New Review Posted: Flipnic

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Andrew Fletcher uncovers the mystery that is Flipnic:

"On paper, pinball sounds like an endurance test of the most banal kind. In practice, however, the game is brought to life by the pings, dings, numbers, lights, and everything else that makes the player feel like they're somehow "winning." It's man and machine in noisy harmony, and it's great. Well, great enough to make us forget we're just flicking a metal ball up a sloped table-top for as long as possible."

You can read the rest here: http://www.gamecritics.com/review/flipnic/main.php

[camoor]

Darn, there's few things in life that I enjoy more then an easy pinball game. I even setup Dosbox on my WinXP computer to play epicpinball, and ordered the crappy Epic Playstation pinball game (with INSANE load times for each board)

Sounds like a pretty but difficult game, I'll have to wait on this one (I dont deal too well with frustrating pinball .

great review

[Andrew Fletcher]

Originally posted by camoor
Darn, there's few things in life that I enjoy more then an easy pinball game.

I don't want to put people off this game because of the potential frustration factor. It's just that Flipnic isn't geared towards high-score seeking, so it can feel a little unsatisfying to play for over an hour and not succeed in unlocking anything - that being the main thrust of the game. But it's still a top pinball title that any enthusiast ought to try (especially at its budget price).

[Tim Spaeth]

This has been released in the States, right? I've never heard of it, but I do love a good pinball game (thanks for the Devil's Crush shout-out, Andrew!!) and I'm going to check this out.

[Boy]

It hasn't as far as I know. I've been keeping tabs on this one since long before this review was written and it doesn't look like we'll be getting it in the US at all.

[camoor]

Originally Posted by GC_Andrew

I don't want to put people off this game because of the potential frustration factor.

thanks man - i may talk big but Im almost certain to pick it up if i see it around (lol - im weak willed towards puzzle games) altho it doesnt look like the USA gets it

[Sajon]

Yikes! I had no idea this came out last year in the UK and I had no idea Andrew reviewed it. I just picked it up and I've got to say I'm a little confused at Andrew's score. I've only played it for a few hours, but I certainly haven't found it to be quite as hard as Andrew suggests.

Originally Posted by GC_Andrew

it can feel a little unsatisfying to play for over an hour and not succeed in unlocking anything

This hasn't been my experience. It can be frustrating sure, but I seem to be unlocking stuff pretty constantly. This makes me wonder: were any changes made between the PAL and NSTC versions? I've been playing it on Easy and it's a blast. I unlocked half of Stage 1 (red and orange) in less than an hour.

I dunno. I suppose I need to play more still, but I don't find Flipnic any less forgiving than Ikaruga


-Matt

[Boy]

Looking up at this thread and then down at my signature makes me laugh.

But yeah, just wait til you reach the Optics table Sajon. Impossibibibllllle!

[Sajon]

Originally Posted by Boy

Looking up at this thread and then down at my signature makes me laugh.

But yeah, just wait til you reach the Optics table Sajon. Impossibibibllllle!

I have no doubt it gets harder. Maybe even as hard as Andrew suggests. But I guess I was a little frustrated with his review since his criticisms about the difficulty seemed vague. It seemed like "Wow. This game's cool. But, eh, it's too hard. 7.0!" I guess that's not such a bad opinion, but I would have liked a bit more detail.


-Matt

[Andrew Fletcher]

Originally posted by Sajon:
"Wow. This game's cool. But, eh, it's too hard. 7.0!" I guess that's not such a bad opinion, but I would have liked a bit more detail.

Criticising the difficulty of the game was not really the intention, rather I was just trying to highlight the fact that Flipnic is structured more like an adventure game than any other pinball title (that I’ve ever played anyway), and this inherently causes friction with the very nature of pinball. The random bounces and bumps that occur on a pinball table, and especially one with as many moving and interactive elements as those in Flipnic, can be inexplicably cruel, and that cruelty is amplified incrementally for every minute the player spends keeping their balls in play (no sniggering now fellas). When you combine this perpetual prophecy of pinball doom (effective at keeping arcade players pumping in the coins) with a mission-based structure, it becomes like playing an adventure game with practically unavoidable instant death awaiting the unlucky sod who, say, happens to step on a booby trapped polygon. This is exasperated by Flipnic’s mission lists, which require certain tasks, many of which end up as exhaustive wars of attrition, to be completed before others can be attempted; this is acceptable in an adventure game with mid-level saves, but a pinball game!!!

Again, I’d emphasize the word “cruel” over “difficult”; there is skill involved here, but sometimes there’s just nothing that can save that little ball from ruining all your hard work. It’s far from an unmitigated design disaster--the unique approach to the genre is what largely distinguishes the game--, but it clearly transforms “the carefree, localised fun on which the genre is built” into a harsh and slightly “ill-fitting emphasis on progression and unlocking new areas”. Hey, I wasn’t that vague…

But I am glad you're enjoying the game. Heck, I'm glad anyone bought it at all. A word of warning though: do not attempt to complete every mission on a stage; you will get precisely NOTHING for your troubles and there are far more entertaining ways to kill a few hours.

[Sajon]

Originally Posted by GC_Andrew

Criticising the difficulty of the game was not really the intention, rather I was just trying to highlight the fact that Flipnic is structured more like an adventure game than any other pinball title (that I’ve ever played anyway), and this inherently causes friction with the very nature of pinball. The random bounces and bumps that occur on a pinball table, and especially one with as many moving and interactive elements as those in Flipnic, can be inexplicably cruel, and that cruelty is amplified incrementally for every minute the player spends keeping their balls in play (no sniggering now fellas). When you combine this perpetual prophecy of pinball doom (effective at keeping arcade players pumping in the coins) with a mission-based structure, it becomes like playing an adventure game with practically unavoidable instant death awaiting the unlucky sod who, say, happens to step on a booby trapped polygon. This is exasperated by Flipnic’s mission lists, which require certain tasks, many of which end up as exhaustive wars of attrition, to be completed before others can be attempted; this is acceptable in an adventure game with mid-level saves, but a pinball game!!!

Well, that's funny. I guess I don't know anything about pinball. I didn't know real pinball had a goal structure of any kind, so there wasn't this voice in the back of my mind think "But... it's PINBALL!! Combining that with an adventure game goal structure is INSANE!!!" I guess I just thought of it as a videogame from the get-go, so my mental approach to it was more simple.

That said, it certainly *occured* to me that the randomness of the physics was perhaps a little too much given the complicated goal structure. But then again the game hardly *makes* you finish all of it missions. So far, the ratio of optional-to-mandatory goals seems fair based on the "cruelty" level. But then again, I'm only on the third stage... so I might agree with you by the end.


-Matt

[bigbuddhagonad]

after reading andrew's quote on how flipnic is structured more as an adventure game then a pinball game compared to any other before it, i cringed-

can anybody remember Crue Ball for the genesis? vince neil and the boys had fallen far.

or about alien crush for the tg16 and the assorted spin-offs and sequels? it seemed the pinball craze died right there in the early 90's.

[QXZ]

Hell, I can go even older than that -- Pinball Quest on the NES. It had its adventure/RPG tables (in addition to three regular tables).

[Sajon]

Originally Posted by Boy

just wait til you reach the Optics table Sajon. Impossibibibllllle!

Yeah, Optics is hard. But I wouldn't say impossible. I can get about 3 out of 6 red missions so far. Do you have any strategies for getting the light blue and yellow rings to appear in the Point of No Return missions? I've always hit them by accident. Are they only at certain places or something?

Also... I'm not so sure yet if the mission system is unfair. The tutorial says that once you clear a stage, it saves all missions you complete regardless of whether you get Game Over. So basically that means that the only time Flipnic forces you to finish missions without saving is when you need to complete the red missions to unlock a stage.


-Matt

[Boy]

Ok, if I'm recalling correctly, the yellow ring is in the middle of the Bumper Village section of that stage and the light blue ring you can only get by going through a "loop the loop" section.

As for the impossible comment, it's really because of the non-stop area on the optics board. There's one section of which you can't escape once you're in and the only thing you can do is flip the ball around pointlessly or let it drop. The non-stop area is the bane of my existence. I've been meaning to practice that part in Score Attack but I always end up just playing the Geometry board over and over.