J
James
Ever since watching the Bowen Video on Alice Cooper and the more recent video uploaded by Buffalo Pinball I had been thinking to myself that this is a serious – serious game. Spooky pinball (of Total Nuclear Annihilation fame) will only be producing 500 of these worldwide, so if executed well, could become highly coveted machine in any pinball collection, just like its older sibling – Total Nuclear Annihilation. Take a look at those pictures of the playfield and the cabinet below, this is a seriously good looking game too.
I absolutely adore horror pinball machines – my top wanted list includes wanting a Tales From the Crypt, a Monster Bash, I currently have Scared Stiff and Bram Stokers Dracula in the collection so already I am switched on to this pinball machine massively.
The aim of the game is to make it through the Nightmare Castle fighting monsters (the games modes) along the way. To progress through the castle to find the monsters, the player must shoot one of the eight shots on main playfield, or eleven if you include the upper playfield, to get into the room with the monster. Once the room with the monster is found, the mode begins. After each mode, the base value of the next mode is raised by 20%, meaning there is some serious scoring potential for those longer games.
The game also features 2 multiballs – Crypt and Frankenstein. Crypt multiball is a single ball lock which can be started by shooting down the target and locking the ball, and either releasing by dropping once more, or dropping the ball down from the upper playfield into the lock. Frankenstein can be started in a similar fashion however the physical lock is on the upper playfield.
With games set to arrive to the U.K. soon, I hope to make a special trip to check this out first hand, the current price tag on Pinball Heaven is sat at £6,995 – so slightly more than a Pro Stern machine, and has a number of optional extras – whether these can be ordered last minute given that shipping seems to be close, is unknown.
- 5 Piece Plastic Protector Set – £25 – Protects your games plastics from monsters… or air balls.
- Alice Monster Mirrors – £75 – Reflecting all the RGB LED goodness to infinity!
- Interior Cabinet Decals – £60- Complete the graveyard right in your own game!
- Scary Blue Powder Coat – £120 – Our standard Silver Vein is stock, jazz it up a notch with some shiny deep blue scary goodness!
Given the fact that Spooky themselves are stating that there are limited numbers of the 500 production machines left for sale, I would imagine that Pinball Heaven won’t have many more of their allocation left, and U.K. numbers of this will be incredibly low.
Conclusion
This horror themed pinball machine from Spooky looks amazing to me, and after playing TNA I have real faith that it is going to be a hit. Something about TNA just felt amazing and even though TNA could have played out as a very repetitive title, every time I have played it I have been completely blown away and had a blast. I hold out really high hopes for Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle. One concern I read a lot about is the number of shots in a standard playfield, I imagine the game is going to feel really tight and claustrophobic – but such as in my Walking Dead Pinball Review – the playfield setup and how the game plays fits in the theme, I imagine if you were running around a nightmare castle battling monsters you would feel pretty claustrophobic too.
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looks like a seriously awesome game, I wasn't too sure at first but I'm warming to it!
Didn’t know they had arrived in the U.K. yet
