First impressions

[sneakynotsneaky]

I've never had the chance to play the real version of this table, so I'm glad to finally see what all the fuss is about. On first impression I'm slotting it an easy 2nd of the Ritchie tables in TPA, a ways behind ST:TNG but comfortably ahead of the rest which don't do much for me at all.

The good:

- Shot difficulty seems about right to me so far. My hit rate on any of the shots is decent but not great, which keeps things interesting. Maybe it'll get easier with practice.

- Jackpots and supers are very satisfying.

- For me this is the best integration of the new flipper physics so far. Good progress since it stood out so much on Xenon.

The neutral:

- So free with the extra balls. Which is great while learning but will make this one quite the grinder.

- Not a lot to shoot at. I like center shots and the center of this table is just nothing.

The bad:

- I think I have pinball PTSD from T2 so the fact that the DMD is so similar is causing me problems.

- Never a fan of arbitrarily capped end of ball bonuses. I like to be able to really rack up the bonus. Or at least give me some variation. It bugs me on T2 and it bugs me here. Oh, I got 9.3m bonus again? Awesome.

- Video mode is meh and too frequent. Doesn't help that on Android trying to shift causes unwanted steering (also the gear button is futzing with my right nudge but so it goes with mobile).

Overall a nice start to season 5 in my opinion.

 

[Fungi]

I don't understand the video mode. Where are the pedestrians I'm supposed to run over? 'Cause, y'know, a previous table taught me that that was appropriate.

 

[invitro]

I've never had the chance to play the real version of this table, so I'm glad to finally see what all the fuss is about. On first impression I'm slotting it an easy 2nd of the Ritchie tables in TPA, a ways behind ST:TNG but comfortably ahead of the rest which don't do much for me at all.

Great review... I agree with all of it, except the PTSD/T2 part . Boo on capped end-of-ball bonuses!

My two-word quick take: TOO EASY. Well, maybe... I think the real thing is also too easy, so it's probably just right. But I got 1.8B and played for 1-2 hrs with my 2nd game. On the other hand, I got only two of the wizzy goals.

 

[invitro]

I don't understand the video mode. Where are the pedestrians I'm supposed to run over? 'Cause, y'know, a previous table taught me that that was appropriate.

Well... Hitting stupid pedestrians is great fun, but it damages your vehicle. Harleys cost much less than whatever fancy sports car you're driving in HS2. I'm sure than Mustang requires you to murder hundreds of peeps...

 

[Zaphod77]

Seems gear awards are where it's at.

they relight burn rubber, which gives good stuff.

they keep ball controll pretty well compared to going for the stoplights.

and redline manai and supercharger modes are lucrative.

there's a bug. the three balls are supposed to eject individually. instead the first two come out at once.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Oh I agree re: too easy. My current game is paused on 4.5B, ball 2, 4 EBs stacked.

I'm not ve or Tarek so "going infinite" is not something I do on a regular basis. However I am very comfortably doing so here.

The trick is to repeatedly shoot the left loop for RPMs and Freeway awards. That gets you one EB and progresses you to Red Line Mania which is a second. Repeat as infinitum. Just get the Freeway EB lit before starting RLM because RLM boosts the Freeway permanently to 5M and blocks lighting the EB.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Seems gear awards are where it's at.

they relight burn rubber, which gives good stuff.

they keep ball controll pretty well compared to going for the stoplights.

and redline manai and supercharger modes are lucrative.

there's a bug. the three balls are supposed to eject individually. instead the first two come out at once.

Not a bug. Confirmed behavior of the L5 ROM which is in Farsight's HS2. Apparently a lot of people are familiar with L2s which do release balls individually but there are nastier bugs in the L2s.

 

[David T. Melnick]

The people thing is what I'm guessing might come with TPA's usual changes for future stuff. Whatever it is, I love the start.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

I'm not ve or Tarek so "going infinite" is not something I do on a regular basis. However I am very comfortably doing so here.

The trick is to repeatedly shoot the left loop for RPMs and Freeway awards. That gets you one EB and progresses you to Red Line Mania which is a second. Repeat as infinitum. Just get the Freeway EB lit before starting RLM because RLM boosts the Freeway permanently to 5M and blocks lighting the EB.

Thats it. I use the same strategy. The Super Jackpot during RLM beat all other points in the game. In my best game so far I boost it up to 775 Million before the game crashed. I will check out if it grows bigger than 1B when the game becomes stable. The table is way to easy, same like High Speed I.

 

[Fungi]

And just like that, the pursuit of Safecracker tokens comes to a screeching halt.

 

[sneakynotsneaky]

I managed a 2.5b but I got half hearted pretty quickly. I just couldn't get many super jackpots, and without that the score moves painfully slowly. Flashbacks to my struggles with CftBL for the same reason.

 

[Zaphod77]

you can nudge stall backhand the supercharger in supercharger mode. that's decent points.

From what I understand, it's a physical issue. and some tables release more than one at once and some don't, on the same rom revision.

Also L5 has a nasty bug of it's own that messes with things.

every 3rd ball into the hideout resets multiball. even if you are already IN multiball. yes, this takes you out of redline mania.

ALso, it doesn't say "run the red light".

as I said, the rom revision issues are strange with this game, and many people actually prefer the earlier roms, even with the secret mania bug (aviodable by not activating it) and the free ride bug, which is pretty rare.

This game badly needs an L-6 romset to fix the bugs in L5. that multiball bug messes with the wizard goal

 

[Extork]

And just like that, the pursuit of Safecracker tokens comes to a screeching halt.

See what greed will get you?

 

[cellocgw]

I like it because it's simple (and probably 'cause I played the physical machine a lot in the 90s). About the only thing off I see so far is that the kickback hits the tunnel saucer far more reliably than a typical slightly beat real machine -- or the VisualPinball sims do.

And a bug, at least on Android: hitting replay doesn't award an EB as one might expect.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Replay doesn't award EB because it's how the game is set up. Most recent tables are like that especially those where it is easy to get EBs some other way, like HS2.

 

[Zaphod77]

I like it because it's simple (and probably 'cause I played the physical machine a lot in the 90s). About the only thing off I see so far is that the kickback hits the tunnel saucer far more reliably than a typical slightly beat real machine -- or the VisualPinball sims do.

Well, the emulated machine is in good condition, so it would be expected to hit the saucer with great accuracy. and believe it or not it DOES miss sometimes.

It's also good enough condition to backhand the supercharger from a trap sometimes.

And yeah, replay is set to award a pointless credit. I'm not sure why, because in the grand scheme of things, one extra extra ball doesn't matter that much, if you have the skills to infinite. You can get around to redline mania again multiple times in one ball if you are skilled enough, and if so, you pwn the table. i'm not quite that good, so i "only" got 1 billion high score.

Anyway it seems to me that the new multiball bug was their fix to the secret mania bug, by decoupling multiball start from the normal progress, which gets erased by secret mania, and instead switching it to a second tracker, that does up even during jackpots., regardless of what state secret mania left things in. it's also responsible for the run the red light display vanishing.

you lock two balls, then play secret mania, you will end up with no locks lit, but when you light green, and lock, you get multiball anyway.

The proper fix would have been to move the reset code around. the bug is caused by the fact that the after redline mania lock reset code runs when secret mania ends, and that shouldn't have been happening. it should have run only after redline mania.

Failing that, they should have made it so that while in multiball of any sort, the balls entering lock counter didn't go up

 

[Xanija]

Is the nudging effect weaker on this table than on others? That's at least the feeling I have. Not that I would mind.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

 

[Zaphod77]

not really. it's just that the left outlane is so wide open it's difficult to nudge balls out of it. worse then original high speed so it can angle balls into burn rubber.

I actually like the fact that the kickback sends the ball to a flipper.

 

[W1LDD ONE]

Can't wait till us IOS folks get to play.