Pinball Arcade and Okami HD

On 01/09/2018 at 11:26 PM by KnightDriver

I played some Pinball Arcade on XBO, Pinball Hall of Fame: Gottlieb Collection on Wii, and Okami HD on XBO today.

I played pinball because as I was pulling out all my games that are collections of games and I noticed I had several pinball collections. Most notably the Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams and Gottlieb Collections for last gen systems. They were developed by FarSight Studios who now do Pinball Arcade on current systems for download. The number of tables they have now is enormous and the list on wiki is a good guide to when tables were released. So I looked for 1979, my theme year this month, and found three tables, Paragon, Genie and Gorgar. All are on Pinball Arcade for XBO. Genie is also on the Pinball Hall of Fame Gottlieb Collection and Gorgor on Pinball Hall of Fame Williams Collection on Xbox 360 (not backwards compatible). I figured I'd buy Paragon on Pinball Arcade and play the others on last gen systems for free, but when I saw the amazing rendition of these tables on XBO, I had to get them all there and play them right away. I compared Genie on Wii to its XBO version and, even though Genie is great on Wii, it doesn't come close to the detail of the XBO version.

Paragon seemed to play a little slow, and I thought the sounds weren't too exciting or very numerous. This is a wide-body table as is Genie. Genie plays really great and seems to have clearer goals. Gorgar plays very fast, maybe because it's not a wide-body table, and as such is pretty fun. I like the sounds too which are very familiar because Williams reused a lot of electronic sounds for their arcade video games like Defender.

The achievements for Pinball arcade are way out of my reach. They require really expert play on multiple tables, and I can barely get all the standard goals met. I'll play them some more here and there though, and maybe I'll get better. There are really good instructions showing you where every point can be scored on each table. So that helps at least.

Then I played Okami HD for a long while. I beat the Spider Queen and entered the second town before I had to stop. Okami does look a little better than it's PS2 version but since it's cell-shaded, there's not much you can improve. But it looks great anyway. I'm really enjoying the gameplay. Painting objects in the world and in battles makes me think of Epic Mickey. There are some similar camera issues, but Okami's camera is way less bothersome than Epic Mickey's. The puzzles are fun and I'm enjoying the humor in the game. I was wondering what the connection was between this and other Clover Studio games, and I think it's in the humor. Games like God Hand and MadWorld (actually Platinum Games but Clover people are a significant part of that company) are very different but share a similar zany humor; although, Okami is definitely not as over-the-top as those other two.

So onward. Maybe more tomorrow. I'm missing Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 from my collection, so I'm going to go track that down before anything. I might end up playing some of the games on Capcom Arcade Cabinet for XBO, but I want the full list of games on any system I can get them on. Capcom Classics Collection was for Xbox and PS2.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/09/2018 at 11:41 PM

I can't believe I've never bought or played Okami during its nine thousand iterations.

KnightDriver

01/10/2018 at 08:35 AM

I think Okami HD is only $20.

Ranger1

01/10/2018 at 11:05 AM

Seriously, Matt?! You should check it out. I've never finished it, but I have it both for PS2 and PS3, as well as the sequel Okamiden on DS.

01/10/2018 at 12:49 PM

yeah I don't know why I never got into it. Seems right up my alley.

01/10/2018 at 10:51 PM

It starts off with a very simple battle system but it builds complexity as you go. It's paced very nicely, at least in the first 10 hours.

Cary Woodham

01/10/2018 at 12:43 AM

Those Pinball Hall of Fame collections are pretty good, if I remember correctly.

Okami is a great game. I liked it even better than Zelda: Twilight Princess, which came out the same year as Okami.

I hope you can find the Capcom arcade collections. There's some great stuff on there.

01/10/2018 at 08:34 AM

I love the Pinball Hall of Fame Collections. They have a tournament mode where you play a series of games for overall score. Really fun. The tables play perfectly too. The features that show you the rules of a table are really helpful. They really made me more aware of how to play real pinball.

I hope I can stick it out to the end in Okami. I know it's long. I'll know when I get to the spot where I stopped years ago. I can't think of it now, but I'll know it when I get there.

I discovered four copies of Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 in my collection. What the heck?! I want to pick up more collections too. Things like the Megaman games, Halo MC collection and Rare Replay (which I owned but traded) and others. I have Megaman Anniversary Collection but I'd like the Megaman X games. I hear there's a new one coming this summer.

Super Step Contributing Writer

01/10/2018 at 02:15 AM

I still haven't finished viewtiful joe.

01/10/2018 at 08:27 AM

I forget if I finished Viewtiful Joe 1 or 2. I used to have both. I know I played one of them a good bit. I still have the first one. I would love to collect all four games in the series. I should do that sometime.

01/10/2018 at 11:07 AM

Okami is such a great game. I've never finished it, though. I start, get distracted by something else, and then forget where I was. I do that with a lot of games.

I think my carpal tunnel issues have made pinball a thing of the past. This makes me sad.

01/10/2018 at 10:55 PM

I already got distracted today by Forza Horizon 3. I will get back to it though. I haven't forgotten how to draw a bomb yet.

Sorry to hear that. Last time I played real pinball was a few week ago after work at the library where I carry books around for 5 hours straight. My upper back was screaming as I tried to play. It's arthritis, I'm sure from years of carrying things around from my previous job. Nothing you can do about it, I'm told. I want to go back though. I realized that the tables I'm playing now on XBO are in this arcade too. I want to try the real tables again after I've played the virtual ones, pain or no pain.

Halochief90

01/11/2018 at 08:56 PM

I thought the HD really made the cartoon graphics pop a lot more in Okami HD, but maybe that's just me with a bad memory of that game on PS2.

01/11/2018 at 10:29 PM

I should pop in the original and do a comparison. I have my PS2 all set up next to my Xbox One right now.

PixlBit