Recent reviews by CycOd3liC

I've played this series since Pinball FX on the 360 and it gets better with every iteration. Yes, this game has some kinks to iron out, but it's trending in the right direction. I have played just about every pinball product out there, and this is one of the better ones. I understand some of the complaints about having to buy the tables again, but this a new game and a new engine, it's not just dropping the old table into a new game and calling it good, there was work involved and I don't expect these guys to do it for free. If FX3 works for you, stay with it, but I'm moving forward.

A good collection of retro-style Pinball Machines with varying themes. Good variation of angles, single screen and scrolling. Customizable tables, daily events, etc.

Pros:

- A good selection of tables with some very creative themes.
- Bricks: An Arkanoid style table that is a lot of fun (and I love me some Arkanoid).
- BagaBall is insanely addicting and very difficult.
- The FastBall table has some great sound effects and a lot of fun to play.
- Great price for what you get.
- Good physics, not great but not bad. Very adequate for this style of game.
- Graphics are solid, gameplay is smooth.

Cons:

- The ball could be a little less bouncy when it hits the bottom rails.
- I would like to see better plunger control with the sticks on the game controllers. It would be nice to be able to adjust the power on the sticks to get just the right amount of power (would probably make BagaBall less difficult).

There aren't many cons for this game. It's very well made, easy to navigate, inexpensive and very addicting. If there's a better plunger control like i'm used to and I'm just an idiot, let me know and I'll adjust my review to reflect that but it will still be very positive.

Rating: 4 out of 5. Very well done!

Been watching this one develop for a while and decided to make the plunge and get the early access version (which almost never happens).

First impressions:

Visually: Absolutely gorgeous, I would be hard pressed to find a pinball game that looks this good and polished, definitely in the same league as Pro Pinball Remastered. The rustic looking ball is a nice touch. I play in 1920x1080 with all the eye candy on.

Audibly: Good music and speech, pretty good proportionate mix on volume levels (but customizable). Does have some lapses in music at times but it doesn't bother me enough to knock it.

Gameplay: Not bad at all, could use a little tuning and tweaking but the experience was very enjoyable. Physics are pretty on, but i'd like to see a little more bounce on the flippers (unless this was intended). Ball movement is nice and smooth. Does seem to fly into the outlanes at turbo speed at times but that's kind of what I'm used to with Pinball Arcade. Nudge is about what i would expect it to be.

Control: I use an XBOX 360 wireless controller. No lags whatsoever in the flippers and it's nice and smooth. Flipper power seems a little on the weaker side but it feels pretty good, not too stong like other games. The ability to use both sets of buttons is nice. I prefer the bumper buttons to the triggers myself.

Some observations: Default view was the camera moving with the ball location which was a little bit stuttery. I like a still playfield so one tap of the back button got to me the view i wanted with no camera movement. After that it was very smooth with no lags or hiccups.

My rig is a bit dated and custom built but played this game just fine.

My Specs:

Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16GB RAM (DDR3 - PC3-10700)
eVGA nVidia Geforce GTX 970
Intel 240GB SSD
WD 1TB Velociraptor (10K)
Creative SB X-Fi
LG BD-RE Optical Drive
Corsair Wired Gaming Keyboard/Mouse
2x Dell 1080p Montitors
XBOX Wireless Receiver for PC
XBOX 360 Wireless controller (Chrome)

Overall Opinion: Very well done. Love the theme, all the bells and whistles, music and of course how beautiful it is to look at. Solid gameplay which could use a couple of fine tunings but this was a lot of fun to play. Nice smooth experience with no studders or hiccups (other than camera on mode).

Recommendation: Absolutely. I love pinball and I'll take it any way I can get it. I'm an average player who has been playing for 25+ years. Can't wait to see what these guys come up with next.

*Updated review - 11/10/2017*

The Good:

* Who ya gunna call? Ghostbusters! FINALLY! - Beatiful to look at, solid gameplay.
* Star Trek appears to be a bit more stable now.
* Cross-Buy with TPA - If you buy GB here, you'll get it TPA and vice-versa.

The Bad:

* The menu is still horrendous. Why can't it be like the XBONE version or something universal?
* 9+ months between updates, WHY? I mean i'm happy to have GB now but that was way too long between updates. Hopefully you have everything figured out with emulation & scripting so we can start seeing more of the SAM and SPIKE system games.
* Finally updated after 9 months and cross-buy didn't work at release. You guys really need better testing and quality control.

I've seen people complain about having to pay for GB when they already bought Pack 2. If you remember, the price was $15 and not $20 like on XBONE. Just a little over $5 to finish the pack so basically the same.

Updated Score: 3.5/5 - Ghostbusters is great, menu is still awful. Glad it's finally been updated! Let's get those other new games that we're hearing about added. Hopefully Metallica will make it into SPA someday.

** Original Review **

Let me get this out of the way first, I love pinball. I will take it any way I can get it. David's Midnight Magic on the Commodore 64, Epic Pinball on the PC, Psycho Pinball PC, Pinball FX/2, Pro Pinball, Pinball Arcade and of course the real thing! I have given FarSight a ton of money for Pinball Arcade on the X360, Steam, Apple and Android. Not to mention i have purchased several other pinball games, good and bad.

And now we have SPA..... The launch on XBONE was fine and i had a blast playing AC/DC, Mustang and Star Trek. The release on Steam was an absolute disaster, but they fixed the worst of it shortly thereafter. Yes, there are still issues and occasional crashes. Did Doom, BioShock or Bulletstorm crash at times? Of course they did. Could SPA be more stable? Sure. PC's do vary of course and mine isn't top of the line, but it's plenty capable. The amount of crashes for my experience has been very minimal.

My love for some of the newer Stern tables and how they play in this app if what sways my vote over to the Positive. There are plenty of negative things I can say about this app, but it's more positive than negative.

The Good:

- OMG did you play GhostBusters on the XBONE? Holy cow, i can't wait to play this on Steam!
- Beautiful to look at, Gameplay is very good.
- Very good recreations of the real thing.
- Plays very well on the Xbox controller - Nice smooth response on the triggers, nudge and control.
- If you own the Stern tables on TPA you won't have to pay for them on SPA.

The Bad:

- Disastrous release on Steam
- Took some trials and tribulations to get it working full screen
- The menu is just plain awful
- Navigation is difficult with the XBOX controller
- Communication with Farsight is lacking
- Too long between updates. The issues on Steam should have been dealt with a long time ago.
- Very late on releases. I know some of it is out of your control, but you need better PR.
- Tables still need a little tuning

Yes, this is a spendy product.... If I had the money and the space, I would most likely own 50+ Pinball Machines but lets' get real here. All these tables in the palm of your hand, office space or small game room. Sign me up!

Farsight, you're taking on way too many projects with your staffing level and it shows. I honestly don't mind spending the money I do on your products, but you really don't have a good excuse for the delays of updates and fixes on Steam.

In the current state of the game, it gets a 3 out of 5. Once they fix some of the shortcomings, add tables and improve the experience, i will most likely change my review. My review of the XBONE version would be a 4 out of 5 as it is more stable, much better menu and of course having GhostBusters! Hurry up and get it on Steam already!

Classic Recreations of REAL Pinball Tables....That's all you need to hear. So many negative reviews for being too expensive, etc. Look people, these are recreations of ***REAL PINBALL MACHINES***, there are licensing fees, royalties, etc. involved here. If you want a real pinball machine, you're going to fork over a lot more money.

Ok, so the UI is awful, but they are improving it soon. Complaining about graphics quality on the PC? DX11 is coming. They've integrated SteamPlay and Linux is coming. Trust me, this company is not out on a cash grab. They are on a mission to recreate some of the best pinball tables ever made. They are a small shop with limited resources and it is what it is, but make no mistake, they are doing this for the love of Pinball.

Gameplay is 100x better than those *OTHER* games. And before you accuse me of being on their payroll, be known that I buy any and ALL pinball games and play them. I've been playing Pinball for 25 years and I enjoy it any way I can get it.