Last Gladiators: Pretty damn cool!
Noah Mittman
refusal to buy into expensive imports anymore :D), I decided to wait for
it to be released in the States (thanks to TWI... did I really just thank
them?!). Well, I picked it up today, and for those who don't like
pinball, you probably won't like it. For fans of pinball, it's pretty
damn cool. I'd almost say it was fantastic if the playfields were more
animated - and it almost made it due to the wonderful hi-res playfields
with flickering lights galore. You do get the feeling you're just
controlling balls on a high-rez background and nothing more occasionally,
but the machines are rendered beatifully, and the control on the nudging
of the table is dead on, and you'll soon forget it once the multiball
starts. >:) Great sounds, and very appropriate guitar rock soundtrack
help build the mood.
Unlike the Crush series which add more arcade elements into the pinball
genre, the four tables are rather faithful reproductions of the current
style of pinball machine - ramps, locks, tracks, bonus games, etc. The
sounds are pure pinball as well, with only the rolling ball sound a little
out of place; It's a long sample, and sometime you'll stop the ball while
the sound is still playing, but it won't take away from the fun of the
tables.
Like today's pinball machines, they score high. In fact, the Knight of
the Rose table scores uncomfortably high - I got 900,000,000+ on my first
try, and I'm a pretty lousy pinball player. I attribute this to the very
easy-to-hit multiball lock on this table. Luckily Dragon Showdown lets
me show off my lack of skill. >:)
So if you're looking for pinball with arcade thrills, or something more
along the lines of Tristan's high skill + simplicity, you may be a little
disappointed... but if you're looking for something that easily matches
pinball in arcades today, Last Gladiators is _definitely_ a game to pick
up! Kudos to KAZe...
--
Noah Mittman <http://www.panix.com/~nam/firerain/>
Editor, Technical Director { Fire & Rain Productions, Inc. }
Sysadmin, Mac Development { VidiPax, Inc. }
"You can't destroy me... I quit!!!" - Crow T. Robot, MST3K