Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection

Genre: Compilation / Pinball

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Alternating)

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Review:

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection is a Compilation of multiple Pinball tables released over the years under the Williams brand. Versions of this Compilation were released on PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii in 2008, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009, and on Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The Nintendo 3DS version of the game has the least amount of content compared to other versions, with only 7 tables compared to 8 for the PlayStation 2 version, 11 for the Wii and PlayStation Portable versions, and 14 compared to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

The tables included here are Black Knight, FunHouse, Gorgar, Pin-Bot, Space Shuttle, Taxi, and Whirlwind. I’ll note that while this specific Compilation has not been released on modern platforms, all of these games were at one time made available as downloadable content for The Pinball Arcade which has been released on modern platforms, though that content has since become delisted. Also, FunHouse is available as DLC for Pinball FX3, which is still freely available on modern platforms.

The gameplay here is pretty good, though I found the physics to be faster and “lighter” compared to other Pinball games I’ve played. The Nintendo 3DS’s two screens are used in a somewhat disappointing manner here, with the top screen displaying the gameplay and the entire bottom screen dedicated to showing the scoreboard. However, players can turn the Nintendo 3DS upside-down and the game will automatically detect the orientation and flip the screens around to present a more authentic look that works pretty well for the game, a clever feature.

Unfortunately, what really does this game in is its presentation, specifically the visuals. While the game’s energetic music and pinball sounds are fine, the game’s 3D graphics are so visibly dark it’s hard to see the screen. It’s really odd and inexplicable that this game would do this and not provide players with some option to adjust this setting. I literally had to exit out of the game for a moment to ensure that my Nintendo 3DS hadn’t become broken.

Because of the absurdly dark visuals, I couldn’t possibly recommend this game to anyone, even with the clever use of the Nintendo 3DS’s features, and I’m not even bothering to talk about the features here because the game is borderline unplayable. Unless you don’t mind straining your eyes to play this game, save yourself a lot of trouble and skip it.

tl;dr – Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection is a Compilation of multiple Pinball tables released under the Williams brand (Black Knight, FunHouse, Gorgar, Pin-Bot, Space Shuttle, Taxi, and Whirlwind). Unfortunately, the graphics are so inexplicably dark that it makes this game almost impossible to play properly. Pinball fans may be tempted to get this game, but you’re better off going for the game on any other platform, or just getting a more modern release.

Grade: D

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