Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection

OK, i can understand why some of the young whippersnappers here may not like this collection of pinball games... however, as someone who has played the original tables and who has purchased this same set for the PSP, PS2, and now the Wii, these games are not only amazing feats of programming, but in at least one of the games - Central Park to be specific - almost *exactly* re-creates the feel of the physical table: the ball movement, plunger, sound, bumper, scoring - and even the 'traps' and 'tricks'

even more amazing is that this collection is nearly consistent in its cross-platform incarnations...

i just wish there was an OS X or Linux version...

reasonably priced, great game play, and true to the original... it doesn't get any better than that for me...

Yea, its not as clear as the Williams Collection, but its still great. The Gottlieb tables are just so different than the Williams tables. The game play is unique and very interesting, its a complement to the Williams Collection, not really a competitor...if you liked Williams, you will like this too.

I play about an hour of pinball a day, and switch happily between the two.

The pinball tables of this game are only fair. I thought this game would have been as good as the Williams Pinball game. It wasn't.

If you are a pinball fan, the Wii "Hall of Fame" collections can't be beat. The biggest difference between Wii and other video systems' pinball games is the "nudge" feature - you can use the Wii controllers to nudge the machine, just like a regular machine, and influence the movement of the ball. You can also tilt the machine if you're not careful.

The Gottlieb Collection, like the Williams Collection before it, faithfully recreates the look of the machines and gives information on the history of each machine and instructions on how to maximize your score. The Gottlieb Collection also features some fun and goofy old-time arcade machines, including the Love Meter and the Fortune Teller.

That being said, the Gottlieb Collection is not as much fun as the Williams Collection simply because the Gottlieb machines themselves are not as much fun, at least for me. Some of these machines are really old - from the '50s and '60s - and don't have as many bells and whistles (literally)as the machines created in the '80s and '90s. A couple of the games are great - Black Hole is my favorite. Most of the featured machines have multiple flippers, a couple have multiple levels, but many are of the type and era of "Jive Time" on the Williams Collection (although even Jive Time has a cool Wheel of Fortune feature). Play on these old machines can be a little slow as there's basically only targets and bumpers, and with some it's quite difficult to keep the ball in play for extended periods.

I think if you are a fan of arcade pinball, this is a good game to add to your collection. If have limited experience with arcade machines, the Williams Collection might be the better one to start with. But either way, the Wii "Collection" series are far superior to most electronic pinball games.

As a follow up to the incredible Williams Collection, this is a very worthy successor. Lots of favorites are here, including the industry-shaking Black Hole. (Pity they couldn't have included the similar Haunted House.)

Game play is quite similar to the Williams Collection, though one change in game play was somewhat annoying, namely completing the initial set of goals unlocks a DIFFERENT machine for free play, NOT the machine you are playing as is the case with the Williams Collection. This forces you to say, play several tables to complete the goals to find out which one will unlock Black Hole for free play.

Other than that, I wasn't as annoyed by the table reflections as some. Complaints that the games aren't as fun are a limitation of the source material - Gottlieb pins were never as fun as the Williams pins, which typically had richer, deeper rule sets, better playfield "toys" and better sound.

Still, Black Hole for one plays every bit as well as the real table and this should be a definite buy for any pin fan, especially at the price.