Big Shout out to
@philpalmer for his generous time today and more importantly the chance to play his Harry Potter CE
First things first ...Its Beautiful, it takes a while to absorb all the art on the cabinet because there is all this small detail that is wonderful to see. The radcals are not glossy like on elton john but more of a soft matt sheen with shiny accents of detail. If you want a piece of art that you can play this is the version for you.
The armour is a lovely gold with slight speckles in it and looks fitting, personally i would of liked the armour to come over the buttons as i suspect over time grease and dirt from playing will go on the cabinet art, however Phil said they are hard wearing and should wipe off any dirt. Personally id get protectors over the button area. The topper on the Ce is pretty much how everyone else has said pretty crap , it doesnt do a lot right now and even when fully coded probably still wont do a great deal.
The art on the playfield is fantastic and the glitter on the playfield really makes it feel quite special with accents of glitter in the windows on hogwarts and other places on the playfield.
Now for gameplay ...im no expert by any stretch of the imagination but what i will say is this ...if you love Potter your buying this after you have played it ...be it NIB or second hand. In my opinion it plays as fast as Elton but with more to do...it kind of feels like a Elwin with some of the ball paths.
Off the left flipper you can back hand up the ramp to Quidditch playfield once up there all shots are repeatable and very satisfying ....its quite similar to foo fighters upper but flows better. The 180 onto the wire foam is a lot of fun and wide open to hit. The spinner is great too, if you lose your ball it simply comes off the playfield on to a wire ramp and back to the flipper or straight down to the pf. The Beater posts are fun they are basically kinetic posts that hit the balls in the smaller sealed wireform.
The deatheater shootback target is hands down the fastest shot in pinball ... knock the taget down shoot it again and the ball gets trapped the flippers start to shake and faster than a speeding bullet its down at your flippers its crazy fast much faster than the Rocket in GOTG
The upper right flipper feels very similar to Elton Johns upper right flipper and is very satisfying to shoot, id say off that the inner loop is easier to shoot than Elton.
The Pop bumper whomping willow is great.
The Ball lock on the wands works well, balls then drop into the cauldron and shoot out the scoop[
Extra ball is behind the upper right flipper , that flipper must be engaged to knock the ball into the gobble hole.
The stair case works really well constantly spinning round and changing the direction of the game.
The ball save on the right side is engaged once you light the letters Harry.
Things to note the scoop hole is protected by a big chunk of plastic ive not seen this before but that should help with eject playfield wear.
Mark Silks annoying call outs ...well to be honest they arent really annoying at all, you are quite thankful hes telling you what to shoot next as theres that much going on.
Multiball Heavy ...its simply not you need to achieve tasks to get the multiballs but they dont come thick and fast its certainly no GNR
Muted clips ... theres some but at scenes you wouldnt normally be paying attention to anyway...theres lots of scenes, humour and call outs done at great points in the game
Theres a nice feature in the game that when the game stops via ball trapping you need to make spells and portions these are done by showing you a series of button pressed on screen that you need to repeat to cast the spell or make the portion ...eg left flipper right flipper action button etc, thats a nice touch
The flippers on this are equal or better to elton john and really are starting to feel like sterns.
Quick final thoughts : For me i will be going for the Wizard edition and theres three main reasons to that ...
One is the radcals on the WZ are glossy like Elton John and they pop better in my eyes, they look like shiny glass decals and i like that.
Two is the topper on the WZ imo is better than the ce
Three is although a lot of characters are on the playfield aside from the main three at the bottom all the other people including the main bad guys are all quite small and sometimes tucked under ramps ...this is where the WZ really shines with big glorious pictures of all the cast on both sides.
In summary i think this will be JJP best playing and selling game its a masterpiece and soooo much fun to play....once the honey moon period ends you get a real sense that you could really start to work through the modes and they are quite achievable to do.
If ive missed anything just give me shout
















