What matters about getting the official layout of Black Knight 2000 is if it plays like Black Knight 2000, otherwise it is not really Black Knight 2000, it's just a tribute. The only point of licensing real tables (aside from the sell value) is how real" the table is at simulating the game so that a player's strategies and reflexes work on either as interchangeably as possible. But if the pinball physics are what matters. The Pinball Arcade has real tables from yesteryear, and that's awesome. We are expecting our first child, who will receive a thorough education in the classics.If you are a NOSTALGIC pinball fan in real life, then sure. I currently live in Westerville, Ohio with my wife and our cat, who sits so close to the TV I'd swear she loves Zelda more than we do. I'm also something of an amateur retro collector. My favorite series include Metroid, Deus Ex, Zelda, Metal Gear and Far Cry. Since then I've focused mostly on the PC and Nintendo scenes but I also play regularly on Sony and Microsoft consoles. I started writing for Gaming Nexus back in mid-2005, right before the 7th console generation hit. In 1997 GoldenEye 007 and the N64 brought me back into the console scene and I've played and owned a wide variety of platforms since, although I still have an affection for Nintendo and Sega. As a kid I played mostly on PC-Doom, Duke Nukem, Dark Forces-but enjoyed the 16-bit console wars vicariously during sleepovers and hangouts with my school friends. I've been gaming off and on since I was about three, starting with Star Raiders on the Atari 800 computer. As you’re playing there is suitably spacey music that is at once soothing and catchy. Getting past all four missions is amply challenging and making it to the pyramid finale takes a quite a bit of practice, but insane difficulty is all part of the pinball experience. Flashing indicators are actually holograms that hover above the board, and the sun storm mission has your shuttle dodging solar flares. The styling of the table is eye-catching and fits the overall theme well. There are also the requisite bumpers (shaped like flying saucers) and high profile targets near the top. The top half of the table has two main ramps, a chute and an extra flipper along the right side for top-table paddling. There isn’t much clutter aside from the obligatory kickers and it’s easy to see the ball coming. The bottom half, styled after the red planet, is mostly open and lends to planning and strategic shooting. The table itself is somewhat utilitarian, using sci-fi trappings to liven it up. The various tubes and wire ramps will also return and accelerate your ball with flashy trails of blue and yellow light. There’s also a robot spider that, when activated by some precise shooting, will save your ball from an untimely drop between the flippers and kick it back out onto the board. A space shuttle will roar in for two of the table’s missions, scooping up the ball and dropping it into the cargo bay. It has video-gamey features just like the rest of the FX2 tables. Now I’m not saying Mars is entirely realistic-if it were then that would be missing the point. How much you enjoy Pinball FX2 and Mars in particular depends on how much of a pinball purist you are. Both of those had a far less realistic bent and I therefore got quite a kick out of them. Now I’ll be up-front: the extent of my video pinball experience is the underrated Metroid Prime Pinball on the DS, and some 3D Space Cadet pinball from a very long time ago. They have fantastic thematic elements based on Rome, Persia, the deep sea and most recently a host of Marvel superheroes, but there’s a weight and feel to these boards that’s distinctly nostalgic and real in a dime funhouse way. The boards in Pinball FX2 work because they’re simultaneously only possible as a video game, but also have a touch of uncanny realism that makes them feel like something you found in the corner of an arcade or amusement park. Over the past year ZEN Studios has taken one of the original progenitors of video games, the venerable pinball machine, and turned it into a downloadable classic for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
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