Hands-On: Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection

by Kevin Kelly { Jun 10th 2009 at 8:00AM }

Sadly, we don't have a hands-on for Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, and that's a real travesty. It was one of the best games released for the Wii last year, and if you're a Wii owner and a fan of pinball (admittedly, that's probably a niche market), then you need to go out and pick it up somewhere. It's a great pinball simulator, features faithful recreations of some of the best pinball tables ever manufactured, and even includes tilt via the Wii Remote.

The Gottlieb Collection, which brings eleven new tables to the Wii, will finally appear in North America this year. This set includes the history for each table, along with a scanned copy of the flyers that manufacturers used to send out to get arcades interested in new machines, a feature lacking in The Williams Collection. They've tossed in two arcade staple bonus games as well, and the only thing missing is a slot for your quarters and the soda-sticky floors. Read on for more info, including a list of the tables in the game.

Gallery: Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottleib Collection

The Gottlieb Collection includes:

Play Boy (1937) (!)
Ace High (1957)
Central Park (1966)
Big Shot (1974)
Genie (1979)
Black Hole (1981)
Goin' Nuts (1983)
El Dorado (1984)
Victory (1987)
Tee'd Off (1993)
Strikes N' Spares (1995)

As an added bonus you get Love Meter: where you grip the controller and it tells you how "hot" you are, along with Xolten, which predicts your future. Sure, they're just fluff, but if you stumbled into an arcade in the 1980s you'll remember Love Meter. Xolten sounds like it came from the devil. I've never heard of it.

What's interesting is that The Gottlieb Collection actually came out for the PS2 and Xbox in 2004, and later appeared on the Gamecube and the PSP. The Gottlieb Collection came out in 2006 as a PAL only release, and The Williams Collection came out in 2008 for most major platforms, beating Gottlieb to the Wii in North America. That is unless you count sticking the Gamecube copy into the Wii.

As a self-admitted pinball addict, I've played several versions of these Collections, and the Wii just feels the most natural when you use the triggers on the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck, and waggle if you need a little table nudging. Visually, Gottlieb is just like Williams, and has highly detailed reproductions of these historic tables. Hopefully they'll hit some of the other manufacturers in future releases, as well as putting out The Machine: Bride of Pinbot in The Williams Collection 2. Here's hoping.

Tags: Pinball, Pinball-Hall-Of-Fame, The-Gottlieb-Collection

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Garu @ Jun 10th 2009 8:29AM

So if I already have this on the GameCube, does this version offer anything that different?

Sisyphus @ Jun 10th 2009 11:07AM

Probably just more comfortable controls, but that's it.

Sisyphus @ Jun 10th 2009 11:07AM

I have the Williams Collection and absolutely love it. The Wii controls are perfect for relaxing and playing pinball. Wonderful bargain game. I'll definately buy the Gottlieb Collection as well.

Raven @ Jun 10th 2009 11:07AM

I was really excited for this first game on the Wii, mainly because it had Pinbot included.

Unfortunately, after playing the Pinbot table for about 4 hours straight, I've concluded that its broken. Something is wrong with the left and right pitfalls. The chance of your ball falling down in to them is way too high. I would say there is about a 50% chance or more that you will lose your ball down the side before you even get a chance to touch it at the beginning of your turn, and a very high chance while playing.

I've read that this is also a big problem on one other tables in the game, but I forget which one. This was a HUGE disappointment for me. Other tables were great though, its just that Pinbot was my favourite :(

Robert Jung @ Jun 11th 2009 12:59AM

"Unfortunately, after playing the Pinbot table for about 4 hours straight, I've concluded that its broken. Something is wrong with the left and right pitfalls. The chance of your ball falling down in to them is way too high."

Having played the living bejeebers out of Pin*Bot in college, I can testify that it's true of the original machine as well. IMO, that's a testament to how accurate the Williams' Collection is...

--R.J.

Adolph @ Jun 10th 2009 11:11AM

I never understood the draw for pinball. I guess its a generational thing.

You make a bunch of noises and flashing lights and get scored. The scores mean nothing and the whole point is to continue making lights and noises.

at least mario when you beat it you save a princess.

I just fail to understand why pinball is fun. I guess people in 1950's were more easily entertained.

Ninbrendo @ Jun 10th 2009 12:12PM

I never understood the draw for Mario. I guess its a generational thing.

You make a bunch of noises and flashing sprites and get scored. The scores mean nothing and the whole point is to continue making sprites and noises.

At least pinball when you're good at it you can play indefinitely.

I just fail to understand why Mario is fun. I guess people in 1980's were more easily entertained.

stinkbug @ Jun 10th 2009 2:33PM

Um, maybe play a pinball machine with a deep rulesheet and/or good design sometime and you'll see how captivating pinball is. I'd like to see you complete Battle for the Kingdom on Medieval Madness sometime. Chances are you can't.

Pinball is a lot more than "a bunch of noises and flashing lights".

milan @ Jun 10th 2009 7:22PM

You don't understand pinball's unique depth, strategy and skill involved in its gameplay yet, but that's okay. You shouldn't be so be ignorant and borderline insulting though!

dantebk @ Jun 10th 2009 12:51PM

Pinball video games just bum me out. I love pinball, but I don't think any video game that tries to recreate it has really succeeded. The most fun games are the ones that don't take it seriously like Pinball Quest for NES or Revenge of the Gator for Game Boy.

I played Williams Collection for 360 at E3, the Medieval Madness table, and I thought it was pretty decent. But they also had a REAL Medieval Madness table in the booth, and it was SOOOOOO much better. Seriously, don't put something that makes your game look silly right next to the game itself. Bad planning.

Jay Voorhees @ Jun 10th 2009 12:54PM

Kevin, I don't know how old you are but surely...not that old or a tom hanks fan. Xolten is a mangled version of the name Zoltan, a fortune telling "game". They probably didn't have the rights to use it properly so they made it up. There's also a reason why the imput code is "BIG" to unlock this feature.

Kevin Kelly @ Jun 10th 2009 1:10PM

I'm only five. Actually I figured it was probably a perversion of Zoltar (not Zoltan). Didn't know about the code though. Keen!

Atlantis1982 @ Jun 10th 2009 1:24PM

Well i'm looking forward to this, nice to see this is finally coming out for the Wii in NA.

Christopher @ Jun 10th 2009 7:54PM

"Sadly, we don't have a hands-on for Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, and that's a real travesty."

Travesty? Really?

I do not think this word means what you think it means. You are looking for the word tragedy, which is hyperbole in this situation, but at least MAKES SENSE. Travesty is a form of comedy similar to satire and caricature.

J.K. @ Jun 10th 2009 10:39PM

So will this also have all the same awful blatant wretched bugs and crash issues of all the previous versions going back into the last generation too?

I wasted $15 on this sucker some years back on the Cube which was supposedly the most stable (ugh) of the lot. Most the tables are pretty uninspired and pretty trashy except for a handful of notables. The physics if also from the old copy of the game too are left in worked like crap as well.

Even if this came out at $20 like the Williams one, you'd have to pay me to take this line of abuse a second time motion controls or not.

Get the Williams package as the controls work, the table selection is top notch, and it lacks a ton of the bugs and physics problems too.

TRON.dll @ Jun 11th 2009 2:53PM

I personally enjoyed the Gamecube version, but then again, I really tend to like Gottlieb tables as well. There was a glitch on Tee'd Off where if you nudged the table so the ball went to the right (you had to have the "No Tilt" cheat on, of course) at the vertical launch area in the middle of the table, the ball would move out of the track and float in the air for a bit.

jesus @ Aug 25th 2009 6:59PM

I would think since this is coming out for the wii, that nintendo would allow for crave to make the super mario brothers pinball machine as well because gottlieb made the machine back in the day so they probably have some rights to create it. I hope. If they don't come out with the super mario brothers pinball machine game I'll just wait till they make this for the either the xbox360 or the ps3 and get it then.