User Reviews (1 - 11 of 18)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Excellent Pinball Simulator

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you like pinball -- if you're old enough to remember the game -- you will love this fine 128-bit pinball simulator, featuring some of the great Gottlieb tables through the decades. This is essentially a port of the game that appeared on the PS2, plus three new tables, one of which, Goin' Nuts, starts off with some frantic multiball action and never slows down. I haven't experienced the ball physics problems mentioned by another reviewer; the Black Hole table is VERY fast, and the ball falls upwards in the lower level mini-game -- perhaps this explains his observation that balls pass through flippers. There are also a few classic arcade diversions thrown in for variety, including Xolten the fortune teller and the Love Meter. Awesome graphics, including defeatable reflections on the table glass, and true table sounds enrich the playing experience as well. Easy to pick up and hard to put down, PHOF for PSP is a must-buy at $29, and lots of fun for two or more players, with infinite replay value. I recommend it highly.

Excellent mindless fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love pinball and this is as close as you can come without purchasing an actual machine for your rec room. The graphics are awesome, the sound effects incredibly realistic and the tables are top notch. Addictive and definitely a must have for your PSP game collection!

"Pinball... Hall of Fame!"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As a big fan of Pinball Hall of Fame on the Xbox, I was thrilled when a PSP version was announced. For the most part, the PSP version is faithful to the console versions... which can be both good and bad. There are three new tables and a few new problems as well, but overall, Pinball Hall of Fame is a great title that can be very addictive.

The game features 11 "classic" Gottlieb tables- Genie, El Dorado, Black Hole, Big Shot, Ace High, Play Boy, Central Park, Tee'd Off, Goin' Nuts, Victory and Strikes and Spares (an unusual bowling pinball variation). It's a varied collection of tables from the 1930's to the 1990's... some better than others. There was a problem with the ball physics on the console versions and unfortunately that has transferred over to the PSP version also. Games like Black Hole and El Dorado are nearly impossible to play due to the ball physics... and it is not uncommon for a ball to pass right through a flipper in Black Hole. However on games like Genie and Big Shot, the ball physics seem fine (if a little slow).

Graphically, the game looks great as the tables are re-created perfectly down to the last detail. There is a slight problem with "motion blur" on some of the tables (Big Shot is particularly noticeable), and I highly recommend turning off the "backglass reflection" in order to see the details of the table at their best. You can play the game in standard widescreen mode, or you can flip it vertically and use the triangle and X buttons as the flippers. On games like the multi-ball based Goin' Nuts, this option is a very welcome addition.

Sound is identical to the console versions as well... which means it is very good. The sounds of the old bells on the early machines is always funny to listen to, and the newer machines like Victory and Tee'd Off have a full musical accompaniment. I love the announcer guy. He just sounds so enthusiastic when he yells out "Pinball.... Hall of Fame!"

For the price, this is a great title with tons of replay value and perfect on-the-go gameplay. If you don't mind a few minor glitches and are a pinball fanatic, this is a must-own.

Best Virtual Pinball Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The excellent graphics and sound effects in this game really give one the "feel" of playing real pinball in an arcade. You can even see the ball spinning sometimes. I have not noticed any problem with the ball physics or seen any balls go through flippers, (as mentioned in a previous review) and I've played a lot of "Black Hole" (a very cool table). Of course, this is historical pinball, with recreations of actual tables, all produced by Gottlieb, and some of them are better than others, some are clearly designed as coin bandits. This is a strength or a weakness, depending on what you want

Cheap And Loads Of Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played a lot of games on the PSP and have seen the hits and misses. This pinball game is definitely a HIT!!! The graphics and colors are great...the tables are authentic...each table has its own feel (ball speed, flipper action, theme, and physics). It's amazing.

One of the best options is that you can use "game sharing" and purchase only one game and play it against a friend with his PSP too.

The last and potentilly best attribute is that my 2 year old (almost 3) loves playing it too and its easy enough for him to do himself. He hits the ball with the flippers and is able to use the plunger when the ball and can start a new game when he loses. He loves it!!! This is great for trips on a plane or car!!!

Great buy for 10 bucks!!! Get yours!!!

great simple to play game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If tou like pinball this a great game, lots of fun and pick up and start playing, no learning curve here...............

Wax nostalgic.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In a time where the best selling video games of the day consist of assign-two-uses-to-every-button controls, rediculous (and often extraneous) levels of environment interactivity (BLOW EVERYTHING UP!!!), and some of the most mind-numbingly convoluted storylines ever crafted in any medium, it's nice to find a nice, simple, and most of all, FUN game such as Pinball Hall Of Fame. Granted, it just isn't the same as going to a locally owned pizza joint with some friends and a pocket full of quarters to jam out on the ol' machine over a hot pie.

Seeing as how most of those locally owned Mom and Pop pizza places have been assimilated into the conglomerate collective and arcades are being flooded with emo kids on the Dance Dance Revolution machine, this is the last great bastion for the tried and true arcade mainstay (aside from the actual Hall Of Fame and Museum in Las Vegas). If you relate to these views and wax nostalgic about getting lost in the bangs, bings, bleeps, boops, and bells of your favorite table, do yourself a favor and get this game.

Spin The table

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Gottlieb Collection presents a healthy variety of pinball machines from various decades. The machines are very fun to play and a very good adaptation to the electronic platform. The gameplay feels true to real pinball action. The player is given 4 free machines to earn credits to play the other "locked" games, by achieving goals on the various machine you can unlock games. Each machine has it's own goal and hitting these goals motivates the player to play better. The only critism I have for this game is that it is very hard to achieve the goals. I give it a 4/5 rating due to the high level of difficulty, I find it to be one of the harder games for the PSP. Pinball fans should be very happy with this release.

Not bad, but not as realistic as you might think

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you aren't a real-world pinball aficionado, you might not be as aware of the slightly unrealistic physics during gameplay. I've played tens of thousands of games of pinball and never have I seen a solid steel ball bounce around like it commonly does in this game. Plus, many of the so-called "pinball games" are actually not pinball, but other types of amusement games. However, this is still a pretty nice package. The newer release, "Williams Pinball Classics" dramatically improves on the gameplay physics, but suffers from bugs that will crash the game while you're in the middle of it.

This game suffers from a number of serious problems. First and foremost, there are bugs in the code which will cause pinballs to disappear or get stuck and you will lose your game. I didn't like this in the real world and I can't imagine the designers intended the software to emulate this behavior - it's annoying, especially if you're in the middle of the challenge - kiss an hour's worth of time goodbye.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, as a pinball aficionado, I wax nostalgic for all the old games and many of these I've played in real life. And it brings back a lot of memories... bad memories of how profoundly bad many of Gottlieb's machines were. Some games are simply unenjoyable to play. There is very little skill involved when in at least 1/4 of the games, a significant percentage of the time the ball will drain before you can even get a flipper on it. I don't blame the programmers. I blame Gottlieb for designing machines that eat money and are only worthy of being in a bar played by drunk people who don't care. But on the PSP, this becomes an exercise in frustration. The Williams version is dramatically better and shows how superior Williams pinball games are. The developers could have done much better with virtually any pinball company other than Gottlieb. I look forward to Stern and Bally versions -- anything is better than the eternally frustrating tables in this game.

Third, the game physics seem to alter depending upon the view. This is not a figment of my imagination. There are some targets I can more or less easily hit depending upon the cam view. This does not happen in the later Williams version. The developers definitely had some problems in this game they fixed in their newer Williams release. Some of the machines, like Tee'd Off are an exercise in frustration to play, as some essential targets to hit in order to complete the table goals seem almost impossible to complete, due to some bizarre program logic that makes the ball go in one extreme direction or another. You cannot execute any reliable ball-flipping accuracy in this game like you can in the Williams version.

If I could take this game back, I would. It has been more frustrating than entertaining and fun. It reminds me of my worst pinball experiences, playing unforgiving tables that required more dumb luck than skill, and malfunctioning machines that ate my quarters. That's not the type of nostalgia I was hoping for.

A Mediocre Sim Filled With Careless Gliches

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was never much of a Gottlieb fan when trolling the arcade with a fat pocketful of quarters. I found their machines to be an exercise in frustration, with their lazy board angles, weak kickbacks, and exceptionally wide spaces between flippers. When the machines were in anything but tip-top condition (which very few actually were), frustration could easily lead to a smoldering anger as the balls seemed to naturally be drawn to the gutters while you had nothing to respond with except anemic flippers and a bruised hip to send the offending machine smashing against the back wall. "The Gottlieb Collection" by Crave Entertainment not only has helped me relive these unfortunate experiences of a misspent youth, they have compounded these frustrations by providing a product so full of glitches that I have relegated it to the back of my video game collection. It's all there in unfortunate detail; the anemic flippers, sleepy kickbacks, and quarter-cheating gutters that had me steering clear of these devious machines in the arcade. As if this wasn't enough, Crave has magnanimously added virtual balls that magically pass through flippers, bumpers, and targets along with becoming eternally ensconced in holes that will not release even after a tilt, forcing you to reset the game. These are only a few examples of why beta testing is so important before releasing a product for retail. I gazed at my Playstation 2 in wonderment as the multiball feature in "Tee'd Off" was reduced to a sputtering, frame-skipping, inaccurate mess. It had served me so well during all of the GTA mayhem....was the processor finally on its last legs? Did anyone at Crave Entertainment double check the game coding before sending the DVD out? It is a shame, because the emulations really do show a potential for fun. I only ask that I be given a semblance of body english without an over eager tilt (the way these machines truly are played in the arcade), and for the flippers and bumpers to become solid once again.

I would pass on this collection, but by all means, purchase "The Williams Collection", also by Crave Entertainment. They seemed to have learned from their mistakes and released an exceptional product, one which has me lofting high the "Crave Entertainment" banner and reliving the golden age of pinball once again.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions