I love old pinball tables through the ages that were more like bagatelle with flippers for a bit of a 2nd chance. I love new pinball with ramps, video screens, speech, missions, maybe even holograms. I love video pinball where the ball gets sliced in half or temporarily defies gravity or gets up and walks away.
Video pinball has been what I mostly rely on. I think Zen make the best current pinball games - raptr says I've played 114 hours of Pinball FX2 and that doesn't seem nearly enough. Silverball Studios (formerly Fuse Games) are also really good, the "Crush Pinball" series, Pokemon Pinball (they should make a new one of these!) and I really like Kirby's Pinball on Gameboy.
On the rare occasions I visit an amusement arcade (seaside resorts, shopping malls), the first thing I look for is pinball. Then arcade machines. It's very rare I can see a pinball machine and not decide to play it.
I never really thought I would own a pinball table. It was just one of those things that you think "ah, maybe one day I will own".
And yet...
This is sitting in my house. It's mine! It's mine! There were 4028 of these tables made in the entire world, and this one is mine. And it plays beautifully.
For years now I have thought "if I was going to own a pinball machine, it would be that Elvira one". I had vague fond memories of having played an Elvira table with googly rubber monsters and a spinning feature at the back. I think it was while holidaying at Hemsby, near the back of an arcade called "The Dunes". It's not even called that anymore. It was years later when I could identify this table by name. "Scared Stiff".
This machine has everything I'd want. It is fairly easy to play and do well. It has various missions to complete, so there's progression in the gameplay. The playfield is nice and varied, and the spinner in the back box is a cool feature, and really beautifully executed with 3 layers of artwork surrounding it. It has a sexy / funny theme, doesn't take itself seriously at all, and features full voicing by Elvira. It's got little cheesy monster finger puppets and plastic frogs. All the replacement parts for this machine are still obtainable. It's a good one to own.
Read the story of how we got it by following this "Read More" link:
