Best TPA tables up until now

[Björn Wessman]

So, starting a new year, what are your fave tables so far? Here's mine:

1. Twilight Zone
Perfect in almost every way - theme, layout, ruleset, features, graphics, difficulty, physics.

2. No Good Goofers
I love the cartooney theme. Theme wise this is a stand out among all the monster inspired tables in TPA. I also think the ball physics is better than in any other table.

3. Monster Bash.
This table is just so much fun. I think the difficuly settings has been adjusted a bit lately too as it was on the easier side before. i think I played a game for over an hour once.

4. Theatre of Magic
The flow of this table is amazing.

5. Medieval Madness
A modern pinball classic. Although the trolls can be overly frustrating at times.

6. Creature from the Black Lagoon
Such an awesome feeling when you hit the whirlpool again and again.

7. Star Trek
8. Scared Stiff
9. Bride of Pinbot
10. Funhouse

 

[monty22001]

Haven't been able to play TZ, Star Trek, or Scared Stiff yet (PS3/Vita).. But to me there's a lot good ones that are fun and I play a lot, but a few I just can't get into. I think Monster Bash is the flat out most fun one. RBION, MM, NGG, TOM, Bride, and Eliva.. They're all kinda similar. Harley is a step down. Gorgon is ok, but I just don't enjoy it for long, same with Creature. Funhouse is very frustrating. I like it, but it's weird for sure. Black Knight and Taxi are probably the ones I play the least.

 

[Advalle]

6. Creature from the Black Lagoon
Such an awesome feeling when you hit jackpot after jackpot.

[/B]

Ive only hit it twice, what is you high score?

 

[karl]

Best TPA verisons

(This is based on IPAD 3 play)

1. Twilight Zone - almost perfect but to easy
2. Star Trek TNG - Almost perfect but to hard
3. AFM - A very good version but Strobe Multiball could be renamed just multiball
4. Big Shot - Brutal as hell and I think it is not healthy for my blood pressure to play it, but I can't stop myself
5. Monster Bash - 10 points for fun factor alone and a decent version

Worst TPA versions (but far from horrible)

1. Harley Davidson - Never tried it in real life but everything just seems off. Clunky ball control, shots that feel awkward, annoying sounds (mystery rider), poor wizard goal, no modes, etc, etc etc
2. Cirqus Voltaire - Bug feast galore
3. Black Knight - Feels like a rush conversion
4. No Good Gofers - Something just feels wrong about this. Maybe it is the color of the ramps, the ball control or something else. I loved it in PHOF and I will try it on the 360 (much later) before final judgment on this
5. Funhouse - It is far from bad but I am just not having any fun (in my) house when I am playing it

 

[Richard B]

1. TZ - Even with the terrible difficulty adjustments, this is still the table I play the most.
2. STTNG - Great theme, sounds, music, and overall presentation. It's also a nice layout, plays fast (as a Steve Ritchie should), and is closer to the real machine than is typical in TPA.
3. (Formerly occupied by AFM. See bottom for new ranking).
4. MB - Not crazy about the theme, and the physics are not great, but the layout and rules are awesome! While I've never played a real MB, the difficulty feels on par with similar real machines I have played, such as LOTR.
5. SS - A victim of unnecessary simplifying, but still fun to play regardless.
6. CFTBL - A surprisingly deep table with cool music and an awesome theme.
7. RBION - Deep rule set, nice table, plays fairly close to original.
8. TOTAN - Good presentation, nice rule set, good physics for such an early table.
9. TOM - If this wasn't an early effort and the physics and engine were up to par with the more recent efforts, this would rate much higher. Easy to understand, yet challenging, nice presentation; the only thing that sucks is the lack of reward for finishing the Grand Finale.
10. MM - I always said it was a great table given lousy treatment. FS has been addressing these concerns with fixes and updates. This may move up.

Honorable mentions
Taxi
Funhouse

Bottom of the barrel - all the pre-85s. While I play them and enjoy them, they are not as good as more recent tables.
BOP - this game is easy, boring, and plays so unlike the IRL version it might as well be a completely different table. That's a shame, since this was a good-looking table with some nice physics. Fortunately, FS hasn't screwed up another table this badly since.
CV - The worst physics to date. Sad thing is, I bought this twice!
NGG - Opaque Ramps (only applies to Android version).
AFM - Right Orbit Bug

 

[night]

My top 5. I haven't bought TZ and ST: TNG because of stutter issues on the iPad2.

1. Funhouse (killer table)
2. Attack from Mars (sweet..)
3. Black Hole (love it but unplayable now due to stuttering)
4. Theatre of Magic (great theme)
5. Creature from the Black Lagoon (great theme, plays well, dreadfull transparent textured ramps)
6. Haunted House (just kidding)

 

[fenderbendr]

Twilight Zone-awsome gameplay
AFM-the saucer shot feels so satisfying when you hit it.
STTNG-Great table and difficulty settings
Taxi-with this recent update, it has the best physics out of all the tables IMO.
MM-fun all around

 

[Björn Wessman]

Ive only hit it twice, what is you high score?

Sorry, my mistake, I meant hitting the whirlpool again and again to get c-r-e-a-t-u-r-e.
As for the jackpot, I think I've also only hit it twice, and my humble high score is ~500 million.

 

[iguanarama]

I'll just put my top three if I may:

1. ST:TNG, because it 'feels' the closest to the real table of all the TPA tables. And it's fun, a good challenge, and doesn't take as long as some games to get a high score.
2. TZ, because... well, it's TZ. (Even though it's too easy on TPA. I feel ashamed of getting LITZ so easily!)
3. MM, just for the sheer fun of the game, despite its occasional stop/start flow.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

I can't tell, really. I tend to overrate whichever tables are in the latest pack, because they're new and shiny. Right now I'm playing Genie an awful lot, but I don't know if it will have staying power.

But I don't think there's any doubt that my favorite is Star Trek: TNG, even though it kicks my ass. It was my favorite real table in the olden days, and it's still great.

When I started playing TPA on the XBox, I felt that Theatre of Magic and Arabian Nights were the obvious standouts. But I think the table in the core pack that I've played the most since then is actually Black Hole, which became far more fun after the recent patches that are in the Android version.

Other faves are Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Taxi (maybe my favorite table in PHoF; still great in TPA), CftBL, EatPM, and Big Shot.

 

[Kevlar]

Well my top 5 in no particular order would be MM, MB, ST:TNG, TOM and AFM. I'm just glad to see CV not getting any love here, it grinds my gears that Farsight have left the iOS version so buggy for so long.

 

[Iain]

My fave tables in order (I play on an iPad 3)

1) Monster Bash
2) Attack From Mars
3) Medieval Madness
4) Scared Stiff
5) Twilight Zone
6) Ripley's Believe it or Not
7) Black Hole
8) Elvira
9) Tales of the Arabian Nights
10) Black Knight
11) Gorgar
12) Genie
13) Creature From the Black Lagoon
14) No Good Gofers
15) Theatre of Magic
16) Harley Davidson (No real challenge or goals, fun for a few minutes then gets boring fast)
17) Bride of Pin-Bot (Very Repetitive)
18) Cirqus Voltaire (Too buggy and I hate the delays on the DMD that seem to slow the game down)
19) Funhouse (Just dont get the appeal of this one, I can play a couple of games then I get bored)
20) Star Trek (Too hard with those drains, potentially a good table but just feels totally random)
21) Big Shot (Just not a fan)
22) Taxi (This is the table I really dislike, it just does nothing for me)

The first 6 or so are the tables I play pretty much daily, then I would say that the tables listed 7 through 15 get occasional play at sometime each week and I pretty much enjoy all these tables, then 16 to 20 are rarely played for the reasons I stated and then Big Shot and Taxi are the two tables I really just dont enjoy and so they never really get any play.

In general though The Pinball Arcade is just awesome and I have spent more time on these tables than any other computer/video game ever.

 

[Nik Barbour]

In order of what I play the most.... (favourite first - limited to 5 - not just flavour of the month)
BK (even though the scripting is bad) , BS, BH, FH, RBION - I am learning to love ST:TNG at the minute though, and AFM is cool but would count as flavour of the month.

Worst - Genie sucks, and I just don't get TOTAN.

 

[shutyertrap]

These are what I play the most...

1. RBION - Ever since I actually figured out how to score on this table, I can't stop playing it. It's deep, there's plenty of variety, and overall is just very satisfying to spend over an hour per game on.

2. CFTBL - Look, I hate the music, I don't think it's funny in the least, and I can spend an entire multiball next to never using the left flipper other than for cradling a ball. Yet I play and play and play. In a lot of ways this table is BoP for me, just without the random chance of having the billion shot light up.

3. MM - I know the rules, I get where the points are to be scored, and I can nail certain shots without breaking a sweat (catapult, the drawbridge), and yet for the life of me I can't string together enough of a game to make it to BFTK. Well, I've made it there exactly once, and didn't get very far during it. Unlike Creature though, I love the music, and the humor.

4. MB - To me the shot selection is MM all over again, and the implementation of theme is great. I find collecting all those instruments to be nerve wracking (especially the Bride's), and yet the way I play the table is exceedingly boring. I shoot the scoop over and over and over until I get Lyman's, and then I shoot it some more. Every mode I unlock, every thing I collect is either from that little magic hole, or because I accidentally missed it. So my scoring is slow and games go on forever. But I like the table!

All the other tables on PS3 get the random play, though I've gotta be real desperate to play BH or BK or even Gorgar. BH 'cause I'm not a fan of its layout, BK 'cause it's a horrible mess, especially compared to the PHOF version, and Gorgar 'cause I just can't seem to get invested in scoring on it.

Dying to play TZ and ST:TNG, and when Whirlwind finally gets it's time to shine, I guarantee I'll be playing the crap outta it.

 

[Jutter]

Which tables I favor tends to evolve over time. Sometimes I have a superfun run on a table I all but neglected for a while.

 

[Richard B]

Well my top 5 in no particular order would be MM, MB, ST:TNG, TOM and AFM. I'm just glad to see CV not getting any love here, it grinds my gears that Farsight have left the iOS version so buggy for so long.

It's not just IOS. The Android and 360 version have the same problems. I was dumb enough to give them my money twice for this. Shame, because it would rate much higher if they'd fix some of these bugs.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

It's not just IOS. The Android and 360 version have the same problems. I was dumb enough to give them my money twice for this. Shame, because it would rate much higher if they'd fix some of these bugs.

I play CV all the time on the 360, and I think I've had problems with it maybe once or twice. So yes, I'll be the heretic and say I enjoy Cirqus Voltaire.

 

[Sumez]

Same here. CV is probably my top table on TPA, seriously.

 

[night]

Table pack 'FunHouse/CV' has been one of the best packs so far imo.

 

[Sumez]

Funhouse will always be one of my favourites, but I already played that one to death in PHOF, so didn't play it much in TPA.