Request Swords of Fury - the greatest fantasy-themed pinball you've never played

Am I the only one who thinks that Swords of Fury is criminally underrated? If I were to assemble a checklist of everything I wanted from a pinball table, along with consideration against everything I hate in certain modern machines, Swords of Fury would fall perfectly at the top of that narrowed selection. Fun gameplay, challenging risk-vs-reward special shots, strategic flipper placement, a great multi-ball, rhythmic flow, multiple playfields, epic music that you rarely get from a pinball machine, great artwork that almost tricks your eyes with its depth and colors, two U-turns, hidden passages... the list goes on.




[video=vimeo;33229671]http://vimeo.com/33229671[/video]

I may be fickle with my other favorites, but Swords of Fury has stood the test of time, remaining my #1 since 1988. And if FarSight ever included it in The Pinball Arcade, I probably wouldn't get any sleep for weeks after its release.

I agree 100%. Definitely one of the best alphanumeric display games and I love the artwork. Criminally underrated.

I've never had a chance to play Swords of Fury...looks like it'd be a lot of fun though.

FarSight has already shown that TPA isn't just about which games rate the highest. It's not a simple popularity contest. Instead, they seem to be considering fun factor, historical value, a balance of gameplay that will translate digitally, and maybe even some personal preference amongst their programmers. I think that's good, since it means we get a better mix of machines that we may or may have not played before.

For instance, Ripley's ranks 83rd on Pinside.com's Top 100, while Gorgar and Hayley Davidson Third Edition don't even make the list. Black Hole is at #77, and the ever-popular Black Knight only makes #68. Swords of Fury sits between them at 72nd, despite having a more limited production run. The people who have played SoF love it, and it's gameplay is perfectly suited for digital conversion. It's also an unlicensed, original Williams IP, so it would be an easy table to include for FarSight.

TPA shouldn't just be a collection of the Top 40 pinball tables. While including those top-rated tables may be important for drawing players in, it's the exposure to new favorites and tables they've never had the opportunity to play that will keep them coming back. Putting under-appreciated tables like Swords of Fury into TPA will help solidify FarSight as an actual pinball authority, rather than regurgitating the same Top 40 checklist that everyone can read on Pinside or IPDB.

The same is also true for old-school classics like Xenon (Bally), Haunted House (Gottlieb), and Galaxy (Stern). They're great games, but since they simply won't win popularity contests against 90s heavyweights like Addams Family and Indiana Jones, it will be up to FarSight to give them their dues. Sure, most of these exist as non-licensed IPs that can fill the gaps between the more expensive tables getting released, so maybe FarSight will eventually get around to them, almost out of necessity. But why not give them a bit more of the spotlight? After all, their successes and innovations are what made the licensed heavyweights possible in the first place.

Couldn't agree more. Id like to think that we will see more tables like this after they run out of PHOF titles. I'd love to see Haunted House, Swords of Fury, Xenon and Centaur. Haunted House was one of my favorites of childhood. If it had multiball and voice audio it would be a top 10 game in my opinion. Swords, Xenon, and Centaur have some of the best artwork of any tables ever made.

Ripley's being only 83 is a damn darn shame and proof that the whole top 100 consists of great pins, but just in different areas (lots of people rank Audio and Art just as high as playfield and gameplay, because they have to physically look at it in their room). Gameplay and playfield wise Ripley is just a damn good, very deep game, if a bit obscure in it's ruleset and how to approach the different modes and how to combine them (but I now think thats inherent to creating a table with that much flexibility). I stated several times its in my top 3 for all TPA tables sofar (the other 2 are constantly shifting between several tables)

However Farsight needs to sell a product to make sure the more obscure tables like the ones you mention will be able to get made in the long run. If they start out with too many of the "underground" tables, people will shrug their shoulders at them and their project might come to a premature end. Tables like TOM, TZ, TAF, STTNG, MM, WH2O, FH will, if succesful enough, secure the development in the long term of the lesser known ones. Like I said, I think you will start see some more of them once the PHOF tables are done and they need cheaper to obtain, lesser known, unlicensed tables to fill their packs.

Back to your OP. Swords of Fury looks like a nice playfield.

I agree with everything you said, bavelb. But that works perfectly into my two-fold point: 1) at least FarSight seems to have the capacity for recognizing greatness outside of a Top 40 internet ranking, and 2) while we know we'll inevitably get games like Star Trek and Twilight Zone to drive TPA sales in the mainstream, I just hope we get more non-PHoF originals sooner than later.

Don't misunderstand me, though, I appreciate the work FarSight is putting into those licensed tables. Jumping through the hoops of license-wrangling can't be fun. Most companies would never care to attempt what FS has set out to accomplish.

But I also know how this internet-driven game market goes. A lot of people who contribute their ratings to Pinside have never played more than a handful of real tables. Opinions are often based on the popularity of an IP, the way a machine looks in pictures and videos, or an inaccurate facsimile of a table poorly rendered into Visual Pinball or some other emulator. I'm glad that FarSight is filled with real pinball enthusiasts who care about the history and gameplay of the machines themselves.

And yes, Swords of Fury's playfield is pretty sweet.

Furthermore, the highest-rated table on many lists, including Pinside, is Medieval Madness. And as good as that game's playfield is, it utilizes three modern pinball conventions that I can't stand:

1) No traditional plunger. instead, it uses a big red button-press to launch the ball. That means decreased ball control and no skill shots.

2) The player must rely heavily on the DMD. Your understanding of the objectives is linked to it, and many DMD tables use the feature to artificially bloat the game's content and lengthen play time. In other words, it detracts from the ingenious design of pre-DMD solid-states that were far trickier to master.

3) Ramps, tubes, and flashy toys have replaced multiple tiers and mini-playfields. While this makes gameplay fast and cool-looking, it does little for the strategic elements I enjoy in old-school tables like Swords of Fury and Haunted House. It's like comparing Robin Hood: Men in Tights to The Princess Bride or I, Robot to Blade Runner...

JoshuaKadmon said:

Furthermore, the highest-rated table on many lists, including Pinside, is Medieval Madness. And as good as that game's playfield is, it utilizes three modern pinball conventions that I can't stand:

1) No traditional plunger. instead, it uses a big red button-press to launch the ball. That means decreased ball control and no skill shots.

2) The player must rely heavily on the DMD. Your understanding of the objectives is linked to it, and many DMD tables use the feature to artificially bloat the game's content and lengthen play time. In other words, it detracts from the ingenious design of pre-DMD solid-states that were far trickier to master.

3) Ramps, tubes, and flashy toys have replaced multiple tiers and mini-playfields. While this makes gameplay fast and cool-looking, it does little for the strategic elements I enjoy in old-school tables like Swords of Fury and Haunted House. It's like comparing Robin Hood: Men in Tights to The Princess Bride or Independence Day to Blade Runner...

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While I disagree with you on all 3 points, I'd try to keep your thread on topic as a request for SoF and the need for TPA to look beyond the top 20. MM being overrated already has a thread: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/583-MM-overrated

My point is that Swords of Fury manages to give us many of the things that make modern pinball fun without relying on the elements that detract from gameplay. Medieval Madness still remains one of my Top 20 all-time, so the intention is not to bash it relentlessly.

If you look at the playfield, the videos of how the objectives work, the sound effects, etc., I believe Swords of Fury would translate very well to TPA's digital format. As with any cross-medium effort like this, some tables may work well in a digital environment, while others may have certain points that are lost in translation. Swords of Fury would look good, play well, and offer a deep amount of content to master. And being one of the lesser-known Williams originals, many long-time pinball fanatics may find it to be a newly discovered favorite.

Serenseven said:

I've never had a chance to play Swords of Fury...looks like it'd be a lot of fun though.

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Same here....which is unfortunate because it looks fantastic.

Aside from the flippers making a sword swoosh sound, there's one other feature that makes the dark fantasy theme immersive in its functionality. If you look at the left outlane, there is a Shield light that acts like an evolved Magna-Save from Black Knight, but this one is automatic. By meeting certain conditions, the Shield light will activate, and any time a ball drains down that outlane, a magnet will grab the ball, make a shield sound, and eject it back into the playfield. The Shield light will blink and go out, almost like the player has lost the strength to block another attack, until the feature is lit again.

+1 on Swords of Fury!!!
It's was a lot of fun to play at the CAX, but I wish the sound was turned up louder since I couldn't hear any of the audio.
and also +1 for Haunted House, they had the sound cranked super loud at CAX. The gameplay is soo damn fun and those amazing sound FX send a chill down my spine every time- it's soo nostalgic.

never heard of this one : Look s like a winner to me , and I will champion any poll to get it released in the future , on CONS: no Dot MatriX , on the Pros: it's easier on my ears than that Black Knight table , while enjoying a similiar theme . Farsight should look into investing time getting this table set for TPA.

By the end of this year, FarSight will be running thin on PHoF Williams Collection tables, and then they will need to consider other original tables to start including alongside the more expensive licensed IPs. Williams had plenty to choose from over the years, but I hope we see Swords of Fury as one of the first they choose.

JoshuaKadmon said:

By the end of this year, FarSight will be running thin on PHoF Williams Collection tables, and then they will need to consider other original tables to start including alongside the more expensive licensed IPs. Williams had plenty to choose from over the years, but I hope we see Swords of Fury as one of the first they choose.

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Sounds good to me. I'm really looking forward to trying it.

I've played one. I can't believe how so many great System 11 games there are that Farsight hasn't even looked into, and this is one of them.

I want a real one. Pretty (comparably) cheap, according to the Pinside average. A TPA version would be sweet too.

pseudokings said:

I want a real one. Pretty (comparably) cheap, according to the Pinside average. A TPA version would be sweet too.

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You should take that Pinside estimated price with a grain of salt. That may be the table's "value", but because of its more limited production run and resulting rarity, you would need to pay several times that to get one in good working condition. You may notice in the first photo I posted that the price tag is $3995.