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| Review of the 1.5 years | Reviewed
8/5//08 |
Reviewer
Ratings |
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Indiana Jones (Stern) |
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Category |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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Art
Backglass |
 7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
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Art
Playfield |
7 |
8 |
7 |
5 |
7.5 |
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Sound |
7 |
8.5 |
7.5 |
9 |
3 |
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Playfield
|
3 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
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Rules |
3.25 |
6 |
2.5 |
3 |
1.5 |
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Longevity |
3.5 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
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Total |
5.25 |
 Boat Anchor= |
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Stern, 2008 Difficulty 1/3 |
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Buzz Art: Backglass: 7
Good god, what is this? Quick quiz, name the last great pinball machine to feature 4 pop bumpers? Thats right, but it's not 1980 anymore and this isn't a Steve Ritchie game so uh... no, it doesn't work! Gotta hand it to Stern, they bought a great license. Yet I get the feeling 6 months from now they could come up with a Harry Potter backglass to slap on this thing and just be as successful! I really hope Stern isn't heading down the road of these brain-dead machines with huge licenses to be successful. Even the casual home user will get bored of this thing in a few minutes. This is what makes this site so great...no sponsers to suck up to so I can let it all out and boy do I intend to! So lets get on with the review... Pluses: Very attractive color scheme! This game really stands out in a crowd! Not only that but the sounds are amazing. Although this game seems to forever remain in beta stage of the software, I also really like the displays. The 8-ball multiball is a great gimmick to attract new players. Plus you can never go wrong with TWO spinners in a machine. The Ark looks GREAT and the lightshows really rock. Minuses: Note to John Borg: Pat Lawlor even with his WORST designs does not put WALLS of stand-up targets in his machines! This is such a cop-out to taking advantage of real-estate in a machine! To put 16 standup targets on a playfield (7 of which do NOTHING) is just pure laziness. As much as this site bashes George Gomez for his recycled designs, his layouts I must admit are still fun! I actually look forward to them and hope to see many more from him. Lets look deeper at what we have here. Aside from the layout we have rules from Lonnie "Flop" Ropp. Haha, I just couldn't resist that, I forget who on RGP came up with it but it is a good one. Well I would like to delve into the rules a bit yet there is a problem. THERE ARE NONE! I hope, I HOPE there is more along the pipeline but I gotta review what is availble now and that is V 1.13. Map room bonus X is HUGE in this game. Nothing else comes close to being able to rack up points than simply collecting your bonus so this REALLY needs to be corrected in future revisions. Crystal Skull Ramp: does nothing ( I assume this will be corrected in the future but for 99% of route players it is useless) Grail Scoop: Shoot 5 times to start Grail mode. Shoot all lit shots to complete Grail mode (Yawn). Temple modes: Shoot temple to open Temple Scoop. Repeat 3 times to start Temple Mball. Ironically shooting the map room for bonus X is more lucrative than shooting jackpots due to this games WAYYYYY unbalanced scoring. Ark: Shoot ark WAYYYYY too many times to start 8 ball multiball. When done shoot ark WAYYYY too many + even more shots to start an even more worthless multiball (less balls). See my note above about shooting the Map room for bonus X as this is the ONLY way to score points on this game. Crystal Skull Ramp: Does nothing but award worthless jackpots (Assumed to be updated someday in the future). Well thats about it for IJ4. No other modes or fun things to shoot for. Despite all these negatives I am sure this game will earn quite well on location and that is good for Stern and pinball players everywhere. Because that means for every turd like this that comes down the pike there could be the next Family Guy just ahead. But for the home buyer this machine offers absolutely NOTHING! Period!
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Jimbo Art BG - 7
Art PF - 8
Sound - 8.5
PF Design -5
Rules - 6
Longevity - 5
Pluses: It's a darn good lookin' and soundin' game. Those are the main pluses. The pf looks real nice, a little POTC in there. Very inviting and colorful; the insert colors fit well. Great sounds, especially turned way up...........lots of quotes, NOT like POTC.
The ark is a cool feature, not a sinking ship, but pretty cool. Casual players love cool toys that spit out lots of balls....and the way they 'come out' is quite impressive. It's almost as the ark is filling with water pushing the balls out..............cool.
If you are a casual/novice player, you'll probably love this game. If you casually walk into, say a theater, and plop in your 75 cents (Yea, don't be cheap ;]), there's a real good chance you'll have that 'satisfied' feeling when the cheezy match sequence arrives.....if, of course, the operator is generous enough to give you a chance to match ;).
Minuses: Well, a few worth mentioning........Definately not a 'players' game....a couple games of IJ4 and a game of 'Goldball' starts to sound appealing. The pf layout is not exciting or innovative....similar to other games we know too well. Overall a way too easy game; And then when you try to make it hard, it becomes a 1-shot game................hmmm, sounds somewhat familar to the original IJ....(a great game, just not a great tourney game).
Overall: As an operator, buying one or two or three of these is a no-brainer.......let's face it, our customers are 99% casual players....they'll love it. Just like POTC (Still my best earning pinball), a great license with a cool toy = $$$!
However, if you're a step or more above 'casual' status....go find a FG and enjoy a few hours of solid entertainment!
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9-Ball Art BG - 7
Art PF - 7.5
Sound - 3
PF Design - 2
Rules - 1.5
Longevity - 5
Overview: Great license but they must have paid Spielberg & Lucas 95% of the games budget and left the remaining 5% for game design. Lots of potential but there's not a pleasing shot on the entire playfield. Stern, please go back to the full display animation, the partial display area for animation just doesn't cut it. The Ark is basically a cool looking waste of space and potential. The 8 ball multiball is too A Pile-O 13-ish, way too many balls out there at one time to be any fun so you can't wait to let several drain. There is not much original about the playfield design except for the captive ball/scoop, this game is just mega-boring! The Cairo Swordsman area is another waste of space and a direct ripoff from GnR. The decision to use only one ramp only adds to the playfields boring feel. Software still incomplete with some modes lacking any kind of scoring progression or specific goals. The lack of stacking modes & multiballs is a big setback to an already weak ruleset. Where are the combos?
Pros: Captive Ball/Scoop is a nice feature but thats about the only one that comes to mind. The Ark is a cool toy that has alot of unused potential, how about letting the ball travel through the back? or have a drop target under it? or a popper? or? It's just too one-dimensional. Art package is good overall but the art on the backbox sides is quite grainy. I'll give it a 5 for longevity only because of the license.
Cons: The backround music theme will have you climbing the walls or slitting your wrists in no time! Lack of any depth to modes and rules, 8 ball multiball a waste as the only function of the Ark. Only one ramp, huh? Nearly nothing original about the playfeild. Cheap plastic spot light covers pop off at will and soon you will be playing multi-lamp-cover-ball and then your game is over since the lamp cover gets stuck in the ball trough putting the game out of order. (Stern please use metal covers as Williams did for the operators sake). Even an average player can backhand the left scoop till the cows come home, very bad design. Skill shot seems like it was thrown in at the last minute, actually it should just be called "shot" because theres no skill involved in making it. I played an IJ4 for about 45 minutes and just walked away mid-game due to utter boredom. Makes you really want to play an IJ '93!
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Drac Art: Backglass:7.0
Pluses :1) Makes owners of IJ (Williams) fully understand what a great game they have if they don’t already 2) Substantiates Stern’s hypothesis that if you make getting a game out in time for a movie release your #1 priority and game quality a distant 2nd you’ll still sell large numbers of units on a strong license 3) Unlike SST’s Brain Bug, at least the Cairo Swordsman does not take up an entire section of the playfield when active
Minuses: Sink the DEEZ’ !! (the way the ark up top spills the balls when multiball is started). The ruleset has no depth and similar rulesets have been used many times in other games. Nothing is stackable (not that there’s much to stack anyway).The playfield is as generic as they come and I doubt it took more than 30 minutes to come up with (you’ve got the Tee’d Off captive ball up top and the GENEVA scoop down below and then some orbits,jets, and standups). The game is selling well due to the license, giving Stern no incentive to go back to making fun games like FG, etc. as long as they can secure strong licenses.
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