Though I’ve performed numerous 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 function Elvira, Mistress of the Darkish. The primary was Bally’s Elvira and the Occasion Monsters, additionally now out there in Zen’s Pinball FX (and additionally 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 approach by the Six Tales of Terror. These have various levels of problem, after all, and finishing all of them is an excessive problem. Doing so ranges up the Stiff-o-Meter, with the aim of hitting stage 10 (Scared Stiff). It’s lots to tackle. Elvira herself offers some steerage, however, as you’d anticipate, you’re primarily left counting on lights and your data of the sport to seek out the proper goal.
As is customary with Pinball FX video games, although, you get loads of methods to follow. Essentially the most enjoyable possibility is to simply hop into Traditional Mode and play the machine as you’d on the native pinball parlor (in the event you’re fortunate sufficient to have a neighborhood pinball parlor). Amongst the quite a few different choices out there, nevertheless…
…is a Follow mode in which you’ll be able to play for an hour with out dropping your progress. Your scores right here aren’t recorded for the achievement board, after all, but it surely affords you adequate time to work in the direction of the final word aim. And that’s one thing to think about with pinball; it’s extra enjoyable once you goal to finish the “missions.” The excessive scores will observe.
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 believe the sport’s unique design, nevertheless, does muddy up the digital presentation. The enjoying area is extraordinarily busy. Which will work in an arcade, however—when mixed with the darker visuals of Pinball FX—it makes it very arduous to observe the motion, particularly in multi-ball. It’s usually arduous 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 may observe the ball, Scared Stiff’s heart drain is wildly unfair. Somebody should inform me if this was the case with the bodily machine. In that case, Zen did nothing about it, for higher or worse. Alternatively, the facet drains are nearly nonexistent. I can rely on one hand (mabye two) the variety of occasions I misplaced a ball to an outlane.
Oh, talking of which, if in case you have a Change 2 Professional Controller, I extremely advocate mapping Zen’s nudge features 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 stated up high, Scared Stiff is an efficient machine. It’s the primary one I am going to now once 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 Occasion Monsters shouldn’t have been launched as a bundle. Even at Zen’s normal $14.99 bundle value, it could’ve made extra sense. You’ll get extra to your cash by going again to any of the Williams bundles you haven’t but moved from Pinball FX 3 to FX.
