Pinball Hall of Fame - The Gottlieb Collection for Wii Reviews by Gamers

I am a huge fan of the Williams Pinball Classics made by these guys, but the Gottleib just doesn't cut it. The graphics, sound, physics, etc are OK (though the graphics don't seem as sharp on this one - might just be mental thing though). The tables just aren't that fun to play. Most are older pins, which are fine but Gottlieb in my opinion never made pinballs that were as fun or as well designed as Williams. I think Crave should continue this series, but maybe look at some of the more popular pins to include in the next release.

Also, just a side note - I emailed these guys maybe a year ago and told them how much I loved the williams game and encouraged(begged) them to release more tables or a whole new game(this isn't the quality i hoped for)...and they did actually email back and it wasn't a canned response, which I though was pretty cool of them. Anyway, hopefully they will do better next time around. Most of the vintage pins are hard to find and are expensive if you can find them. It's nice to be able to play them again, even if it's not the real thing.

There are several games to choose from and with the help of "cheats, codes & FAQs" one can open them all even without accumulating credits. It is very much like an arcade atmosphere.
I only wish the view of the pinball table was better. I want to see the whole table including the score board. It seems I could only see a part of the table at a time.
Still, I had some fun with it.

The other review named Sadly could have been written by me. We were also:

Looking forward to this release
Sadly disappointed
Member of gamefly but never compelled to review, until this game

The Williams collection made us so happy we purchased it after renting it from Gamefly. This Gottlieb pales in comparison. We didn't even keep it longer than one night of play. We tried each game. Boring!! We earned enough credits to play the games that charged us 10 credits to play.... not worth it!

We actually could not wait for its release, and sadly, could not wait to return it. Too bad, as Williams Collection is one of our all-time favorites! We adore smacking that silver ball at Rudy's head.

This is a major step back for the franchise from the greatness that is the Williams Collection.
The problems start right from the first play. When you go into the regular mode, you start off with zero credits and can only play a few of the 11 tables that are available (Genie, El Dorado, Big shot and Victory). The rest of the tables are off limits until you can get enough credits to play them. (One of the games, Ace High, requires 5 credits per person to play.)
You can't even play the three non pinball games (Xolten, Stirkes and Spares and Love Meter) until you get those credits.
Why is that the case? We paid for all 11 tables and 3 other games, we should be able to play all 11 tables and 3 other games.
This game does play exactly like the Williams Collection, and it does have the same three modes of play (regular mode, tournament mode, challenge mode). And some of the games are fun to play (I like the reversed game field in Black Hole). But some of these games date back to the fifties - and they sound just as dated.
Another problem Gottlieb has is each table has only one goal attached to it (unlike the two sets of five goals that every table in Williams has in their collection.) Achieving the goal gives you the ability to play another table for free, but you don’t get to choose which one (like you do in Williams).
Next time we get a Pinball Hall of Fame Collection, I’m looking for the ones that were made in the 1990s and 2000s. Games like Twilight Zone, Addams Family, and Jurassic Park.
Until then, we’re given the Pinball Hall of Fame the Gottlieb Collection. It may be good enough for pinball wizards (at $20), but I say the rest of us can give this game a pass. SKIP IT.

As with most multi-game collections, there are some good and some bad games on here. Like several others, I don't like the credit system. It's an interesting idea, but only works if it's relatively easy to rack up enough to play the games you want.

As far as the games, they definitely gear toward the old days, as Gottlieb has been around since the 30's. I think that's great; older pinball tables have a charm that newer ones lack, but they certainly aren't for everyone. Certain tables are simply dysfunctional; Central Park, for instance, relies heavily on nudging the table, but barely any nudge at all sends it into tilt. Also, one of the main charms of the real machine is seeing the semi-animatronic monkey hit the bell, which you never see here; only a bell sample plays. And after 4 (very spendy) plays of Ace High, I managed to hit the ball with my flippers maybe twice before it sailed down the hole. Complete waste of time.

But enough complaining; there's some really good stuff here, too! Black Hole has an amazing second-level upside-down playing field you can get to. Goin' N-ts (Gamefly seriously censors that word?) is a VERY fun full-time multiball mode game. Strikes n' Spares is a simple but addictive one-shot-at-a-time bowling skill game. Victory has an awesome 80's game soundtrack, and is a very solid game. And surprisingly, my favorite was Play-Boy, the oldest game in here, which is a flipperless game from 1937! It essentially plays like Pachinko, where you fire the ball and hope it goes where you want, adding up points on a playing card system. Doesn't sound exciting, but it's actually pretty addictive, kind of like Peggle!

Finally, the two non-pinball games are quaint, but really ought to be free. Xolten did, however, have a very good piece of advice when he told me that someone overseas is eagerly training for my job.

Without being to technical, except for a couple of SLOW tables, I enjoyed the pinball action. Being 63, I grew up with pinball, starting with machines in my parents restaurant. Because of different designs, some tables are more enjoyable than others, but in all, the final question is, did you enjoy the time spent in the playing, and I DID.

Pinball always fun
Williams collection, more fun
older machines here

I was looking forward to the release of this game but was sadly disappointed in this title. There is no excitement in play, it was slow and the response was lacking. This did not have the feel of playing an actual pinball machine as it did with the William's collection. Although I had anticipated that this was a game I would keep, this was absolutely not the case.

The ball in most of the games that I played moved at the same speed and anyone who has played a pinball game knows this just does not happen. Jiggling the machine was nearly non-existant unlike the Williams version. This lacked any luster whatsoever. I found myself very bored within minutes.

I don't even have the desire to see if any of the other non-free games are worthwhile.

The Gottlieb pinball lacked any character at all. Don't even bother. It isn't even worth the rental I am sorry to say. Just plain horrible.

Although I have been a member of Gamefly for nearly two years, the was the first time that I felt so strongly in regard to a game that I had to write a review hence the reason it shows me as a member since February 2010. This only relates to reviewing games.

This game does not support the wireless nunchuk and should not be on the market.