Share your first impressions!

[mmmagnetic]

So, how do you like Creature so far?

I´ve got to say, I instantly fell in love with it, much faster and harder than any other table on either TPA or PHOF before. Here are some of my quick first impressions after a couple of hours of play, I´d love to hear yours!

I absolutely adore the theme. Actually, the "theme within a theme" - watching an oldschool monster flick in a 50s drive-in - makes this a very nice blend of stylistic elements: The cheesy rock`n`roll renditions along with the fantastic playfield art and the powerful sound effects is really right up my alley. The Creature hologram looks very cool, I´m sure back when this table got released it must have made very impressive. The DMD animations are also very well done, with nicely drawn characters and a ton of variety.

I really love lighthearted tables, the oneliners in Medieval Madness, the taunts of Rudy in Funhouse and even the cheesy jokes in Monster Bash ("Blah! I will hypnotize you with my semi-circular movement!") add a lot of atmosphere, and Creature is just absolutely packed with little nuggets like this. My favourite so far has to be the guy trapped in the trunk in the bumper section, and beating up that guy is actually the first video mode I really enjoyed and that didn´t feel completely out of place (I´m thinking of the virtual pinball on ToM here - playing rudimentary pinball on a DMD isn´t really much fun when I´m standing in front of a real pinball machine). ...and please tell me I´m not the only one who keeps hearing "F..k it!" instead of "Focus!" during the outlane drain (which is exactly what I´m thinking when that happens).

And wow, the multiball just feels really good - not just like a means to an end, but like an actual small adventure, with a certain element of luck (finding the creature), and I love the idea of starting the movie in the drive in after doing some of little thematic things beforehand (kissing, going to the snackbar etc). The vacant, mouthbreathing stare of the Creature when the film starts gets me every time!

The playfield is also fantastic as well. I love the big, sweeping ramps hovering over the playfield, the big left ramp right in the sweet spot of the right flipper; the smaller right ramp that is positioned perfectly for a backhanded shot from the right flipper, the tricky snackbar scoop - one wrong hit from the right flipper and it´s STDM, which makes aiming for it quite thrilling, without being quite as devastating as the castle in MM or the Frankenstein targets on MB.

"Move you car" is hilarious, the "unlimited million" right ramp shots are simple but exciting (I can hit the ramp all day long, but as soon as the mode starts I start flailing around), and the whole game so far feels satisfying, speedy, with a lot of things to discover and no single annoying gimmick that drags the game down. It has great flow like Taxi, but also tricky shots like a Pat Lawlor table, but without being congested or crammed.

It is also very easy to do center drains, especially when I lose my attention, but it doesn´t feel as punishing as in MM - I always feel like it´s my fault it happens, and not coming from some overly sadistic table layout. Outlane drains are relatively few, which balances out the rather dangerous center area.

Oh, and the way the ball gets thrown around the table is really something, especially the vertical kickout that shoots the ball into the back of the machine from the right "Slide" saucer.

...
All in all, I´m really stunned how well everything goes together. Every single element feels perfectly placed, every shot is satisfying, and even losing the ball a lot (especially during the multiball - half the time it´s already over before I´m ready, and then I lose the ball when I aim - and miss! - for the snackbar restart) doesn´t bother me, that´s how well rounded this table feels.

There hasn´t been a single table on TPA (or PHOF) that I would consider "perfect" - even with how much I love most of these games, there has always been something that kept bothering, but Creature really feels good from start to finish.

 

[Jeff Strong]

That was a nice read.

Just a couple quick impressions:

To me, this table seems to have the least amount of bounciness, so it makes ball control much easier compared to the previous tables.

I think the theme is great, and the video mode is the best ever.....cracks me up every time

 

[mmmagnetic]

Yes, you´re right - trapping the ball is very easy, even if it comes down from the ramps at full speed. A big difference from Medieval Madness for example, where such a move would likely make your ball bounce up again, against the slingshots, or slowly over the outlane post and down the drain in the worst case.

I hope they don´t mess with that in the future updates, or else I have to learn my tricks all over again

 

[Fungi]

I'm really having a hard time warming up to this table. I want a new table, I really do, but this just isn't clicking with me. mmmagnetic, what am I missing?

 

[Richard B]

I think the theme is great, and the video mode is the best ever.....cracks me up every time

The character you beat the crap out of was one of the leads on the project. I remember hearing stories of how much his underlings enjoyed that mode during testing.

 

[night]

Well, my thing is that I find it hard to get the right view on this on my iPad. I first tried '4' in landscape, but I can't get a nice overview of the table and it's graphics. The best view that works well is '4' portrait. But you miss some parts of the sides, not too problematic but still..
Overall I played it too short to make a good judgement. I think they did the holograph very well.

 

[Kolchak357]

The first few games I played with the volume off because my wife was asleep. I was kind of disappointed in it. I played it's few hours later with sound, and man what a difference. The sound really makes this game for me. I'm really enjoying it now.

 

[Richard B]

It's a good game. Can't wait to play it on 360 (which will be a long time).

 

[dtown8532]

The first few games I played with the volume off because my wife was asleep. I was kind of disappointed in it. I played it's few hours later with sound, and man what a difference. The sound really makes this game for me. I'm really enjoying it now.

Headphones, my man. Headphones.

 

[Kolchak357]

Never tried headphones. Great idea, I will give it a shot.

 

[Shaneus]

Quite like it! About the only thing I don't really dig about it is that the main loops return the ball to the flipper it came from, meaning you don't get a different set of shots each time you hit the loop. I'd much prefer it if they alternated so you could switch sides and have a different set of targets to aim for each time. Other than that, really enjoy the theme.

I miss the days when pinball themes were all on things you had no idea would work. Medieval Madness? Monster Bash? It's a shame it's all licensed stuff now

 

[BlindSpider11]

I really like CFTBL, awesome theme, and flows very well too. DMD animations are excellent as well.

 

[goforthewall]

mmmagnetic you are *absolutely* spot on! I was about to write something similar (but Gord hadn't updated this forum table section) and there you'd already gone and expressed 99% of what I wanted to say I must second the hologram love! As a huge 3D fan I have the original CFTBL movie in 3D and it's details like these on a pinball table that show how well you can use a license. (the hologram looks so real!) I think the ball control on this table is much easier because the flippers are set very steep (when held). I usually don't like my real tables set up like this because it limits the shot range quite a bit, but on CFTBL it feels just fine... And while the music comes off a little cheap, in the end it really adds to the whole "low budget movie drive in"-feel perfectly!! CFTBL is probably the next table I want to get in real life Here in Germany it can be had for under 2000$...

 

[Pop Sergeant]

Excellent first review Magnetic!

My first few play-through's where mostly about learning the "bounces".

The flipper physics feel different (for the better). I'm not certain but they feel different on MB this release too -- as in maybe some of the float-bounce fell out of the bumpers on MB from 1.09 to 1.010 (again, for the better).

It has been more than 10-12 years since I played this table in real life, so I can't claim any real experience any longer (the last time I saw those brain cells was through the bottom of a long-neck bottle of Budweiser) but I have to wonder if it wasn't significantly harder to trap on the actual table. Of course it could have been just as easy then as now, but back then I was PUI (playing under the influence) with my beer-drinking-buddies whereas now I'm generally sitting in a quiet corner trying to squeeze in a game or two before my kids or spouse notice that I'm available for line-of-sight taskings.

First impressions:

- Draining SDTM doesn't seem to be too much of a threat even from failed ramp shots

- Out-lanes seem pretty forgiving with the exception that a late KISS shot from the right flipper seems to be a certain cross-table bounce back to the right out lane

- The out lanes don't respond well to a table shove (tilt) - at least not the way I employ it (heavy sigh)

- Trapping the ball on a return from the left or right in-lanes, or trapping from a drop from the out-side saucer lanes is almost fool-proof at any speed

- Bottom wall bumpers feel a "little too" dead and seldom react to a sliding ball pass (one travelling with the nearly the same angle as the bumper)

- Flipper trap shot from left or right offers a saucer shot, ramp shot, middle roll under, and snack bar opportunity; multiple choices trump the relative ease of (most) shot executions from a full flipper stop

- My most productive camera view of choice after having tried them all is View 1 (locked).

So, not to be Captain Obvious, at first it seemed to me like it was going to be very tedious (ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp) ramp-fest kind of table -- but after realizing the flipper traps were so easy, that opened up a whole new level of play for me in that there are significant rewards to be gained from repeating each of the main "trap-shots". As soon as I got that through my noggin' this table went from ramp-fest to plan-and-attack options to set up the multiple modes from left, center, and right.

One could say that is just a more deliberate version of a ramp-fest, but the options of combining the right shots to set up triggers for each of the rewards to be one shot away and the fact that the ramps return to the same side so it forces you to make other shots to effect a pass to pull that off ... well, that twists a bunch of the "mindless fest" feeling into a heaping dose of brain-warping "oh, carp, what to do, what to do - quick make a decision - dang, wrong one, try again" excitement.

It actually gets a bit stressful (in a good way) trying to make the right decision or having to change tactics in reaction to a bad one; especially if one of the timed-millions modes is in play and the opportunity presents to set up another at the same time.

The two most dangerous (failed) shots for me are a late shot to the left (KISS) lane almost always resulting in a quick rebound drain to the right out-lane and hitting the left menu targets on an angle that causes a ricochet to hang a low speed near the snack-bar drop-hole (without going in) seems to be the only significant SDTM threat. I've had close to 0% success with table shoves in either of those cases.

So, having said all of that, I realize my only excuse for not ruling the high score table is a lack of skill and focus (hate it when that happens).

I'll blame the lack of skill on old(er) age and a failure to find the correct beer curve for TPA ... (but I promise to keep trying!)

Can I blame the lack of focus on the great music, voice overs, and amazing table art?

Excellent table, well executed physics ... can be played as a ramp-fest to relax or as a problem solving target table for those with the desire to exercise the old forehead-slapping reboot maneuver on a regular basis.

Cheers!

 

[Sean]

I have to play it a bit more, but I'm with Fungi. This table just isn't grabbing me; largely because it's all about ramps and whilst I like shooting ramps well enough generally, they're half the table here. Camera angle three works best for me, otherwise I found the ramps obscure too much of the playfield to tell what's happening.

I agree the theme is good and the hologram is novel, but I think the constant loops make the gameplay too repetitive.

Added: having played a few more times I think the main issue I have with this table is a lack of narrative-driven goals. I find that in newer tables (read: those with a display as an active component of play, i.e., DMD) I need an extra hook in the form of changing goals based around the central objective of the table, which is probably why Ripley's is my least-played table in this collection thus far and Star Trek is one of my all-time faves.

 

[bavelb]

Hmm I don't get the"rampfest" vibe at all. There is only 2 and the main goal (saving the girl to work up to Super Jackpot) requires 0 ramps (but to get the most out of it you need to ramp it up, I agree). It's certainly not WW-hulk or Avengers rampfest. The ramps obscures the top part yes but it obscures parts you don't need to see. All the targets you need to ain for are perfectly visible.

Then again, Ripleys has become from my least favourite to my favourite table due to all the modestacking and strategizing and CftBL looks to be similar.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

Quite like it! About the only thing I don't really dig about it is that the main loops return the ball to the flipper it came from, meaning you don't get a different set of shots each time you hit the loop. I'd much prefer it if they alternated so you could switch sides and have a different set of targets to aim for each time. Other than that, really enjoy the theme.

I miss the days when pinball themes were all on things you had no idea would work. Medieval Madness? Monster Bash? It's a shame it's all licensed stuff now

CftBL and Monster Bash actually are licensed: while some of the monsters in Monster Bash come from public-domain literature, the specific versions pictured are from Universal monster movies. But they're old monster movies; it wasn't a big flavor-of-the-month license.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

Anyway, while I'm not familiar with the actual CftBL table so can't speak to its accuracy, I'm loving this table so far; it may be the best pinball sim of the lot. The flipper physics feel like they've had a significant upgrade relative to every other table in TPA. Though trapping on this one is so easy that I could believe it's unrealistically easy: does anyone who knows the real table have an opinion?

It's amazing how much more challenging the P-A-I-D bonus lanes become just because there are four of them (and it's a slightly unusual twist to make completing them part of the overall story progression).

This is one of the funniest and most cleverly themed tables of the Nineties Golden Age; it puts enough of an original spin on the concept that it doesn't even feel redundant with Monster Bash, though both tables have the Creature in them. The MIDI-esque music is cheesy, but that kind of works anyway.

 

[The Wolfman]

I'm loving this table! Great theme, great music (it gets stuck in my head), great animations.

The only thing that worries me is that it's an easy scoring table, I'm affraid that future updates will change this...

 

[Fuseball]

I owned a CftBL for a whole day! Most of that time was spent fixing it for the new owner, so I never even got to play it that much.

That said, playing this is reminding me how much I enjoyed playing it for a couple of hours that one day. The theme is tremendous and that goes a long way to making up for it being a relatively simple ruleset for a '90s game. Like many of you, I was struggling to hit much more than the ramps reliably until I figured out the ball trapping techniques. My only criticism is that the left flipper is a bit underused. That popper (and ramp) feeding the right flipper does get an awful lot of use.

Another vote for it having the best video mode in any pinball. The humour throughout is great and it's a joy to be finally able to hear it properly without the noise of a bar or arcade getting in the way. Can't wait for the console versions.