Though I’ve performed a variety of pinball in my time, I’ve no recollection of ever enjoying Scared Stiff. Initially launched by Bally in 1996, it was the second machine to characteristic Elvira, Mistress of the Darkish. The primary was Bally’s Elvira and the Social gathering Monsters, additionally now out there in Zen’s Pinball FX (and in addition reviewed by Pure Nintendo).
So, I got here into Pinball FX – Williams Pinball: Scared Stiff with no preconceived notions, and I’m having fun with it sufficient to hunt out the precise machine.
The duty right here is to work your means by way of the Six Tales of Terror. These have various levels of problem, in fact, and finishing all of them is an excessive problem. Doing so ranges up the Stiff-o-Meter, with the objective of hitting degree 10 (Scared Stiff). It’s so much to tackle. Elvira herself offers some steering, however, as you’d anticipate, you’re primarily left counting on lights and your data of the sport to seek out the suitable goal.
As is customary with Pinball FX video games, although, you get loads of methods to follow. Essentially the most enjoyable choice is to simply hop into Traditional Mode and play the machine as you’ll on the native pinball parlor (should you’re fortunate sufficient to have an area pinball parlor). Amongst the quite a few different choices out there, nonetheless…
…is a Apply mode in which you’ll be able to play for an hour with out shedding your progress. Your scores right here aren’t recorded for the achievement board, in fact, however it affords you adequate time to work in the direction of the final word objective. And that’s one thing to contemplate with pinball; it’s extra enjoyable once you goal to finish the “missions.” The excessive scores will comply with.
Scared Stiff’s audio is excellent, particularly the quotes from Elvira herself. As you’d anticipate from the title, the sport is rife with innuendo, and you’ll inform the unique designers have been in sync with what Elvira was about. It provides levity that’s often lacking from pinball.
I feel the sport’s unique design, nonetheless, does muddy up the digital presentation. The enjoying discipline is extraordinarily busy. That will work in an arcade, however—when mixed with the darker visuals of Pinball FX—it makes it very onerous to comply with the motion, particularly in multi-ball. It’s usually onerous to trace the ball(s) till it’s too late. You’ll even have to find out when to permit your self to be distracted by the assorted animated and backglass animations. They’re fairly intelligent, however you actually can’t afford to lose your focus.
Even when you possibly can monitor the ball, Scared Stiff’s middle drain is wildly unfair. Somebody should inform me if this was the case with the bodily machine. If that’s the case, Zen did nothing about it, for higher or worse. Alternatively, the aspect drains are nearly nonexistent. I can depend on one hand (mabye two) the variety of instances I misplaced a ball to an outlane.
Oh, talking of which, in case you have a Swap 2 Professional Controller, I extremely advocate mapping Zen’s nudge capabilities to the G buttons. A lot simpler to make use of…though it does make unintentional nudging a problem.
Anyway, the lack to remain centered on the motion means there’s fairly a bit left to probability. Fortunately, catching the ball with the flippers is a reasonably straightforward activity right here. This lets you gradual issues down and goal accordingly, so there are fewer blind photographs than I’ve seen in different Zen recreations. Once more, I’m undecided if this was easy on the precise machine, however I did discover it simpler than on different Pinball FX tables—fewer odd bounces and events the place the ball rolled up and over the flipper.
As I mentioned up high, Scared Stiff is an efficient machine. It’s the primary one I am going to now after I launch Pinball FX, however I do have an issue with the pricing. For $9.99, there’s no motive Scared Stiff and Elvira and the Social gathering Monsters shouldn’t have been launched as a bundle. Even at Zen’s normal $14.99 bundle worth, it could’ve made extra sense. You’ll get extra on your cash by going again to any of the Williams bundles you haven’t but moved from Pinball FX 3 to FX.
