within less than five minus or possibly last as long as an hour or more depending on scores and end of the game matches to get additional credits. Crave has already given fans a collection of retro pinball machines as a part of their Gottlieb Collection and now they are turning towards another legend in the industry with Williams.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection brings pinball fans eight digital recreations of machines created of course by Williams. Some of the games included you’ve probably heard of, you may have even spent far too much money playing them while other games may be new and unfamiliar. These games however were the design of some of the greats in the world of pinball arcade games, namely Steve Ritchie, Larry DeMar, and Pat Lawlor, and their influence on the industry has been nothing short of amazing.

While The Williams Collection might be a bit on the short side in terms of the available machines, the Gottlieb Collection has eleven, that doesn’t mean that the game is any less enjoyable, and while I had some concern about using the Wii controller for a game like this, is actually works quite well. The A button on the remote serves as your right flipper while the Z button on the nunchuck is your left. Either of the controls can be “bumped” to nudge the ball in the respective direction and to pull back the plunger and shoot, simply use the analog stick. It’s really as simple as that, and the control scheme itself is actually very comfortable.

The games included range in release from 1970 up to 1990 and show both the evolution and innovation of the machines that Williams was designing. Black Knight introduced the idea of “Manga-Save” and was the first pinball machine of its kind of feature a two level playing field while their 1979 release of Gorgar was the first pinball game that talked with a total of seven words, something that was groundbreaking for the time. Seeing a machine like Jive Time might show a pinball game which is very simple in its design, but m Williams in later years would release games like Funhouse where the field was filled with ramps and traps doors or Whirlwind where three spinning discs can change the direction of your ball.

Each pinball machine has its own rules and objectives, and covering them all here would be a tremendous task, but for most, you should know how to play pinball. It’s much more than just shooting the ball and keeping it in play. Hitting ramps and drop targets will help to activate other aspects of the game, keep your points increasing, unlock any multi-ball features, and overall, the game is kept exciting. Black Knight is probably one of the most popular games featured in this collection, though personally I’ve always been a big fan of Funhouse, a game which kept me away from school on a number of occasions. You will also find other Williams titles like Firepower, Pin*Bot, Taxi and Space Shuttle included here.

However, there is another challenge that you must be prepared for. As you begin the game, only a few of the cabinet will be available for free play and the others must be unlocked. The first way to do this is with credits and you begin with a mere 30. Achieving high scores and even getting matches will reward you with additional credits, but more important is trying to accomplish each of the goals that is set out for the individual tables. This is where skill and at times, a great deal of patience will become important. The idea of reaching a high score of 600,000 or more on Gorgar sound easy, but this is a low scoring game and the idea of a kickback if you lose the ball at the beginning of each play doesn’t exist. Maybe getting a “Rudy Gulp” is something else that doesn’t seem like it’s that challenging, but remember that you need to get this dummy to fall asleep first before you can even get close to getting him to swallow the ball. Achieving all of the goals on tables will also unlock the free play mode on your choice of table, so there are a number of ways that you can get everything made available to you without spending your hard earned credits.

If the free play in the Williams Arcade gets a little boring, there is another challenge; the Williams Challenge. Here, you will play through each of the machines available with the objective of either matching or surpassing the given high score. The goals for each given table are still in play as well, so it is still possible to not only earn credits but unlock the tables in free play mode. Finally, for those looking for challenge their friends, they can do so beyond the arcade and tackle the games tournament mode where up to four players can compete for bragging rights.

Having played the Gottlieb Collection more than I probably should have (my PSP version of the game often has problems working correctly if that tells you anything) I was always impressed with the look of the game, but I think that the Williams Collection might actually surpass what has already been seen in these collections. The tables are recreated almost perfectly, and there are some things that just can’t make their way into a home version, but the look and the even the sound gives the illusion of being right there playing the table. Even that familiar, loud popping sound that is heard when you earn a match is found in the game. The physics even seem to be improved, though I did find a few glitches here and there with the flippers but most of the time, it actually worked in my favor.

Home versions of pinball machines might not be quite the same thing as really playing them, but what’s more inexpensive; picking up this collection for under $50 or trying to buy a single Funhouse machine off eBay for around $3000? That’s what I thought, and if you’re a fan of pinball, this is a collection that you must own and if you’re not, this might make a believer out of you. Now I can only hope that the next step isn’t just more Gottlieb and Williams games, and I am disappointed that Cyclone wasn’t included with this release, but hopefully Midway will soon be included so that we can finally play machines like The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone.

-mike-