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Other Zen Pinball Games & General Discussion
*NITPICK WARNING!* Zen Pinball - why?
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<blockquote data-quote="Zombie Aladdin" data-source="post: 145615" data-attributes="member: 4242"><p>Considering I started with Zen before getting into pinball tables in reality, that slingshots count towards things doesn't concern me. Anything that gets activated via a slingshot is always optional. (For <em>Plants vs. Zombies</em>, by the way, it takes only 10 slingshot hits, and slingshots are aggressive on this one for some reason. This simply summons stray zombies to hit with your ball though.)</p><p></p><p>Missions tend to be worth a lot, I presume, because Zen's programmers and designers are progression gamers and want to encourage people to get to the end. I personally don't like this design choice, as it railroads people, especially since a lot of Zen's missions are timed and require you to hit specific shots in order. On tables designed by other companies, virtual and real alike, modes required to get to the wizard mode are either timed but count as completed once started (<em>Twilight Zone</em>, <em>Shrek</em>), timed but allow you to pick up where you left off once reactivated (<em>24</em>, <em>Avatar</em>), must be completed but are not timed (<em>Medieval Madness</em>, <em>Revenge from Mars</em>), or provide a sub-wizard mode if you've started everything but didn't complete them all (<em>Monster Bash</em>, <em>Ripley's Believe It Or Not!</em>). Any Zen mode not timed is a multiball, where you must make a lot of required shots to pass. (<em>Iron Man</em>'s "Mandarin's Vortex Beam" is the worst offender, as you are given three balls and then must shoot every loop and ramp before draining two balls, there is no ball saver, and the balls appear in the MIDDLE of the playfield right above the center drain.) In other words, Zen's missions always have at least two lose conditions, and they must be accomplished in one go to be cleared, and that the scoring is deliberately unbalanced to encourage people to play the way they want to. Either that, or the Zen designers believe clearing missions on real tables is undervalued.</p><p></p><p>I believe the way some tables make it difficult to start missions is also related to your being encouraged to progress through the game and its story and is tied into why they're worth so much compared to multiball jackpots. It varies from table to table though. In <em>Fantastic Four</em>, for example, you only have to shoot the Baxter Building once (it's always active), then shoot the Mission Hole. A lot of them are kind of complicated though, and merely getting to start one is sometimes comparable to finishing required modes in real tables. (For <em>Tesla</em>, for instance, you have to essentially complete the Powerfield from <em>Twilight Zone<em>, only there's a drop bank of 5 instead of a hole, and once it passes through, you have to hope the ball goes in the correct direction down the see-saws.)</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>The main beef I have with Zen tables, though, is that any time you're in a mode, you are locked out of anything else. That is, you are prohibited from stacking anything (with the exception of Artifacts in <em>Blade</em>, which throws the score balancing completely off whack). In <em>Sorcerer's Lair</em>, for a well-played example, when a mission is active, you cannot lock balls towards multiballs nor start them during them. When a multiball is active, anything that does not score a jackpot seems to be worth a flat 1,000 points. When any mode is active, whether mission or multiball, the cellar cannot be progressed, and neither can any spelling bonus except G-H-O-S-T, nor can Whisper be progressed, nor Extra Ball, the Haunted Forest, the gargoyle, the cauldron, or even the Ghost-collecting side ramp. When a mode starts, you are locked in it and must progress or fail. I don't like the lack of choice with these things.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>That being said, I do like the Zen tables, for the most part. When what I want to do is the same thing as the designers want me to do, Zen tables can be just as fun as anything else.</em></em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zombie Aladdin, post: 145615, member: 4242"] Considering I started with Zen before getting into pinball tables in reality, that slingshots count towards things doesn't concern me. Anything that gets activated via a slingshot is always optional. (For [i]Plants vs. Zombies[/i], by the way, it takes only 10 slingshot hits, and slingshots are aggressive on this one for some reason. This simply summons stray zombies to hit with your ball though.) Missions tend to be worth a lot, I presume, because Zen's programmers and designers are progression gamers and want to encourage people to get to the end. I personally don't like this design choice, as it railroads people, especially since a lot of Zen's missions are timed and require you to hit specific shots in order. On tables designed by other companies, virtual and real alike, modes required to get to the wizard mode are either timed but count as completed once started ([i]Twilight Zone[/i], [i]Shrek[/i]), timed but allow you to pick up where you left off once reactivated ([i]24[/i], [i]Avatar[/i]), must be completed but are not timed ([i]Medieval Madness[/i], [i]Revenge from Mars[/i]), or provide a sub-wizard mode if you've started everything but didn't complete them all ([i]Monster Bash[/i], [i]Ripley's Believe It Or Not![/i]). Any Zen mode not timed is a multiball, where you must make a lot of required shots to pass. ([i]Iron Man[/i]'s "Mandarin's Vortex Beam" is the worst offender, as you are given three balls and then must shoot every loop and ramp before draining two balls, there is no ball saver, and the balls appear in the MIDDLE of the playfield right above the center drain.) In other words, Zen's missions always have at least two lose conditions, and they must be accomplished in one go to be cleared, and that the scoring is deliberately unbalanced to encourage people to play the way they want to. Either that, or the Zen designers believe clearing missions on real tables is undervalued. I believe the way some tables make it difficult to start missions is also related to your being encouraged to progress through the game and its story and is tied into why they're worth so much compared to multiball jackpots. It varies from table to table though. In [i]Fantastic Four[/i], for example, you only have to shoot the Baxter Building once (it's always active), then shoot the Mission Hole. A lot of them are kind of complicated though, and merely getting to start one is sometimes comparable to finishing required modes in real tables. (For [i]Tesla[/i], for instance, you have to essentially complete the Powerfield from [i]Twilight Zone[i], only there's a drop bank of 5 instead of a hole, and once it passes through, you have to hope the ball goes in the correct direction down the see-saws.) The main beef I have with Zen tables, though, is that any time you're in a mode, you are locked out of anything else. That is, you are prohibited from stacking anything (with the exception of Artifacts in [i]Blade[/i], which throws the score balancing completely off whack). In [i]Sorcerer's Lair[/i], for a well-played example, when a mission is active, you cannot lock balls towards multiballs nor start them during them. When a multiball is active, anything that does not score a jackpot seems to be worth a flat 1,000 points. When any mode is active, whether mission or multiball, the cellar cannot be progressed, and neither can any spelling bonus except G-H-O-S-T, nor can Whisper be progressed, nor Extra Ball, the Haunted Forest, the gargoyle, the cauldron, or even the Ghost-collecting side ramp. When a mode starts, you are locked in it and must progress or fail. I don't like the lack of choice with these things. That being said, I do like the Zen tables, for the most part. When what I want to do is the same thing as the designers want me to do, Zen tables can be just as fun as anything else.[/i][/i] [/QUOTE]
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