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Message: <blockquote data-quote="vikingerik" data-source="post: 221855" data-attributes="member: 3745">Ok, here's some more opinions.  First, Cirqus Voltaire, which I like more than most and probably makes my own top 5.- I like its layout.  It departs from the standard open fan just the right amount, with interesting shots but without feeling packed and cluttered.- It has just the right amount of mechanical bits in the Ringmaster, Menagerie ball, and Boom balloon.  They're interesting to interact with and don't feel tacked on or getting in your way.  I actually wish the Boom balloon showed up more often.  The one mechanical bit that is tacked on is the cannonball backglass, which involves no skill and just delays the rest of the game, but this is only a minor flaw.- PET3R mentioned the difficult ramp, but that's actually very well done in TPA, just about the same difficulty and drain threat as on the real machine.- I actually quite like the low inlane-outlane divider and wish more games were like that.  It doesn't really make much difference in TPA as you don't have fine enough nudge control to reliably select the inlane.  But on a real machine, I feel I have quite a bit more control here than with the standard setup.- Bashing the Ringmaster can get a bit dull, but CV does do it better than AFM and MM.  You only have to go through four ringmasters instead of six saucers/castles, and the later ones don't get longer and drag on forever.  And each one gives you a multiball as a fun tangible reward.  If folks don't like the Ringmaster bashing, I actually think it's just from the voice package, that it would indeed be just as fun as AFM and MM if CV yelled out the same type of exuberant support.- The progression towards the wizard mode works well.  It's obviously cut from the same "complete N tasks" cloth as the likes of AFM or Whitewater.  And some of the tasks aren't all that exciting, particularly Ringmaster Frenzie that's a strict subset of defeating all Ringmasters, or Spin which is just four shots that you never otherwise need to make.  But I feel the design comes to more than the sum of its parts.  You'll usually have several marvels take care of themselves while working on the ringmasters, but there's usually one or two outlying marvels that tend to be different each time.- I agree that CV may have a few too many features, nothing like the elegance of Monster Bash.  But there are none that distract or get in your way, they're all lightweight fun, just like a circus should be.  (Okay, we could cut that dumb video mode.)- One feature that does work is the push-your-luck element of Ringmaster Battle.  Your choice whether to pursue that for an EB or just go for the wizard mode instead.- Like all the best pinball games, CV allows a good amount of stacking but doesn't require it.  The scoring for stacked multiballs is helpful and balanced but not dominating.- Finally, the wizard mode itself.  I'm generally not a fan of wizard modes that need to be won or lost like BFTK, I prefer just a big reward round like LITZ or Monster Bash.  But Join the Cirqus is my favorite of the first type, and does it best.  The key is that winning the mode is not tied to some arbitrary timer, or maintaining a multiball, or not draining a single ball (like Grand Finale.)  If you drain, you use the next ball to keep going.  So the wizard mode really is all skill and thoroughly fair, you against the machine, distilled down to a single direct worthy challenge.- We're not rating on theme here, but I'll mention it anyway.  The "electric circus" is a totally fresh take, and a welcome change from the freakshow/scary-clown type of treatment that's all too common in other media and from the likes of Hurricane.- We're also not rating on the TPA conversion, but I think that's well done too.  Folks complain about the floaty physics, but I think that works perfectly well for this table.  The circus should be about acrobats flying around.  This isn't supposed to be a Ritchie speedfest.  The difficulty is surprisingly well balanced for a season 1 table.  (Now if only Farsight could fix the lost-ball and cannonball-run camera bugs, so I could actually play the table again!)Overall, CV doesn't do any one thing spectacularly well, but it does do a *lot* of things nicely well, and overall it adds up to quite a fun and satisfying package.</blockquote>

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