Anyone have a game they find hard that a lot of people say is easy?

[etchie]

I've read quite a few posts in which people talk about easy games that last forever, such as "The Twilight Zone". What?! I have all the tables and this is one of the hardest and most frustrating to me. Please, someone agree! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

Also, have you experienced this with a certain table?

 

[Rich Lehmann]

I've read quite a few posts in which people talk about easy games that last forever, such as "The Twilight Zone". What?! I have all the tables and this is one of the hardest and most frustrating to me. Please, someone agree! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

Also, have you experienced this with a certain table?

I was thinking that today about Black Rose. I just don't get the scoring. I am a silver, boarderline gold in most tournaments and just seem to do terrible on Black Rose.

It took me a little while to figure out Twilight Zone too but once I did I saw what everyone liked about it. And yeah, once you get it going it can be a really long table. I am not awesome at it, I have only gotten the white gumball onto the table once and I think I was so startled by the fact that the ball was white that I lost it pretty fast. It was a table I had to find the right view and then play a few games in a row but eventually got the hang of it.

 

[Kratos3]

It depends on who is saying it's easy.

Seriously though, probably Funhouse. My high is like 40 million.

 

[MWink]

I know exactly what you're talking about with Twilight Zone and I think I've figured out why. I used to feel the exact same way. I would quickly drain and thought it was just an incredibly hard table. Then I took the time to learn how to play (exploit?) the table. It turns out that many of the shots I would instinctively take were very dangerous. Once I learned which shots were safe and started to play more methodically, games started lasting MUCH longer (too long?). In the past I found it hard to top 100M. Now I can score over 10B. The down side to this style of play is that it becomes tedious (L-ramp, R-ramp, piano, rinse, repeat), can lead to very long games (hours), and isn't a whole lot of fun. If I try to play on-the-fly my ball time drops dramatically. This is why I'm not in love with the TPA version of Twilight Zone. I prefer tables like Attack from Mars, ST:TNG, Cirqus Voltaire, etc. where I can get very high scores without resorting to a repetitive, tedious play style.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Medieval Madness. I see scores in the multi-billions with multiple trips through Battle for the Kingdom, yet I've never managed more than 550M and I've only completed BftK once. Although part of the issue is I play mainly on iOS, and the lack of controller support (and consequent lack of fine nudging and freedom from touchscreen lag) is probably making it far harder than it should be.

 

[etchie]

After posting I decided to go back to it again. Definitely a table you have to get used to and I am, slowly but surely. Still don't see how anyone could say it's easy though. I'm looking forward to this white ball. Now it won't be as much of a shock.

The biggest shocker ever I think, is the Simpson's table. At some point pretty far into the game, the flippers change, so right button controls left flipper and left controls right. It's insane.

 

[etchie]

Yeah, that's the most shocking part of the table. You hit the ball with your right flipper at a normal angle, it hits the bumper and flies straight back and through your flippers. Also, I think this game drains balls without you ever getting a chance to hit them way more than most tables. Very frustrating.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Yeah, that's the most shocking part of the table. You hit the ball with your right flipper at a normal angle, it hits the bumper and flies straight back and through your flippers. Also, I think this game drains balls without you ever getting a chance to hit them way more than most tables. Very frustrating.

Assuming you're talking about TZ's Powerball here, that's actually more realistic than you think. The real table's Powerball often will fly over the flippers if you rebound it off a bumper or standup. In addition to being nonmagnetic, it's 20% lighter than a standard pinball and likes to go airborne.

 

[etchie]

Assuming you're talking about TZ's Powerball here, that's actually more realistic than you think. The real table's Powerball often will fly over the flippers if you rebound it off a bumper or standup. In addition to being nonmagnetic, it's 20% lighter than a standard pinball and likes to go airborne.

Oh, I don't doubt it. It's not that I thought it was unrealistic, it's that other tables don't have something at that angle that will knock it straight back and through the middle. In fact, I see that around here a lot. That tables are easier or different in some way than in real life. I have all the tables and I've played a lot of them in real life, but for most of them I was really young and not experienced at pinball at all. The one that I played non stop and know a lot about as far as gameplay, is the Harley table. My college had the Harley table in the student center and I played it there every day. That's how I caught the bug. Anyway, TPA's version is SPOT ON. I can't imagine how different the others could be.

 

[jbejarano]

Medieval Madness. I see scores in the multi-billions with multiple trips through Battle for the Kingdom, yet I've never managed more than 550M and I've only completed BftK once. Although part of the issue is I play mainly on iOS, and the lack of controller support (and consequent lack of fine nudging and freedom from touchscreen lag) is probably making it far harder than it should be.

I'll double down on Medieval Madness being way harder for me than it seems to be for everyone else. I've never even started Battle for the Kingdom. I just can't seem to sustain anything on that table. My highest score ever is merely 114m.

Yet, Funhouse has become almost boring for me. The lowest of my five local high scores is over 70m.

Admittedly, I've always been much more fond of playing a table on-the-fly. Always trying to catch the ball and control every shot precisely is just not quite as fun. (And, I'm not exactly great at that anyway.)

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I'm going with NGG or RBION here. I just can't get into either of them. NGG for starters has far too much trying to go on at once, and it's always loud, and it's always accompanied by those stupid gofers. RBION, maybe due to the theme, just doesn't hang together. It has bits all over the place and tries to tie it together but... doesn't.

 

[Morg]

I always had a hard time with TZ myself, something about it just doesn't fit the way I naturally want to play. I've started to improve on it lately, but there's still an awful lot of things that seem to just produce instant drains for me. RBION has taken me a while but I'm finally pretty comfortable with it these days. Doesn't mean I can play for hours but it makes a lot more sense and I'm a lot less likely to put controller-shaped holes in my walls now.

I actually used to find Funhouse ridiculously frustrating, the timing and layout just didn't work for me and I would routinely plunge balls only to fail to do anything but flip them straight to a drain if I managed to make contact at all. I sat down one day and played patiently and read a bit of the rules, then it finally started to work out and now I can see why it's considered so easy. I think in general I seem to have a problem with tables that I find "cluttered" with stuff to hit right above the flipper area that kills a ball before I can react.

I still haven't managed to come to terms with White Water which I don't think most people find too hard. I think it's mainly due to the boulder garden and/or right outlane being so annoying. I also think this last PS3 tourney has taught me that most people seem to find BK2000 much easier than I do but I haven't worked on that one too much yet.

 

[etchie]

I always had a hard time with TZ myself, something about it just doesn't fit the way I naturally want to play. I've started to improve on it lately, but there's still an awful lot of things that seem to just produce instant drains for me. RBION has taken me a while but I'm finally pretty comfortable with it these days. Doesn't mean I can play for hours but it makes a lot more sense and I'm a lot less likely to put controller-shaped holes in my walls now.

I actually used to find Funhouse ridiculously frustrating, the timing and layout just didn't work for me and I would routinely plunge balls only to fail to do anything but flip them straight to a drain if I managed to make contact at all. I sat down one day and played patiently and read a bit of the rules, then it finally started to work out and now I can see why it's considered so easy. I think in general I seem to have a problem with tables that I find "cluttered" with stuff to hit right above the flipper area that kills a ball before I can react.

I still haven't managed to come to terms with White Water which I don't think most people find too hard. I think it's mainly due to the boulder garden and/or right outlane being so annoying. I also think this last PS3 tourney has taught me that most people seem to find BK2000 much easier than I do but I haven't worked on that one too much yet.

When it comes to Funhouse, I feel like I'm gasping for air. There's no room on that board, and it forces me to do the same few things over and over that aren't really even worth much of anything. I may go back and take a look at the rules and give it another try.

 

[Crooker]

Definitely NGG for me. I can t for the life of me hit the hole in one with any kind of consistency.

 

[workshed]

RBION is certainly one I have troubles with and I'm not sure why. Once a continent mode starts I have a nasty tendency to lose my shots. I have gotten comfortable with all the other Lawlor games but Ripley's just feels awkward to me. Perhaps better rules knowledge might help, but I've worked on the rules quite a bit. I've gone through the instructions in game a number of time, as well as watching Keith Elwin's tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtDxTljex8) I wish I could put my finger on why that game doesn't come to me, but it is usually a struggle. I have had some good games on the table so perhaps I should just knuckle down and work harder on it. It may just be that subconsciously I don't like the table and that blocks me from playing it long enough to nail it down. Consciously I want to like the table, but there is perhaps something about it that I don't like which I can't put my finger on. There are plenty of tables I KNOW I don't like but don't feel I struggle as much with when I finally sit down to them.

 

[Nolan]

Addams Family.

What a bummer that table has been for me. I really want to like it, but that right outlane is a black hole of misery I cant seem to escape.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Medieval Madness. I see scores in the multi-billions with multiple trips through Battle for the Kingdom, yet I've never managed more than 550M and I've only completed BftK once. Although part of the issue is I play mainly on iOS, and the lack of controller support (and consequent lack of fine nudging and freedom from touchscreen lag) is probably making it far harder than it should be.

THANK YOU SEAN!!I thought I was the only one that blew monkeys on that table. I see these incredibly high scores and while I play mostly on my iPad mini and I realize its easier on a PC or my power book I just can't imagine getting even close to some of those scores. I will sleep well tonight.

Btw-I wasn't insinuating that you aren't a good player...I was just great flu to see that a table that most find easy I can't seem to get in a rhythm unless I feel like trapping the ball over and over and over again. Snoooooze fest!

 

[Fungi]

I find MM rides that perfect balance of hard without being frustrating and easy without being boring.

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

I'll double down on Medieval Madness being way harder for me than it seems to be for everyone else. I've never even started Battle for the Kingdom. I just can't seem to sustain anything on that table. My highest score ever is merely 114m.

Yet, Funhouse has become almost boring for me. The lowest of my five local high scores is over 70m.

Admittedly, I've always been much more fond of playing a table on-the-fly. Always trying to catch the ball and control every shot precisely is just not quite as fun. (And, I'm not exactly great at that anyway.)

I hear that. I recently shot a 3 billion on Funhouse. Was mind-numbingly tedious.

 

[vikingerik]

Definitely NGG for me. I can t for the life of me hit the hole in one with any kind of consistency.

Well, that's the one shot on any of these tables you're not supposed to be able to hit at will.

For Medieval Madness... My 8 billion high came without ever doing BFTK at all. The game was about nothing but Castle Multiball over and over again. Completing all the jackpots awards an extra ball every time. And that takes disciplined catching and accurate shooting, you can't cowboy free-for-all whack at things. If you want to exploit MM for score, that's the way to do it. Going for the BFTK stuff can be dangerous, but just shooting the castle lock over and over again is very safe back to a catch every time.