Great evening with @chris b and guests last night. Got an early look at JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean, and Stern's Guardians of the Galaxy (Pro and LE version thanks to Lee)
I'm only going to comment on Pirates, because I didn't get a lot of time with GOTG. Far too popular with the other guests! Would welcome other peoples thoughts on that (and Pirates too)
Was really impressed with Pirates though! Absolutely gorgeous game. I'd always thought that JJP's WOZ was probably the most visually impressive game to date, but I think this one might top it. Really lovely detail on all the models. There's a twinkling star map at the back of the game that seems to just be there for effect rather than any gameplay purpose. Little things like that make it easy to see where the money has gone, but it really adds up to making a beautiful game. And I'm told this is still somewhat a prototype model, there could be further enhancements (such as changing the foggy ramp plastics) on the final model.
Didn't see a ball hang up at all whilst we were playing, only a possible software fault at one point (which shows up in the video below) where the ball didn't release from the saucer until ball search kicked it out.
Rules wise, it was still very early code, but I think as we played it we started to figure out there is a surprising amount there already.
At the start of the game you choose a character, which awards different bonuses during the game, such as easier to complete modes, or longer ball save and so on. There are probably 20 or so of these characters, some of which are not yet coded. An interesting strategy choice too, because in a multiplayer game you can't pick the same character as someone else. Normally in pinball the later players have some strategic advantage in being able to see what scores to shoot for, but now there might be a benefit to playing first and picking 'the best' character.
We didn't quite figure out the modes. It looks to me like there are five modes available on each of the five main shots, and these are displayed across the top of the display too (in yellow, green, red, aqua, blue). Making one of the main shots cycles the lit mode in that colour, then to start a mode you shoot to the right of the chest into an area of the playfield with five standups (one for each of the five colours). A magnet keeps the ball bouncing around into the standups until one of the lit modes is activated, depending on which standup gets hit the most. That's how it looked to me anyhow! In the modes you have rules displayed on screen and with arrows on the playfield. Completing a mode awards you a tick box, so I can guess there might be mini-wizard modes for completing all five modes in one particular colour, or maybe one for completing a single mode in each colour and so on.
There are a good number of multiballs too. The main multiball works similar to Whitewater. Shoot the standups either side of the lock shot. The lock shot into the chest is really nice. The chest opens to show you the physical ball locks, then closes again when a new ball is locked.
There are other multiballs for repeat shots to an inner loop from the upper flipper, for collecting gold (from standups then mashing the button to collect), repeat shots on the Maelstrom funnel and so on.
The upper playfield on the rocking boat was pretty fun. It looks like you have to make the loop shot up there until it lights two green standup targets. Hit the two standups and it lights a saucer on the top left. Making the lit saucer collects the ball and loads it into a cannon, where you shoot the physical ball across the playfield - from one ship into the other. Thought this was a really nice feature.
I'm only going to comment on Pirates, because I didn't get a lot of time with GOTG. Far too popular with the other guests! Would welcome other peoples thoughts on that (and Pirates too)
Was really impressed with Pirates though! Absolutely gorgeous game. I'd always thought that JJP's WOZ was probably the most visually impressive game to date, but I think this one might top it. Really lovely detail on all the models. There's a twinkling star map at the back of the game that seems to just be there for effect rather than any gameplay purpose. Little things like that make it easy to see where the money has gone, but it really adds up to making a beautiful game. And I'm told this is still somewhat a prototype model, there could be further enhancements (such as changing the foggy ramp plastics) on the final model.
Didn't see a ball hang up at all whilst we were playing, only a possible software fault at one point (which shows up in the video below) where the ball didn't release from the saucer until ball search kicked it out.
Rules wise, it was still very early code, but I think as we played it we started to figure out there is a surprising amount there already.
At the start of the game you choose a character, which awards different bonuses during the game, such as easier to complete modes, or longer ball save and so on. There are probably 20 or so of these characters, some of which are not yet coded. An interesting strategy choice too, because in a multiplayer game you can't pick the same character as someone else. Normally in pinball the later players have some strategic advantage in being able to see what scores to shoot for, but now there might be a benefit to playing first and picking 'the best' character.
We didn't quite figure out the modes. It looks to me like there are five modes available on each of the five main shots, and these are displayed across the top of the display too (in yellow, green, red, aqua, blue). Making one of the main shots cycles the lit mode in that colour, then to start a mode you shoot to the right of the chest into an area of the playfield with five standups (one for each of the five colours). A magnet keeps the ball bouncing around into the standups until one of the lit modes is activated, depending on which standup gets hit the most. That's how it looked to me anyhow! In the modes you have rules displayed on screen and with arrows on the playfield. Completing a mode awards you a tick box, so I can guess there might be mini-wizard modes for completing all five modes in one particular colour, or maybe one for completing a single mode in each colour and so on.
There are a good number of multiballs too. The main multiball works similar to Whitewater. Shoot the standups either side of the lock shot. The lock shot into the chest is really nice. The chest opens to show you the physical ball locks, then closes again when a new ball is locked.
There are other multiballs for repeat shots to an inner loop from the upper flipper, for collecting gold (from standups then mashing the button to collect), repeat shots on the Maelstrom funnel and so on.
The upper playfield on the rocking boat was pretty fun. It looks like you have to make the loop shot up there until it lights two green standup targets. Hit the two standups and it lights a saucer on the top left. Making the lit saucer collects the ball and loads it into a cannon, where you shoot the physical ball across the playfield - from one ship into the other. Thought this was a really nice feature.
