DWMOT Not All That

[HiHat]

I've played FS's new Dr. Who table a number of times and have had to conclude that this table doesn't make it.

I have tried to analyze what makes a pinball table great and come up with the following factors:

• Interesting playfield employing ramps, chutes, sub-playfields, disrupters like spinning discs, unusual features like popups or moving chutes.
• Limited-time shot opportunities clearly identified by lights or voice prompts.
• Intuitive bonuses -- you shouldn't have to read an instruction manual for twenty minutes to figure out how to post high scores on a table.
• Depth of play -- with a variety of modes, including multiball and video challenges.
• Challenging but not punishing game play -- extra balls awarded when you crap out prematurely.

IMO Masters of Time just doesn't boast enough of these advantages. The playfield -- a wide open design with shots along the borders -- is a snooze. I haven't run upon many limited-time shot opportunities since I've played the table; it is possible they exist here, I just haven't encountered them.

Which brings me to the last factor, challenging but not punishing game play. MOT seems punishing -- most games last only two or three minutes -- and the lack of attractions doesn't invite repeat play.

Am I missing something here?

My favorite tables, including Addams Family, Cactus Canyon, Medieval Madness, Theater of Magic, Scared Stiff, and Monster Bash, all pulled me in immediately. A good game on those tables can easily last ten minutes or more and still leave me wanting more.

Maybe my disappointment with MOT is more acute because I contributed money to its development. I loves me some Dr. Who the TV show, but what a waste of money this table seems to be!

If Farsight is looking to develop more original tables in the future, I hope they will enlist the aid of masters of legendary physical table designs who may still be up to the challenge.

As the Pinball Arcade has demonstrated repeatedly, for playability, the classic tables handily beat most CAD/CAM tables like those in Zen Pinball.

I would have thought FS had learned its lesson after having studied those classic tables so assiduously. Let's hope they have learned from their mistake with MOT.

 

[AJB]

I must admit I too find the MOT playfield fairly boring.


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[relaxation]

lack of a status screen, lacks hit recognition call outs during multiball, vague on what the table wants from you during multiball in general.

It's generally a bad idea to have multiball jackpots not called out at all, right? or show what they're worth (hidden in the games instructions).

 

[switch3flip]

lack of a status screen, lacks hit recognition call outs during multiball, vague on what the table wants from you during multiball in general.

It's generally a bad idea to have multiball jackpots not called out at all, right? or show what they're worth (hidden in the games instructions).

Yeah totally agree on this.

And the multiplier meter and multiplier shots in general give terrible feedback. No feedback on number of loops so you know when millions is coming up. Sometimes DMD instantly says "2X", "3X" and so on, but when multiball is ready or started it says "pod destroyed" every multiplier shot, until after a couple of shots it suddenly shows the current multiplier again. The meter up in the corner of screen can show full multiplier meter when multiplier in fact is down to 1X. Everything is so confusing about feedback in this game, especially during multiball.

 

[dave950lam]

I think most of the frustration with this table is because the DMD sometimes mixes in original Dr Who animations, which confuses everyone. Hopefully the month of will bring about a fix.

 

[Trog]

I've now been playing this for a few days. It looks gorgeous (lurve the darkness of it), and the sound (was any of it recorded specially?). It reminds me of the revelation of Addams Family when it came out.

However, I have to agree with the previous posts: Apart from some initial skills improvement, I struggle to understand what I'm meant to be doing (despite reading the copious but unhelpful instructions that always seem to be written in pinball-ese) and I feel that I'm being repeatedly 'hoofed in the love-spuds' in terms of ball-loss down the side-channels and between the flippers. I'm not looking for the game to be easy, but I do expect to feel like I'm making progress in terms of my skills. Any high-ish (for me!) scores seem to be more the result of luck and repeatedly banging my head against a brick-wall rather than much innate improvement. If I graphed them, I think I'd expect to see a normal distribution rather than be skewed to the right.

Disappointed! (

 

[Striker]

I'm a big fan of the original Dr. Who pin, and was intrigued by this one. The table looks very sleek and I like the graphics on the DMD. Except maybe the drain clip; must you rub it in my face for 7 seconds?

The game play of the table seems to loosely follow the original Dr. Who, except . . . less stuff on it. The jackpot plays similar to the original table. You lock two balls into the time machine up top, much like you had then two locks of the "eyeball" slots in the original (which I swear is a reconditioned Pinbot machine). Instead of raising up and hitting the "Time Factor" color targets, you instead hit the row of cybermen (robot-looking men). Hit them enough times, you then deal with three more cybermen who replace the daleks on the original table. Hit one, start the jackpot round. Hit him a few more times, and you get a jackpot. Or maybe you hit the time machine door. With multiball going on I don't look up to see what I'm hitting. If jackpot is announced my score jumps from 8-12 million to 150-200 million pretty fast. That's as far as I have been able to figure out.

EB? No idea.

Transmit doctors? I think I have seen it, but I have no idea how it happened.

Video mode? No clue. While the video mode in the original was a big player, I have yet to hit it once on DWMOT.

Oh, and you have an extra upper right flipper; its exact purpose remains a mystery.

I keep trying to give it a chance. I have earned some nice scores in the hundred of millions, but it doesn't compare as well to the original.

 

[Extork]

It's the only table I haven't bought from FS. And never will