Indy 500: Very good game
Keith Johnson
mostly had a blast. Never got to any wizard modes, but I'll go back
this weekend or something and really play the thing. ;)
The lightup targets are very cool looking. The game has really nice
flow. The turbo toy is quite cool, though I wonder what will happen
when it breaks. Probably the game will be unusable. The spinning car
on the right ramp is mostly pointless, except I suppose it imparts some
spin on the ball like the WCS soccer ball. Video mode is OK, though it
is quite hard (not that that's a bad thing). It could probably be worth
a few more points, or you could get some kind of completion bonus.
I'm not going to do an extensive review as others have already done
that. Let me point out a couple things, though:
The right loop that is supposed to feed into the VUK at the back of the
game bounces out *way* too much. I'd blame it on the machine, except
that at least two other people have run into this problem, which
indicates a possible design problem.
It seems to be *way* too hard to advance Positions. The only ways I'm
sure of are the random Secret Race Mode (where the left bumper advances)
and the left loop. The left loop wouldn't be bad, but you're ONLY
allowed to advance when *nothing* else is lit on it. But something is
almost always lit: Either the light raceway (the modes in the game), or
moving towards lock. You can have move-towards/light lock and light
raceway on at the same time, but not pass. This is a big problem,
because you have to advance like 27 positions! (I think) Most of the
time, you'll shoot from the upper right flipper into the lock after the
left orbit, so in the brief time lock is lit (and thus you can advance
positions), it'll mostly be useless since you lock the ball right away.
You can let the ball go down all the way to the lower right flipper, but
that seems risky, and also seems to be a non-trivial shot to loop.
The game I played also had ball kick-out problems, which only mattered
during multiball. If the balls don't get out in time, then no
multiball. :( But that's more an OS consideration than an I5
consideration. Just thought I'd voice my opinion on that one.
This is a very challenging game, but still pretty good fun. A couple of
the modes are fairly worthless, especially Gasoline Alley (shoot the
right orbit 5 times... yay, especially when 75% of the shots don't
register). There really REALLY should be compensation when the ball
goes around the right orbit instead of in the VUK.
Anyway, a very good effort. As good, possibly better, than Shadow. And
those 2 are certainly the highlights of the year.
keith
--
Keith P. Johnson, keeper of rec.games.pinball DynaFAQ
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