Recent reviews by ZombieCat

Every absurd story you've ever heard about this game is true.

I used to think I was obsessed with Factorio until I compared my hours on record to the thousands of hours that some people have clocked.

I've never seen a game with this many hardware compatibility issues. Take a look at the forums, nearly half the threads there are people asking for help because the game won't start. Why? Maybe it doesn't like your sound settings, or your particular brand of headphones, or your monitor resolution, or the fact that you have a controller plugged in.

This is easily in the contention for my top three games, in any category, ever. It will teach you more about orbital mechanics than you ever wanted to know. It will give you stories to tell, of spectacular failures, of crowning successes, of daring rescue missions gone horribly wrong.

My love of this game mostly stems from breathless nostalgia, as in "I wonder if it has Cactus Canyon OH MY GOD IT DOES and OH WOW there's Whirlwind I haven't played that since I was a kid and HOLY CRAP FUNHOUSE I was terrified of that one!!". If you've ever played any of the tables featured, definitely check it out.

I've also come to appreciate the game as kind of a historical museum. I'm not really a pinball afficianado, but I do like browsing through the tables and seeing how trends came and went over the decades. The transition from electromechanical to solid state, the way targets gave way to ramps, the fascination with multiple playfields and flippers that slowly died out, etc. I dunno, it's interesting.

If I had to criticize the game, I'm not a fan of how most tables come in packs of two. I bought Cactus Canyon and found myself saddled with Central Park. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the charms of an electromechanical table, but I'd really prefer something more traditional, like Big Shot. But if I bought Big Shot I'd also get Scared Stiff, which I didn't care too much for, and yeah, you see where this is going.

I'm not knowledgable enough to discuss the physics and how accurate they are. It SEEMS like the ball should be going faster than it is. Compare any gameplay video of a table in Pinball Arcade to a video of its real-life counterpart and you can definitely see a difference. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective. Most videos of real pinball games are shot either from the side or from straight up, and it's been far too long since I've been to an arcade to remember if it feels any different.

I think my time on record should indicate that, yes, this is a very good game. A nice introduction to roguelikes, easy to pick up but deep enough to keep veterans of the genre interested. Excellent art style, impeccably funny writing, and it's cheap.