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

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.