![]() It's also got one of the stranger plunger shots around, essentially launching the ball into a weird kind of Plinko box the game calls a Coin Toss. Released alongside the 1994 World Cup Soccer tournament, this table is a surprisingly addictive game that has some really interesting playfield features, including a rapidly spinning and very unpredictable top-half of a soccer ball, along with a goal, complete with moving goalie. The left side of the table has a long plastic roller-coaster style ramp that ends in a kind of down-the-drain spiral which is just awesome. ![]() For me, the big draws here are the endless orbits and ramps you can send the ball on and of course the mechanical Bigfoot character in the top-right corner of the game. This is definitely a more iconic table, meaning you'd probably recognize iwt if you saw it. There are so many ramps and levels in this table that the bottom playfield is mostly covered. ![]() Growing up I was a sucker for tables that had ramps galore-and that's essentially what White Water is. It also has a flipper-gap post which you really don't see anymore. My go-to strategy is getting the Guggenheim Museum multiball started and after that it's mostly a free-for-all. Tim Burton's face is also hidden in one of the plastics! The playfield is dominated by a Batmobile ramp-probably a bit too close to the flippers for my taste, but a fun shot to aim for nonetheless. This table has a lot of fun callouts from the first film, including some really cool hand-drawn art. Like old friends we exchange pleasantries and then after maybe 20 minutes or so of catching up, I finally start playing. Every summer when I visit Ocean City, NJ, this table is sitting at one of the few old-school boardwalk arcades I frequent, reliably in solid condition, just waiting for me to play. Batman ( Data East, 1991)Īs far as I'm aware, this isn't exactly the most beloved pinball machine in the world, but it holds a very special place in my heart. I'm gonna get real nerdy here with my freewheeling use of jargon, so get ready for a crash course in what it's like being a giant pinball addict. But most are easily findable, so I encourage you to check them out at an establishment near you using either Pinball Map or Pinside. So this year, with my love for the game arguably at its peak, I wish to bestow upon you, the Giant Bomb audience, friends and family alike, my current top 10 list of pinball machines as of this writing in December 2019. There's skill, there's luck, there's logic, there's everything. It's a fascinating array of electronics, circuitry, wiring, programming and engineering all working together to form a sandbox of geometrical chaos. And in all seriousness, restoring and repairing it has been an incredibly educational and satisfying experience.įor me, nothing can replace the feel of playing physical pinball. You can't change the fact that it's a wildly entertaining and challenging machine. Sure, it's possessed and so what if I'm its chosen dark servant now enslaved for all eternity, endlessly fulfilling its evil bidding. I do have to thank a very special Beastcast listener whose incredible generosity got me my first table ever (duder Don), the now infamous Funhouse machine. It's also probably because I now have a few machines in my possession, essentially converting a room in my house into a makeshift arcade. Perhaps it's because my son is now old enough to understand and play with me. And in 2019 I think I've played more pinball than any other year before. You may have heard I play a lot of pinball, and I'm here to set the record straight: I play a lot of pinball. ![]() If you're a person who sees value, it would do you well to follow him on Twitter. He's currently featured as a permanent rotating chair guest-host on The Giant Beastcast. Jeff Bakalar is an Editor at Large at CBS Interactive and one of CNET's youngest and brightest YouTube stars.
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